We just saw Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance at Berkeley’s Aurora Theater. Balance, like many Albee plays, is based on a rather incongruous set of circumstances, in which a prosperous couple’s long-time friends decide to move into the couple’s house (which is also occupied by the wife’s allegedly non-alcoholic sister) at the same time as their wayward daughter, after leaving her fourth husband, decides to return to her old room at her parent’s home.

Although ostensibly a comedy, Albee, as always, mines much deeper issues surrounding dogmas, relationships and the ways in which previous decisions shape current situations and narrow future choices.

While the 2.5 hour production has the potential of being tiring, a constant flow of unexpected situations, somewhat humorous arguments (between the wife and virtually everybody else in the cast), and a constant flow of alcohol (in the play, rather than the audience), makes for a fun and, if you look deeply, enlightening evening.