26 September, 1937, was the day the infamous blues singer Bessie Smith died. This tragic event is the setting for Edward Albee's The Death of Bessie Smith, which addresses the myth that Bessie was refused admittance to a 'whites-only' hospital before she died. The Sandbox is an absurdist play detailing a woman's final moments. Albee's innovative plot sees the actors directly address the audience and acknowledge their roles as performers. The American Dream is Albee's acerbic take on the most quintessential of US aspirations, examining the crushing falsehood of everything that traditional America, on the cusp of a new decade, took for granted. All three plays first opened on Broadway in the early '60s and continue to be performed all over the world. Albee peerlessly explores the controversies of the human experience in a way that undoubtedly makes him one of the greatest contemporary American playwrights.