Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? @ Theatre 3
Photo Credit: Kris Ikejiri
—Martha Heimberg
The hands-down hottest ticket in town right now has gotta be Theatre Three’s ferocious, physical, and handsomely staged Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee’s classic 1962 study of a vicious game of escalating insults between career-stalled history prof George and Martha, his disappointed wife—who never gets too drunk to fire a mean-assed zinger to keep their nightmare marriage pulsating squarely in hell.
Sound fun? Sound like just the thing for a Friday night in Dallas with the temp rising to 106? You better believe it. After weeks of delayed openings due to construction permits for T3’s new and gloriously elegant lobby, the show is up. We walk into the chill, womb-like hall and on into the historic theater-in-the-round playing space, and wait in the dark for the amazing fireworks about to happen.
Live, up close, visceral, and terrifyingly brave. Yes, it’s three hours. Yes, it stretches the special tools of marital destructiveness to their limits. But, oh my god, these two-can land a punch and take it! The big square stage, designed by Scott Osborne, stacked with a thousand books and leading to a brilliantly lit bar near the top of the risers, is easily a boxing ring. No ropes to rest on. Bring it.
Company Artistic Director Jeffrey Schmidt, as George, and Associate Artistic Director Christie Vela, as Martha, bring a fresh set of artillery to the ring. Vela, a born earth mother and powerful stage presence without moving or speaking, brings the requisite viciousness and a sexy physical restlessness to her role, but she also finds a sliver of exquisite vulnerability in “braying” Martha that surprised me to tears. That third-act response to the death of a fantasy child in a hoarse whisper, that silent sob.
Schmidt, we can almost forget, is a terrific comic actor among his many other thespian skills. His George counters Martha’s gut punches with a quick insult to her aging body or just to say again, “I’m six years younger.” As written and performed, George gets the smart laughs, and Schmidt lands the academic jokes with perfect timing. When push comes to blows, in fact, his George is the battled-hardened killer of soul-sucking delusions. Right before our eyes, guys.
Director Blake Hackler takes Albee’s masterpiece and his strong stars in hand and creates a truly nuanced performance, with highly contrasting values and deliberately, clearly orchestrated movement. This is poetry, this is life, this not some soap opera fight.
The marathon takes place between 2 a.m. and dawn (kudos to lighting designer Jacob Hughes’ twinkling garden lanterns) after a faculty party hosted by Martha’s father, president of a small New England university. They’ve returned home fighting, and Martha’s invited a new young couple to join them. Nick (Felipe Carrasco plays him cocky and virile) is the “fresh meat” biology prof; he and his pretty wife Honey (a bright-eyed, hilariously naïve portrayal by Olivia Cinquepalmi) are the onstage audience for another round of boozy flagellation and flirting. What would you do in this squirmy situation?
And that’s what makes this night different: Albee makes us guests too. The childless George and Martha have kept the fantasy of their imaginary son to themselves, to love and fight over and mess up, just like a real child. But Martha “breaks the rules of the game” when she mentions the boy and all George breaks loose. No holds barred. It’s on the floor, it’s in the bedroom and curled in a fetal position in the toilet. Where is this battle leading us?
Before the sun rises, we see ex-boxer genetic scientist Nick get a take-down or two from George, who’s been in the snake-pit of the academic climb long enough to easily fuck over such newbies. Martha devours what’s left. And what of poor sweet Honey? Cinquepalmi’s hapeless girlchild is both funny and touching, whether laughing hysterically or propping herself up after six brandies.
American poet Wallace Steven observed: “A violent order is disorder; and a great disorder in an order. These two things are one.” Hackler has found that order in Albee’s play, and leads his cast and us, through the words and bodies of his actors, to true tragedy. See George and Martha sitting above the bar, reality strewn all around them, as the sun rises through the back window.
WHEN: Through July 17
WHERE: T3 @ The Quadrangle, Dallas
WEB: theatre3dallas.com
