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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
By Edward Albee
Directed by Michael Colucci & E. Malcolm Martinez
At Redtwist Theatre (formerly Actors Workshop Theatre)
1044 w. Bryn Mwr
Chicago, IL
Call 773-728-7529, Tickets $22 - $27 - $30
Thursdays , Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM,
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time 2 hrs, 35 min with one Intermission
Through April 5, 2008
"One should offend those who do not look at alternative conclusions…. My plays concern those things I wish were different. My responsibility is to hold the mirror up to people. If they don't like what they see, they may decide to change."
“Every one of my plays is an act of optimism, because I make the assumption that it is possible to communicate with other people.…The people who think Virginia Woolf is a love story are a lot closer to the truth than those who think it's a tragedy. At least there is communication in that marriage." –Edward Albee
The games are fast, stinging and toxic
Kudos to Redtwist Theatre (formerly Actors Workshop Theatre) for mounting a fluid, sharp and worthy staging of Albee’s classic drama Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The storefront intimate space on Anders Jacobson’s artistic mural oriented set offers an ‘in-your-face’ presentation of the surrealistic and timeless tale of twisted co-dependency and martial dysfunction. Jan Ellen Graves’ Martha is deliciously full of venomous hate and toxic wit to be effective. Graves riveting Martha is the bitch-from-hell we have grown to hate. Michael Colucci plays George, the long suffering whipping boy, as an equal and strong game player with enough guile to hold his own with Martha.
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Originally titled, The Exorcism, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? was Edward Albee’s first full length play after his success with the one-act, The Zoo Story. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? premiered on Broadway in 1962, ran for 664 performances and garnered Tony Awards and was voted a Pulitzer Prize winner until a member vetoed it because it was “filthy” (sexual content and language).
The play brought controversy and fame to Albee and, over the years, became a central work of the American theatre. The 1966 film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton became an instant classic. Critics acclaim it as Albee’s greatest dramatic achievement. Redtwist Theatre’s production is definitely worth seeing.
Combining the banal, the vulgar and the poetic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? focuses on an embittered academic couple who gradually draw a younger couple, fresh from the Midwest, into their vicious games of marital love and hate. The play is a dramatic bloodsport with words and liquor rather than weapons. Many found the play's excoriating wit and complete lack of sentimentality disturbing.
Full of sardonic bitterness with a grotesque sense producing black humor both funny and tragic, Virginia Woolf’s dialogue is sharp and witty, often at the expense of someone else's feelings. It is a deeply cynical play about the lack of human communication in the most sacred of relationships: marriage. Disappointment and melancholy overpower the characters as they continue to place their faith in their imaginary worlds. Dissatisfaction and depression grips them.
Graves and Colucci are marvelous together as they know how to land bittersweet humor amidst the fighting and gamesmanship Albee demands. George and Martha are wonderfully served by these two Chicago veterans.
Paul Perroni as Nick, the ambitious professor and Amy Speckien as Nick’s small-hipped wife deliver fine supporting performances. Perroni strongly rebuffs Colucci’s (George’s) attacks and Speckien is a hoot as the drunken little dolly. The four weave the script into a work of stage magic. The audience was fully engaged from the initial barbs from Martha.
The play attacks American optimism and it questions the American way of life where sentiments and relationships have lost meaning and where life has become one long game of competition where agonistic relationships are built on false accusations and spiteful indictments, but have no real weight to them.
Humans have isolated themselves from each other by escaping into playing games and creating fantasies that only reinforce their loneliness and despair. In the hands of four excellent actors, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? paints those heavy themes into an engaging and highly entertaining play. This classic work is a thoroughly enjoyable treat. I loved this fantastic play and Redtwist’s searing production. Come play the games with George and Martha.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: March 1, 2008
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