An American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). His works are considered well-crafted, often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanisation of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Jean Genet. His daring mix of theatricality and biting dialogue is often credited with helping to reinvent the post-war American theatre in the early 1960s.