Edward Albee’s 1962 three-act play Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? is probably greatest identified for the 1966 movie which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton because the aggressive game-playing American couple who reside on the campus of a small New England College. It is an uncomfortable difficult play over three Acts that are subtitled as a clue to the progressively disagreeable behaviours of the older protagonists. Act 1, Fun and Games, sees the couple Martha and George invite a younger couple Nick and Honey again to their home at 2 am after a school celebration in a drunken sequence of interactions. Act 2, Walpurgisnacht (a reference to a witches’ assembly) ups the strain because the video games turn into extra critical and fractious. Act 3, The Exorcism reveals the truths amongst the illusions and video games. The result’s an extended night wherein the motion, although dramatic, entails 4 significantly unsympathetic characters relating youngster abuse, homicide, adultery, sexual harassment, and bullying behaviours within the context of an unfulfilled profession and inadequacies of marriage.
This newest manufacturing is staged within the Ustinov Theatre tucked across the again of the wonderful Theatre Royal in Bath. It is a black-walled claustrophobic cramped venue which ought to supply the viewers intimacy and engagement with the efficiency however the armless stiff-backed seats and heavy natural cigarette smoke from the chain-smoking Martha created a heady uncomfortable environment wherein it was troublesome to essentially settle and admire the manufacturing. It makes a pointy distinction to the Alan Ayckbourn 1965 comedy, Relatively Speaking, which can be a four-handed about martial issues and role-playing, which is on on the major home at Bath Theatre Royal and provides a way more enjoyable and congenial night’s leisure. This play is claimed to have some laugh-out-loud moments however on my go to, these round me responded with stifled embarrassed chuckles and the sharp distinction between the comedy and the grim aggressive tone was lacking.
The American actress Elizabeth McGovern, greatest often known as the candy charming and motherly Lady Cora on display in Downton Abbey TV sequence and movies performs the drunken sexually predatory Martha, a world away from the on-screen persona which little doubt attracted her to the position however will shock and shock anybody going to the theatre as a Downton fan. From her first look stumbling dwelling from the school celebration, she begins braying at and bickering along with her poor lugubrious husband George and declares that she has invited two individuals again to the home to allow them to train their wit. George performed by the Scot, Dougray Scott with an American drawl, seems neither stunned nor bothered by the announcement as if he has seen all of it earlier than. When the younger couple arrives the stiff biology professor Nick, performed by Charles Aitken and his younger engaging however timid spouse Honey, performed by Gina Bramhill quickly discover themselves embarrassingly in the course of a seemingly poisonous relationship veering from argumentative spite to sexual encounters in a matter of traces. We really feel their embarrassment however why do they not merely stroll out? Is it a worry of profession harm as Martha’s father is President of the College? Together they painting the fast decline into drunken chaos properly, however the scenario stays synthetic and of its interval and by no means feels greater than an train in literary muscle flexing.The set design by Paul Wills hints at a sublime interval dwelling with again wood panelling let go and full of the particles and mess of the couple’s chaotic marriage and Lindsay Posner’s path retains them circulating across the central couch wherein Nick and Honey discover themselves trapped early on. It by no means progresses from gamesmanship, and we’re by no means satisfied that this feuding couple are doing something greater than act out a pre-planned sport for his or her amusement though you do get a way of George’s brooding dissatisfaction.
This play is usually stated to be amongst the best performs written alongside Death of a Salesman, A Doll’s House, An Inspector Calls and Private Lives however whereas I can really feel why it was so impactful when it first got here out, I don’t see the way it stands the take a look at of time in comparison with these different basic performs. I’ve to be intrigued by the motion, care a few character or be swept alongside by the revelations to be engaged and I felt none of those connections regardless of one of the best efforts of a great solid. If you haven’t seen the play earlier than and are in search of an train in theatrical mind-stretching, then you definitely may give it a strive however in any other case, it may be higher to quiet down within the consolation of your personal dwelling and watch the Taylor/Burton movie once more.Review by Nick Wayne
Rating: ★★★
Seat: Stalls, Row F | Price of Ticket: £39