On October 13th, 1962, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? premiered at The Billy Rose Theater on Broadway. It starred Arthur Hill as George, Uta Hagen as Martha, George Grizzard as Nick, and Melinda Dillon as Honey. In 1963, it won the Tony and New York Critic’s Circle for Best Play. It was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize, by the drama jury. But the advisory board objected to its profanity and sexual themes, awarding no Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1963.
So began the notorious history of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a watershed that changed how people thought about drama. Otherwise considered an Absurdist, Who’s Afraid might be the closest Albee ever came to recognizable narrative. We can’t be sure how many middle-aged couples invite company to witness their brutality. Liberal use of liquor can lead to sketchy behavior. That being said, Albee was a brilliant iconoclast.
Who’s Afraid finds George and Martha returning from a faculty party around midnight. George teaches History, and Martha’s the daughter of the University President. Martha is more than tipsy and George finds her rowdy, scattered and childish behavior annoying. But she brushes him off. She announces she’s invited a younger couple over for a drink. When they arrive, Nick and Honey introduce themselves. Nick is in the Biology department, and Honey, his devoted wife. Martha turns on a dime and makes for an affable hostess. Though these two are as baffled as George at the midnight invitation.
From the start, Nick and Honey can tell something’s off. George and Martha progressively move from good-natured jabs to squabbling to vindictiveness to verbal brawling, and keeps escalating. When they’re not trading blows, George attacks the other couple, passively going for the jugular. We’ve got to wonder if George and Martha are hosting because they crave an audience. Nick and Honey keep trying to leave, but the older couple insists they stay. Though, strangely enough, no one’s actually preventing them. Whether or not they’re in the same room, George and Martha are constantly finding some way to get the other.
Albee keeps everything off-balance, taking aim at cultural stereotypes. Both couples have no children, and nothing to suggest they will. While George and Martha are always bickering, Nick and Honey (for all their niceties) don’t seem to like each other. Like Eugene O’Neill, Albee uses alcohol as a lie detector. George and Martha keep imbibing, while handing fresh drinks to the guests. As the evening commences, vulnerabilities emerge, and the older couple’s exchanges get more vicious. Albee observes (with contempt and cynicism) that America’s model for sublime matrimony is a sham; with expectations no one can manage. The wife is a harridan or insipid. The husband a stud or a houseboy.
You cannot help but stand in awe of The Classics Theatre Project, for taking on such an intense, unmerciful piece as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? They may be one of the few with the chops for it. Three acts, two intermissions, while we watch George and Martha eat each other alive. It is genuinely shocking. The cast leaves artifice far, far behind for the sake of authenticity.
Terry Martin gives George a steady, intelligent dignity. Quiet but sentient. John Cameron Potts makes an interesting Nick. He swings between a smile and a sneer, relaxed and polite. Devon Rose gives Honey an animated turn. Not only comic relief, her despondence and hurt are poignant. As Martha, Diane Box-Worman is the raw, raucous, deprecating core of the play. She ticks, ticks, ticks till her anger shakes us to pieces. She is fearless, broken humanity (without apology or affectation). Surrendering to destruction and grief. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything like it.
The Classics Theatre Project presents Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Playing October 3rd-24th, 2025. Stone Cottage Theatre, 15650 Addison Road, Addison Texas, 75001. 214) 923 3619. ctpdfw@gmail.com. theclassicstheatreproject.com