American playwright Edward Albee is known for the bite in his dialogue and his unflinching examination of the human condition. Anyone who’s seen Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe knows the writer’s words and the characters can make the audience uncomfortable. Those same intense emotions are being served up at the Signal Ensemble’s revival of Albee’s The Ballad of the Sad Café, now on stage at the Chopin Theatre. Eight Forty-Eight’s dueling critics Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman tell us if we should take a seat at the counter.

On stage:
The Ballad of Sad Cafe
Chopin Theatre
Through September 12