Albee Memory - Review of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I'm sure you saw this review when I wrote it in 2012, but I wanted to reprint it anyway. First, because I loved this production.  Second, because I've been less fond of this director's work since, and I wanted to remind myself what I liked about her in the first place. Besides, this is just a brilliant brilliant play, so any time I can read or write about it is ok by me.  Thank you, Mr. Albee, for this masterpiece...

10/3/12:  I check TDF a lot and was so excited to see Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? listed for its early previews.  I bought the ticket quite a while ago, but I wasn’t about to let a little tiredness stop me from seeing this play!  I consider it a masterpiece and I adored the most recent revival with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin.  I remember especially finding Irwin to be a revelation.

Now, strangely enough, when I got to the theater early to find my seat, I started thinking about that revival, and the performances that came to me weren’t Turner and Irwin, but instead the younger actors playing Nick and Honey – David Harbour and Mireille Enos. And throughout the show last night, it was their performances I kept comparing the newbies to, and not the leads.  Isn’t that odd?  I thought it was.

It’s always so good to be reminded what a cracking good play sounds like.  And Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a cracking good play.  It’s f*cking brilliant, now that you mention it.  BRILLIANT.  It’s amazing to me that, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, I always hear something new to marvel at.  Last night, it was the absolute Shakespearean quality of Martha’s monologue at the top of the third act.  Stunning.

Brilliantly directed by Pam MacKinnon, this rendition of Virginia Woolf is much the same, yet so different from any production I’ve seen before.  As always, it’s funny, horrible, searing, vulgar, poetic, sad and totally original.  But maybe this revival is a tad more human than before.  Interesting.  That appealed to me, yet didn't, in a way.  Madison Dirks, as Nick, was a little more smarmy and a little more naïve than any Nick I’ve seen before and I loved it.  Carrie Coon, as Honey, shows such a stunning array of emotions while lying on a couch for nearly three hours.  I thought she was fantastic.  They both were totally real and more than up to the performances I kept comparing them with in my mind.

photo credit:  Sara Krulwich

I found Tracy Letts, as George, to be monumentally, amazingly fantastic.  Seriously. Passive-aggressive yet contained, Letts brilliantly shows the self-loathing of the man, but also the qualities that attracted him to Martha (and still attracts her!) in the first place. His monologue in the second act to Nick about the ‘boy who shot his mother’ was mesmerizing.  He’s so witty and funny, but so wounded and angry.  The balance is truly something to see.  He honestly had me on the edge of my seat throughout.  I thoroughly loved his performance.  I may even be adding him to my list of 'favorite performances ever.'

I’m still on the fence, and trying to wrap my brain around Amy Morton.  I adored her in August: Osage County and she brought a lot of those same marvelous qualities to this play. She’s playing Martha with a little more naturalism, a little more pathos, and while she is stunningly layered and nuanced, and bitingly funny, I still feel as if the ending suffered the tiniest bit without a bigger-than-life Martha having to fall from such heights to such lows.  I don’t know.  I saw the fear and loathing and disappointment, but I didn’t see the monster. But maybe they didn't want me to – that could just be my preconceived notion of the character.  Morton certainly commanded my attention throughout, and I always wondered what she would show me next, but I will admit to feeling the faintest twinge of wanting more from her during George’s final power play.  I will freely acknowledge that this is my problem and not hers.  I guess this wonderful play has forever spoiled me and made me greedy.  But I'm not really complaining – this was an amazing evening with a still-revelatory play, acted by artists at the top of their game, using the familiar and explosive but making it totally their own.  Bravo.  I will definitely be going back…