Edward Albee’s singularly remarkable career spanned nearly six decades, ranging from early successes like The Zoo Story (1958) to mega-hit phenomena like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) and late experimental masterpieces such as The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002). Albee’s works are not quite surreal – perhaps areal is the better word – with characters and situations which almost seem normal, but eventually betray something alien and unfamiliar.
Widely considered one of the great plays of the twentieth century, the enduring popularity of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) is a testament to its keen insight on relationship dynamics – between couples, between friends, between men and women, men and men, women and women – which remain just as well-observed sixty years later. Following two couples – unhappily married Martha and George and the much younger Nick and Honey – it takes place over the course of one very long, alcohol-fuelled night, as simmering tensions boil over and damning revelation follows damning revelation. It’s not exactly a happy night at the theatre, but it’s gripping, unsettling, surprisingly funny, and anchored by strong, occasionally brutal writing.
CanStage’s new Woolf production is easily the theatrical event of the season, starring real-life legendary theatre couple Martha Burns and Paul Gross as Martha and George.
Gross is, of course, best known for his popular TV role on Due South, though a better reference point for audiences is Slings & Arrows, the 2000s TV dramedy in which Burns and Gross play a bickering, albeit loving, on-again/off-again theatre power couple in a thinly veiled version of Stratford, Ontario. Slings & Arrows fans – David Simon is one of them – will naturally be thrilled to see Burns and Gross reunited here, even if it’s for a far darker, ultimately bleaker affair. One hopes that after forty years of marriage, Burns and Gross can go home at the end of each night with none of Martha and George left inside them.
That said, watching Woolf again I was surprised by how funny it is. The first act is nearly a continuous string of laugh-out-loud moments – the audience at the St. Lawrence Centre clearly revelling in it – though as the night drags on and George/Martha’s minibar keeps getting refilled, the humour gets darker and darker, the tone shifting subtly from dark humour to black humour to tragedy.
The CanStage production is very good at this. Gross has a sardonic edge that lends itself well to George, the unhappily married college professor – sorry, that’s associate professor – who never quite succeeded in love or career. Burns is, if anything, better, fully leaning into Martha’s own bitterness at her dual-identity as “president’s daughter” and “failed professor’s wife”. When both are on stage, Woolf is firing on all cylinders.
The original plan for this production was to have another married couple portray Nick and Honey. Hailey Gillis is fantastically, even hysterically funny as the young bride who drinks too much brandy and has a propensity for falling ill. Unfortunately, Gillis’s real-life husband Mac Fyfe had to step out due to illness, with last-minute replacement Rylan Wilkie doing a serviceable job, albeit with script visibly in hand the entire play. (Whatever happened to understudies?)
While Wilkie’s script crutch is only moderately distracting, what is annoying is the terrible sound system CanStage has deployed to amplify the actors’ voices. I’ve never agreed with the increasingly common practice of miking actors, but if you’re going to do it, at least invest in an A+ system that doesn’t muffle the actors or create feedback any time they stand too close. The fact of the visible microphones attached to the actors’ faces just makes it that much worse.
The staging, on the other hand, is quite nicely done: George and Martha’s is a big, cavernous house, with an enormous, not quite believable, mirrored wall to one side (also where George stores the alcohol). All the action takes place in the living room, with a staircase leading upstairs to the unseen, but often-mentioned, other battleground in the war of George and Martha, i.e. the bedroom.
No hearts are broken in Woolf, though there’s plenty enough physical and metaphysical destruction which takes place on stage. 2:00 a.m. is a very late hour to be starting an after-party, and Albee knows it: after an entertaining first hour, the play takes progressively darker, bleaker turns, leading to a third act which reveals something truly twisted about the world of George and Martha. I won’t spoil that third act here, but rest assured: Albee is a smarter writer, and has better instincts, than anything you might come up with.
Which is, after all, reason enough to check out Woolf while it’s still on stage. Not only is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? one of the great plays, this particular show is a must-see for fans of Canadian theatre.
Here’s hoping for that Slings & Arrows reunion.
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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? runs now through February 16, 2025 at CanStage/St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts (Bluma Appeal Theatre).
