Conservatory Theatre explores state of ‘Virginia’

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 10:06 a.m.

Local play director Tom Cooke said he recently told an actress about his upcoming production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Her response? It's a play she would never perform again.

She had played the role of lead character Martha once. Once was enough.

"It's so demanding," Cooke said, empathizing with the actress' comment. "It's so difficult to go through Martha's life every night."

This is partly why, critics have speculated, few productions of Edward Albee's award-winning play are produced today.

The intense roles of Martha and George, who are a shrewd, middle-aged academic couple trapped in a bruising love-hate marriage, are known to truly work a cast.

But curtains to that complaint. In celebration of the dark comedy's 40th anniversary, the Nevada Conservatory Theatre will open its two-weekend run of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" tonight at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Judy Bayley Theatre.

The production by the professional theater company brings two Equity actors to the stage and a dialogue filled with so much sardonic wit, comedy and cleverly foul language that it had critics and theater-goers buzzing when it first hit the stage in 1962.

"The beauty of (Albee's) language is the shining jewel of the play," Cooke said. "In many ways it represents an end of an era of the type of play that was written in the 1950s and '60s.

"In the last 40 years language has de-emphasized over action and other theatrical values. A lot of theater today concentrates on visual imagery, movement. This play celebrates language."

We first meet George (played by Steve Vinovich) and Martha (played by Ruth Ann Phimister) as they return from a party thrown by Martha's father, who is president of the New England college where George teaches.

Already the drunken Martha is hammering George about his inability to remember the title of a Bette Davis movie from which she quoted when she entered their house and declared, "What a dump."

When Martha asks George to pour her a drink, he thinks they are settling in for an evening nightcap. Martha tells him that she's invited a young couple over for cocktails -- Nick (played by UNLV student Sean Boyd), a new professor at the university, and his tipsy wife, Honey (UNLV student Annikki Larsson).

The comical and biting spear-throwing touches on American and political ideals. It is played out in real time in front of the uncomfortable house guests.

We learn that George is a history professor who is deemed unsuccessful by Martha because he never became head of the history department. The fact the couple is childless is another failure that haunts them. Often they are marinated in alcohol.

But beneath the wreckage are love and an idea that Martha and George couldn't exist apart.

"They need one another," Cooke said. "They are the most important person in the world to one another. I don't think they could survive without one another."

Controversial for its language, sexual content and cynical view of American culture, the play quickly grabbed attention. In the early '60s it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, but board members saw "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" as too racy and offensive and shot it down.

However, it won the 1963 Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Award.

The movie "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" starring Richard Burton as George, Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, Sandy Dennis as Honey and George Segal as Nick, garnered Academy Award nominations for all four actors. Taylor and Dennis won.

Dialogue was cut for the movie. But theaters producing the play are under contract to remain true to each word, making the production -- with two intermissions -- three hours and 20 minutes long.

The lengthy production is sure to drag out the best and worst of the actors.

"Actors playing George and Martha have to go through so many upheavals during the course of the evening," Cooke said. "Albee has them in exceptionally creative situations that would challenge any actor.

On the other hand, Cooke said, "It's very rewarding because of that. It's such a rich play. It keeps you very much alive as a director in the very way that Shakespeare does.

"In addition to being an intense, emotional experience, it's a very funny play. In many ways, Albee's wit is extraordinary."