A star was born, er, but nobody noticed #4

Yes, sorry, yet another turgid chapter from my less than scintillating theatrical history.  I heard a rumour to the effect that our 'neighbours', Teddington Theatre Club (TTC), were planning a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee.  Out of curiosity I bought a script and I can still remember vividly where I was when finally I turned the last page, sat back in relief and hoped that I would never meet any of those ghastly people ever again!  Well, needless to say, I failed to get another part I was after and so, tart that I am, I thought I would take another look at the play.

I am always careful to avoid superlatives especially when it comes to 'luvviedom' but that play is drama at its very best.  It isn't easy to watch (or act!) because it shows four people slowly but surely flaying the skin off each other.  In essence, a middle-aged college professor and his equally middle-aged wife living on a campus somewhere in the America north east and after a staff drinks party, invite back to their house a very much younger married couple, he being at the start of his academic teaching career.  Then, slowly but inexorably, the psychological blood begins to flow!  It becomes clear that the older and more sophisticated couple, George and Martha, have considerable marital problems and soon their vicious battles embroil the youngsters, Nick and Honey, who, and no surprise here, have their domestic problems, too.

It all sounds too ghastly for words but Edward Albee pulls it off by complying with Aristotle's three principles of theatrical unity, that is, unity of place (one location), unity of action (the plot extends uninterrupted by sub-plots) and unity of time (that is, theatre time equals real time).  In this play all the action is centred on the living-room of George and Martha.  The play runs nearly three hours with two small intervals and covers just the one evening in the lives of the characters just as it is one evening in the lives of the audience.  The director of our production decided, brilliantly, to play it in traverse, that is, with the audience on two sides.  Thus, we the actors were like mice scuttling about in a cage in a laboratory.  The feeling of claustrophobia was intense. 

 

Again, playing an American, I had the problem of getting the accent right - or at least, as right as I could.  George was an uptight, Massachusetts academic and I remembered that sort of 'Brahmin' type spoke very similarly to upper-class Brits.  It's very easy to do a Brit toff's voice because all you have to do is lock the lower jaw so that it barely moves.  Suddenly, you'll find yourself hitting all those consonants that hitherto you simply slurred over - well, at least I do!  Then add the faintest of American accents and you come out sounding like Cary Grant even if, as in my case, I didn't much look like him!

The lady in the photo whose name I have forgotten (mea culpa!) was an absolute eye-opener for me.  I spent weeks before the rehearsals trying to work out the psychological imperatives driving George to do and say what he does and then I met my 'Martha'!  She didn't bother with any of that pseudo-intellectual guff, she just got on and acted the part the way the words led her.  She was brilliant, truly, the star of the show.  I'm glad I did  the play because although it is exceedingly tough stuff it is drama at its very best.  Alas, the film, which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton who were made for the roles of Martha and George not least because I suspect that they shared many of their characteristics, never quite works for me.  Obviously it was rewritten and the action escapes outside the confines of the living-room which deflates the claustrophobia.

I suppose it is still performed here and there so if a production comes near you I do urge you to give it a try.  The smaller the theatre, by the way, the better it will work.

 

Comments

[Cuffleyburgers]

Duffers - I see you have positioned your hands ready to grab a splendid handful - good man!!

Those were the days, eh?

[David Duff]

Tit -tit, Cuffers, ooops, sorry, I meant to say tut-tut. Now behave yourself, this is theatre, darling!

[JK]

I think David you got the accent totally wrong or something ... your hands might be extended but her forestalls 'ery wind, jib's flailing an the mainmast looks to be athwart - that fellow a'stern an' aforeships of ye - he wasn't a stuttterin' was he?

She though looks a good rigged ship - tawt a'stern headed proper 'n prepared a'mighty 'cept for that ragged crawy jag'ged up a'haid her.

Claustrophobia I reckon if shoals al'athrawtships a'haid her was you ... naw wiinder yer awls're empty the riggin' - which is too bad dead reckoned.

[David Duff]

Bloody hell, JK, have you been at the rum again? Or have you been reading too many 'Jack Aubrey' books?

[Whitewall]

Cuffleyburgers, in Duff's day, their was a lot of leeway in the theatre for "awkward moments".

[Andra]

Yes, I can see you as George.
Did you have your long johns on too?
Have you still got the cardy?

[Whitewall]

Hmm, I didn't notice the sweater. Kind of makes the wearer look elderly.

[jimmy glesga]

The Cardigan and Val Doonican chair in the background. How old are you David?

[Whitewall]

Now Jimmy, you know certain elderly get cranky when asked that question.

[David Duff]

Damn! I loved that cardie but in the end (after about 25 years) the 'Memsahib' tore it off my back and binned it.

Whiters, the only "awkward moments" in my theatre was when I forgot my lines which I was prone to do!

[Kevin B]

At least you're not flaunting the David Heseltine syrup this time, David.

[David Duff]

"David Heseltine syrup"? Eh? What?

[Kevin B]

David, in your last visit down Drury memory lane, you appeared to be wearing Hezzer's wig.

syrup of figs = Cockney rhyming slang for wigs.

[missred]

I have never seen the play on the stage. I did watch the film, with Dick and Liz, once. Very uncomfortable and will probably not watch it again. You are right - they are George and Martha!
The play, a definite maybe.

[David Duff]

Kevin, you East Enders are becoming as incomprehensible as 'Arkies'!

Miss Red, believe me, it works as a play but will never work as a film. Please don't ignore a chance to see it if it arises. Incidentally, I have never been able to confirm or deny the 'factoid' that originally, Albee wrote it as a play about two homosexual couples. Someone told me this halfway through rehearsals and I must admit that suddenly the truly bitchy-vicious dialogue suddenly made sense.

[Dom]

I'm surprised you didn't like the movie. Although, in the play, I always thought that Nick and Honey should just leave, and then in the movie, they do leave, but come back. So ...

I have to ask, what do you think is meant by the title and the last words. "Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf?"

In England, when you sing, "Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf", do you use the tune "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf" or "All around the mulberry bush"? In America, we have to use the latter, because Disney will sue otherwise.

One last point, I'm never believed that rumor. I mean, Martha keeps talking about her son, child-birth, and so on. It's important for the audience to think there is a son. It just wouldn't work.

[David Duff]

I think, Dom, that "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" is a little academic-literary joke that the likes of Albee would have found amusing. The most moving part of the play for me was the very end when George and Martha sit together, his arm around her, and he sings that silly song, very slowly and slightly haltingly. I always used the 'Big Bad Wolf' tune, the other never occurred to me.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that the play itself was based on homosexual relationships only that his early, original ideas were in that mode but changed as the story-line developed. Also, *if it's true*, then part of his motivation in 1963 might have been that a hetero play would sell better than a homo play! (Cynical? Moi?) However, as I worked on George's script I felt there was, beneath the surface, a distinctly bitchy flavour to it that I would associate with homos, particularly show business homos!

[Dom]

You should have a look at zoo story, albee's one act play, which really does feature a homo. Very moving.

[David Duff]

Next time I'm in my local library I'll take a look.