Oh, that George and Martha, a marital duo who might be described as a stiff martini robustly shaken, not stirred. There is no holding back the ferocious subtext of this marriage. Yet despite the bluster and fireworks of one drunken devastating evening, under Pam MacKinnon’s discerning direction, this riveting new Steppenwolf Theater production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?builds confidently toward its shocking finale.
Martha’s father is president of a university where George (Tracy Letts), an associate professor, teaches history. After attending a school reception, the couple arrives home, somewhat blotto, and Martha (Amy Morton) looks around their unkempt living room and blurts out the often imitated Bette Davis line from “Beyond the Forest,” “What a dump!” Her bitterness and George’s tightly wound aggression drive the tenor of this production.
Unlike previous Martha-portrayers like Uta Hagen, Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth Taylor in the film version, Martha here seems more depleted and often even vulnerable. Even as they shoot devastating spears at each other, don’t we sense a weird tinge of love lingering in the marriage? Martha obviously finds something magnetic about the caveman side of her intellectual husband.
This night, aside from facing a morning hangover, the couple awaits a visit from an ambitious young biology professor, Nick (Madison Dirks), and his passive-aggressive wife, Honey (Carrie Coon). Nick and Honey don’t realize that they are being thrust in the face of the battling George and Martha who are well into in their customary nasty game-playing and drinking. As the night continues, Nick and Honey are drawn into the fracas and truths emerge about both couples.
The acting is cleverly nuanced. As George and Martha, Tracy Letts and Amy Morton unveil layers of the characters’ complicated personalities and their relationship. Amy Morton brings to Martha a desperation mixing the loneliness and disappointment of her past and the uncertainty of her future with George -- or worse, without him. Letts expresses George’s fury with both brutish force or malevolent subtlety. When George cruelly turns away from Martha, his chill fills the stage. Empathy, laughter, fury and sadness swirl in the kaleidoscope of Albee’s snarky sarcasm and stinging attacks as George finally nails his attacks on Martha and Honey.
The younger couple is portrayed by Dirks and Coon with bewilderment that sinks into despair. As Honey, the seemingly innocent Coon knocks back drink after drink, simmering with disappointment in her marriage. Dirks displays Nick’s superficially placid nature that later morphs into his own malevolence as lies and manipulations bedevil everyone. It is easy to envision Nick and Honey eventually turning into a future George and Martha.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is Tracy Letts’ Broadway acting debut, but he has won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award as playwright of August, Osage County, a show that earned a Tony nomination for Amy Morton. Carrie Coons and Madison Dirks are both making memorable Broadway debuts.
Todd Rosenthal designed a living room set, strewn with books and papers, reflecting the academic couple enhanced by Allen Lee Hughes’ lighting. Civula-Jenkins’s costumes are traditional mid-20th century dress speaking more about the university community’s taste than about these individuals.
Now 50 years old, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, continues to deliver a psychological and emotional wallop.
