Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? retains much relevance decades later. There is no attempt to update or refresh the show in terms of resetting it or bringing it up to date. At face value, this is because the Edward Albee Estate won’t allow it, though I venture to suggest it’s also at least partly because there’s no need to contemporise, especially as many of the issues the play covers haven’t gone away. At the heart of the story is a relationship gone sour, to say the least, with some issues so deep-seated that the most skilled of marriage guidance counsellors would struggle to find feasible ways out.
The dynamics between George (Billy Crudup) and his wife Martha (Gillian Anderson) are quite recognisable, even if theirs is a conflict somewhat ramped up for dramatic effect. I once witnessed for myself their kind of mutual sarcasm at a house party. The wife had offered to bring out some more wine and champagne. The husband snapped back, “Yes, yes, make yourself useful for once in your bloody life!” That relationship, like this one, was uncomfortable to observe, but it’s one of those couples that can’t live with one another, and also can’t live without one another either. They are just meant to be together.
Performed in-the-round, and not, as is usually the case at this venue, in-the-rectangle – I would have preferred a proscenium arch set-up, but that’s largely, if not entirely, a matter of personal choice – the stage revolve starts off at a glacial pace in the first act, speeding up as the play goes on. The other on-stage characters are Nick (Josh Dylan) and Honey (Phoebe Horn), invited over by Martha for some (very) late-night drinks. A younger couple, it was intriguing to observe their relationship dynamics too: very different, but also far from perfect.
What is ‘reality’ and what is mere illusion is gloriously explored, with the audience left to work out for themselves what the modern-day equivalents would be (artificially positive social media accounts, perhaps, that only show the ‘good’ days and not the ‘bad’, let alone the ‘ugly’ ones). It has never been a play for everyone, with such vicious characters – some may find there could have been better uses for their evening than watching people engage in a relentless battle of control and one-upmanship. It was, perhaps surprisingly, amusing in parts, with some of the punchlines, savage as they are, acting as a kind of cathartic release (or, to use the original meaning of the term, ‘comic relief’) from the tensions of the narrative and dialogue.
A lot of ground is covered, with George and Nick’s subject specialisms at the university campus they both work at – history and biology respectively – used as backdrops to explore both those subject areas as well as a brief foray into religion. The number of times I heard the question, “Did you enjoy it?” as the audience filed out of the theatre afterwards was somewhat surprising – it seemed to me that to merely ‘enjoy’ a multilayered show of this nature (or, indeed, not) was too reductive a theatrical experience on this occasion. As for the attitudes towards women in the play being of a different and less progressive era, I suspect there are women out there who would question whether much has changed in that regard…
At three hours twenty-five minutes (there is one interval and one ‘pause’, the latter not being long enough to leave the auditorium), it is undoubtedly a long evening. But it is a rewarding one too. Strong performances from a cast able to stamp their own authority on well-known characters made for a very satisfying night out. There were ebbs and flows, though overall this production was comical and chilling in equal measure.
Review by Chris Omaweng
“I swear…if you existed, I’d divorce you”
In the early hours of the morning on the campus of an American college, Martha, much to her husband George’s displeasure, has invited the new professor Nick and his wife Honey to their home for some after-party drinks. As the alcohol flows and dawn approaches, the young couple are drawn into George and Martha’s toxic games until the evening reaches its climax in a moment of devastating truth-telling.
Gillian Anderson – Martha
Billy Crudup – George
Josh Dylan – Nick
Phoebe Horn – Honey
Alex Cartuson – Understudy Nick
Jessica Kirton – Understudy Martha
Georgia Miles – Understudy Honey
Simon Willmont – Understudy George
Written by Edward Albee (1928-2016)
Marianne Elliott – Director
Miriam Buether – Designer
James Farncombe – Lighting Designer
Ian Dickinson – Sound Designer
Jim Carnahan CSA and Liz Fraser CSA – Casting Directors
Ingrid Mackinnon – Movement and Intimacy Director
Charmian Hoare – Voice and Dialect Coash
Sam Lyon-Behan – Fight Director
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
@sohoplace
21 September to 19 December 2026
