Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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Book Summary Information

Author: Edward Albee
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-01
ISBN: 0451218590
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: NAL Trade
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780451218599
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Book Review: Ouch!
Summary: 5 Stars

Opening in 1962, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? blindsided audiences of the so-called "Camelot" era: everyone who saw it was shocked by its profanity, sexual content, unrelenting verbal viciousness, and its sharp and unswerving portrait of hidden disillusionment. People who dislike the play--and there are many--tend to describe it as three hours of unattractive people screaming at each other, and it is therefore tempting to think of the play as a critic's darling that lacks popular appeal. Nothing could be less true. The original production ran well over six hundred performances; had two major Broadway revivals to date; has been performed by virtually every professional, academic, and community theatre in the English-speaking world; and was translated into an extremely popular and award-winning film. If anything, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? is even more popular today than it was when it opened fifty years ago.

The basic story is extremely well known. George is an associate college professor; his wife is the college president's daughter. They have attended a faculty party and now return home very tired and more than a little drunk. George looks forward to bed and sleep--but Martha informs him she has invited a new professor and his wife to join them for drinks. George is not enthusiastic but he agrees, although he warns Martha not to discuss their son. When Nick and Honey, also tired and more than a little drunk, they find themselves an unwilling audience to George and Martha's vicious verbal sparring. They are quickly sucked into the battle, and when Martha tells her guests about her son, George determines to put an end to their verbal games once and for all. But can Martha, their guests, even George survive the unflinching light of reality? The play is extremely, extremely funny in its dialogue, and Albee displays wit that is equal to the likes of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde; even so, laughter is the rug that is constantly pulled out from under foot to send the characters reeling on their collision courses, and the play itself is dark and painful.

Over the years many people have complained about the play's ending, which like such recent films as THE SIXTH SENSE and MULLHOLLAND DRIVE suddenly forces the audiences to question everything they have been told over the course of the entire evening. How much of it was real? The story about the boxing match, was that true? The story about the boy who killed his parents, was that true? The play does not simply end on a note of uncertainty, it ends with a deeply disquieting sense of wonder. Who would put themselves through such a display in an effort to maintain their fantasies and illusions? Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf--afraid to look at their lives in the unflinching light of hard reality? Aren't we all, to at least some degree?

Whenever I review a playscript I like to note that plays are intended to be seen, not read, and readers who have little knowledge of dramatic conventions may find it very difficult to grasp how a play works on the stage. I do not, however, find that to be the case with WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, which reads as well on the page as it plays on the stage. It remains a controversial show, and it is very much a love-it-or-hate-it play. But no one interested in American or world drama can afford to miss reading it or seeing it. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer
In Memory of friend Jerry Williams

Summary of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

?Twelve times a week,? answered Uta Hagen when asked how often she?d like to play Martha in Who?s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the same way, audiences and critics alike could not get enough of Edward Albee?s masterful play. A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of dangerous fun and games. By the evening?s end, a stunning, almost unbearable revelation provides a climax that has shocked audiences for years. With the play?s razor-sharp dialogue and the stripping away of social pretense, Newsweek rightly foresaw Who?s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as ?a brilliantly original work of art?an excoriating theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire [that] will be igniting Broadway for some time to come.?

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