Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

3 hours in a London theatre is probably one of the best ways to begin a Saturday night out, provided that you don’t have to use the Northern line to return home. But if the play is good, well, actually you need this extra time in order to talk about it…
To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed; the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.
I begin with this rather aggressive statement by Eleanor Duse, famous theatre actress of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, because every time I go to the theatre and I sit next to God (since as a student I cannot afford more than 10-15 pounds), I can only hope that the play will be what is originally meant to be: a form of catharsis. This time it was the Apollo Theatre, to where me and two friends went to watch the last performance of the celebrated Edward Albee’s play ‘’Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’’ in its Tony award-wining Broadway production. While my friends had never seen the play, I entered the theatre that Saturday with great expectations. ‘’Who’s Afraid...’’ is one of my favourite plays. I studied it twice in my university, I have read it many more times since I also had a project of comparing the original with its Greek translation, I have watched the classic Mike Nichols film with Taylor and Burton and I also saw the Greek staging two years ago. I could nearly say that I know it by heart and as much as I love it, when I go to see it again I need to feel like rediscovering it. I need to be enchanted… or at least, surprised.
A great deal of the play’s power is based on language. You have four people sitting in a living, drinking and talking. But their tongue is sharper than a knife. Lies, fun and games (Humiliate the Host, Hump the Hostess, Get the Guests) are mixed in a cocktail that results in a devastating exposure of the naked truth of the characters. The painful nature of love, a love found at the opposite edge of the romanticized fairy tale stories, the frustrations of marriage, the roles that we willingly occupy to help us escape a shattering reality and then we can’t escape them come to the surface through the characters’ words. There is nothing more heart breaking than Martha’s ‘confession’ to Nick about her love for George and her fear that one day he will break under the pressure of her punishment ‘’because he made the terrible, the unforgivable mistake of loving me’’. Martha and George: sad, sad, sad...There is some light for both couples in the end of the play, since they managed to put an end to their illusions. Nick and Honey have a chance not to make the same mistakes, not to end up ‘’sad, sad, sad’’.
The performances were simply brilliant. Kathleen Turner is Martha in flesh and blood, aggressive in the right points, heartbreaking in her confessions, close and distant at the same time, a figure dominating the stage. Bill Irwing as George was a pleasant surprise. George’s part is tricky: George seems to be the succumbing, dominated husband and the actor is in danger to be completely overshadowed by Martha’s character. But by the end of the play, the balance has been distorted, the power relations are changed and George takes the lead. Bill Irwing did an amazing job. Mireille Enos as Honey was delightful, clever not to take the part into the ridicule but rather she let the tragedy of her heroine to emerge. I didn’t agree with the way David Harbour portrayed Nick but I have to recognise the fact that he was consistent with the performing line he chose. Anthony Page did a good job in directing the actors and allowing the text to come to the light without been overshadowed by showing off tricks. It is interesting to note that Edward Albee watched the premiere of the play and was very satisfied. Important if we think that he was frustrated by the film because he felt it was all about the couple in life of Taylor and Burton.
And since the film came up, I recently read that Hollywood discuss a remake and people are in search of the idea cast. So, I cannot resist proposing some names:
Martha: Kathleen Turner/Kathy Bates/ Susan Sarandon
George: Ed Harris
Honey: Maggie Gyllenhaal
George:Paul Bettany