Names have many resonances for Albee: biblical (Jerry and Peter in Zoo Story), historical (George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), sexual (Tiny Alice). "The Players" in A Delicate Balance are no exception. (Notice that we have players instead of a cast because this is to be a contest.) Agnes, lamb of God, is also a third century saint, a virgin martyr who was decapitated because her body refused to burn at the stake. Agnes, a transliteration of the Greek . . . (pronounced hagnós), means "pure" and "chaste." Tobias means "God is good." In The Book of Tobit Tobias cures his father's blindness with the help of the archangel Raphael, his guardian. Edna also appears in The Book of Tobit as Tobias' mother-in-law. Harry is the diminutive of Henry, a name which evolved from the Old German words for "house," or "home," and "ruler."

Julia...