"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

When it was announced last year that the Pittsburgh Public Theater would be performing Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". I knew that I wanted to see it.   I had never seen the play performed, nor had I seen the 1966 film version, but I knew vaguely what it was about, and figured when you get the chance to see a classic American play performed, you grab on to it, so there we were last night in front row seats at the O'Reilly Theater.

The Plot: and older married couple, George and Martha, following a college faculty party (George teaches there, Martha's father is the college president), invite a younger couple, Nick (he's a new faculty member) and Honey, to there home for some post party cocktails and conversation.   It is two o'clock in the morning. What follows is a three hour drunken descent into the living Hell that is the marriage of George and Martha.  

If you want to go to the theater for an uplifting and "feel good" experience, this ain't the play for you.  However, at some point in my formal education, either in high school or college, I recall some teacher saying that good drama is supposed to challenge you to think about what it is you are seeing, and it might even make you uncomfortable on several levels.  Using that criteria, "WAOVW?" hits it out of the park.  Twelve or so hours after seeing it, I'm still not sure what it I that I am supposed to take away from it.  And I know that I will spend time over the next several days researching some critical commentary on the play and pondering its message.

What the play also is is an opportunity for good actors to sink their teeth into some very meaty roles  and deliver bravura performances.  Such was the case in this production starring Daniel Jenkins (George), Tasha Lawrence (Martha), Dylan Marquis Meyers (Nick), and Claire Sabatine (Honey).  They were great in roles that have to be very demanding for an actor.

Seeing the play is also prompting us to seek out and watch the 1966 film version that starred Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, and that was directed by the great Mike Nichols.  Taylor and Dennis won Oscars for their performances and Burton, Segal, Nichols, and the movie itself were also Oscar nominated.  Yep, that's a movie that I want to see, but I think that I'll wait awhile after just seeing the play.

A funny aside.  During one of the intermissions (there are two them over the course of the three hour play), we were chatting about what we were seeing with a young late 20's/early 30's couple sitting next to us.  Had you seen the movie, we asked.  No, they said, and who played the leading roles in the movie, they asked.  When we said "Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton", we could immediately tell that they had absolutely no idea who Taylor and Burton were, never mind George Segal and Sandy Dennis.  Time marches on and fame is fleeting.

Three Stars from The Grandstander for this performance at the PPT, and I will once again say that there is no better venue to see a play anywhere than the O'Reilly Theater.