| "WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?"
--
reviewed by Jeff Rossen
When it first debuted in 1961, Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?" shocked audiences with its frank language
and even franker behavior. Over 40 years later, we've become a
society anesthetized to outrageous and sordid conduct. If fact,
the American viewing public thrives on it and has made such types
of actions one of the most popular genres on television. Even
so, it's still impossible not to sit in jaw-dropped astonishment
at the vicious game of life being played by George and Martha,
a middle-age college profession and his six-years-older wife.
There's more venom in the pages of Albee's script than in all
the snakes at Lincoln Park and Brookfield zoos combined, and those
reptiles would seem to have warmer blood than that of this embattled
and embittered couple. And still, as we wonder why this couple
stays together, we realize that without each other, they would
most likely simply wither away and die.
In three-and-a-half hours spread out over three acts, we're
as much drawn into as we are reviled by this bloodthirsty war,
fascinated at the extremes each are willing to go to hurt the
other and appalled that they would even think of such things,
let alone say them, feeling at times like the helpless witnesses
trapped onstage with the couple, the unwitting newly arrived teacher
and his "mousy" wife.
To kick off its 50th anniversary season, Court Theater delivers
a ferocious triumph, shaped and galvanized by the meticulous and
daring direction of Charles Newell, whose work her is the finest
of his already remarkable career. Provocatively staged on Jack
Magaw's off-kilter but incredibly realistic living room setting,
Newell's production runs full steam from start to finish, leaving
us breathless and exhausted in the process.
Decided cast against type as the relentless Martha, Barbara
Robertson makes split-second changes as Martha spits out a acid-laced
spew of verbal assaults against George one moment and then, just
as easily, beam with a false laugh or incredibly real revelation
about the couple's son. Kevin Gudhal's long-suffering George is
a textbook case of controlled anger and disappointment, often
speaking more and with greater subtext through his silence than
with words. Lance Baker's wunderkind newbie finds just the right
balance between Nick's cool demeanor and survivalistic aggression.
But as the other three go through the vicious and controlling
games that play out during this very real-time feeling meeting,
it is Whitney Sneed's sniveling Honey that knocks us for a loop.
Sneed's mix of alcoholic befuddlement and uncontrollable laughter-anger
is devastating in detail of this miraculous portrait, giggling
like a school girl one moment, unleashing her frustrations the
next. (****)
("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" runs through October
24 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis. 773-753-4472.)
© Gay Chicago Magazine - Stage, Issue 04-42 |
