Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is one of the most perfectly constructed plays in the contemporary canon. The foreshadowings, conflicts, rising and falling actions, final climax and denoument give us a classic example (along with the brilliance and wit in the dialogue) of how to write a play. But in order for the play to really work, you need equal adversaries fencing and clashing on the stage. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the current Broadway production. Riveting Kathleen Turner burns up the stage as the coarse, powerful Martha - she's a tameless force of nature; Bill Irwin, with the feeble walk of an eighty year old, plays it like a Casper Milquetoast with no cojones, no real fire, making for an imbalance that even carries over into his conflict with the young ambitious professor, played quite well by David Harbour. Harbour does his best to pretend to be cowed by the unthreatening Irwin, but it's not a very convincing contest. And with Turner, there is no real menace when Irwin points the umbrella rifle or when he chokes her. She could obviously trash him and throw him through a window.
Mireille Enos is quite good as the young professor's wife, and the scene between the two women plays well. Director Anthony Page has failed to light a fire under Irwin (or to cast someone else) and apparently doesn't understand the dynamics of this marvelous play. John Lee Beatty's excellent set, Jane Greenwood's costumes and Peter Kaczorowski's lighting are just fine. Turner's worth the trip, though.
