SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Edward Albee's Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
By Elyse Sommer
| " I love your anger. That's what I like about you most. —Martha to George." There's certainly plenty of anger for Martha to love. |
Tracy Letts and Amy Morton (rear), Carrie Coon and Madison Dirks
(Photo credit: Michael Brosilow) |
. I've seen this prime theatrical example of an unhappily, undivorced couple play out several times — as a still inexperienced theater goer; on screen with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton whose flamboyant portrayals are said to have played a part in their final split; and six years ago with a born-to-be Martha Kathleen Turner and a somewhat surprising Bill Irwin. But Amy Morton and Tracy Letts have made this 50-year-old play into the newest, freshest drama on or off Broadway. Even if you're familiar with George and Martha's devastatingly funny yet awful alliterative games of "humiliate the host, hump the hostess, get the guest and bringing up bably" watching Morton and Letts play them is a thrillingly invigorating new experience.
What's shocking and revelatory about the current production is not the profanity to which audiences in 1962 were unaccustomed, but the more even playing field between George and Martha. Though always ending up giving as good as he gets from the more predatory, monstrous Martha, there's nothing passive about George as portrayed by Letts. His aggression is all out front. His anger and the pain it covers up don't just simmer, but starts at a boil. The way Letts manages to make his treacherous game--playing hysterically funny even as he reveals the cracks beneath the wisecracks, makes this almost more George's than Martha's story.
That's not to say that Morton's Martha isn't a more than worthy sparring partner. She allows herself to ease up on the showiness that has in the past been associated with the role in order to clarify the emotional neediness that feeds her predatory behavior and cruel put-downs. At the end of this long day's journey into night this ferocious George and more vulnerable Martha more than ever before make us understand and be astounded by the realization that there's more than frustration and venom that ties them together. There's more than a glimmer of genuine caring that survives even George's ruthless stepping beyond the boundaries to play the game that finally ends their game of self-delusion. It's all devastatingly believable with no more than a silent touch on the head when the three-hour battle scene finally ends in a truce that's as emotionally draining for the audience as the characters.
It's intriguing to see the relationship to later Albee plays about manifold self-deceptions, especially The Play About the Baby. It's also fascinating to see Letts act in a play that obviously influenced his own Pulitzer Prize winning dysfunctional family drama, August: Osage County in which Morton played a pivotal character.
Under Pam MacKinnon's sensitive direction, the secondary couple as played by Carrie Coon and Madison Dirks are not your standard issue hapless guests who mirror another George and Martha in embryo. Dirks' Nick (said to have been named gives hints of the marital tensions in the muscular, ambitious but biology professor that make him ripe for having his cool assaulted by the older marital warriors. Carry Coon's Honey displays her hysteric tendencies the minute she enters. Her nervous smile and mannerisms scream trouble head. She's crazier, less innocent young thing and Coon's nonverbal acting is so impressive that it's hard to keep your eyes off her.
The bravura acting is superbly enhanced by the designers. Todd Rosenthal's shabby faculty house , aptly lit by Allan Lee Hughes, is as cluttered with books as its residents marriage is with unresolved frustrations. Given the prodigious drinking they do (don't even try to keep count on how many drinks George pours), you wonder how they stop fighting and boozing long enough to read them. And with even the fireplace used as a bookcase, there's a chance that if Martha gets drunk once too often and tosses a lit cigarette into the fireplace, that will be one way to send the troubled marriage up in flames. Nan Cibula-Jenkins costumes, especially for Honey, are true blue to the era.
It's good to know that this century has produced a few exceptional new plays, like Letts' August: Osage and Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park , also directed by MacKinnon. It takes a production like this Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to make us fully appreciate what gives a book the durability to remain fresh past its era and open to astonishing new interpretations. That's why , whether you've seen this play before or not, I urge you to see this incredible cast.
For more plot details read our 3-in-1 review of Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin's George and Martha go here
For more about Edward Albee see Curtainup's Albee Backgrounder.
|
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee Directed by Pam MacKinnon Cast: Tracy Letts (George), Amy Morton (Martha), Carrie Coon (Honey), Madison Dirks (Nick) Sets: Todd Rosenthal Costumes: Nan Cibula-JenkinsLighting: Allen Lee Hughes Sound:Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen Stage Manager: Malcolm Ewen Running Time: 3 hours with 2 intermissions. Booth Theatre 222 West 45th Street Tuesday @ 7pm, Wednesday @ 2pm, Thursday & Friday @ 7pm, Saturday @ 2pm & 8pm, Sunday @ 3pm. From 9/27/12; opening 1013/12. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at 10/14 press matinee |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
Slings & Arrows- view 1st episode free
Anything Goes Cast RecordingOur review of the show
Book of Mormon -CDOur review of the show
