It is no secret that much of renowned playwright Edward Albee's work concerns familial dysfunction, and much has been made about the connection between his own upbringing and the characters and plots of his plays. Indeed, Albee had a fraught relationship with the family that raised him, a wealthy family that adopted him at an early age.
Edward was adopted 2 weeks after being born, by a theater-magnate heir and his wife, and was raised in Larchmont, New York, in the lap of luxury. He was a rebellious young man with a penchant for the creative arts, of which they disapproved. In an interview with Vice, Albee summated his relationship to his adoptive parents thus: "Those were some rich people who took me in. And if I had liked them, if we’d gotten along, I probably would’ve paid more attention to them. But they had their own lives. They were busy with all the junk they were doing, and I was allowed to develop my own interests and thoughts and become me without as much interruption from other people as most kids get."
In spite of his disconnection from his adoptive parents, Albee had a strong relationship with his grandmother, on whom he based the character of "Grandma" in The Sandbox. Later in the Vice interview, Albee said, "She and I were the enemies of the family. They didn’t like her either. She was a pest, she was old and cantankerous. She wanted her own way."
