WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? By Edward Albee. Directed by Sylvaine Strike. With Robyn Scott, Alan Committee, Sanda Shandu and Berenice Barbier. Theatre on the Bay.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a beast. A three-act monster with a wicked life of its own. It is a scary, unmanageable, and disturbed monster that most people would not go near with a barge pole. You have to be crazy to go there. And Sylvaine, Alan and Robyn are just the right kind of crazy to do it.
Our star-studded opening night audience laughed, cried, and rose like a wave at the end of the marathon of words, emotions, layers, cleverness, ridiculousness, viciousness, alcohol, and pain. And the ovation was totally deserved. This team of creatives have pulled off an outrageous and deeply unsettling production of the beast that is this play.
Most audience members will know what they are getting into, even if all they have done is heard about this play that takes place over one drunken and out of control night at George and Martha’s (named after the founders of ‘Merica no less). This middle-aged couple are visited by another young couple, new to the university where George is a professor, fading in the history department, and Martha’s father is the college president. It is a three-hour long boxing match of words, manipulation, fear and loathing, disappointment, and shattered dreams, where tenderness is fragile and short lived and the world of couples is hell.
Outrageously good
There is absolutely nothing that is dated about this almost 60-year-old play. That is its brilliance. It feels almost more relevant now, with the collapse and barrenness of ‘Merica’s academia and its slide into boorish fascism. And this production is outrageously good at delivering its genius.
Robyn Scott as Martha is a force. She is frightening and frighteningly good. Hers is a no holds barred, a switching up and on and off, 12 octave range of a performance. I have never seen anything like it. She is radical. And she brings to Martha a craziness that is beyond bitterness and cruelty. It is devastating, and hideous, and brave. Alan Committie has the harder task of playing George who has less to work with outwardly, staid and professor like, with more to respond to. It’s a tough job and he has moments of pure aching magic. The actors must surely feel the horrible dynamic that is their relationship. It is not kind to George. (I loved the red and blue ‘Merican political party colours of their opening outfits.)
For me, the revelation of this production was Berenice Barbier as Honey. From the first giggly moment of her arrival to her Ophelia like unravelled stare into the emptiness at the end, she did not miss a beat. I could not stop watching her as she found the most profound balance between the truth of what was happening and its absurdity. Astonishingly good and moving. Sanda Shandu was also really, really good, but a golden opportunity was missed to play Nick with more emotional layers and less overt comedy.
An absolute triumph
This is not a perfect production and mostly it is nobody but time’s fault. Oh, if only this cast and director had had a proper rehearsal process, of at least ten weeks, say, to really find and settle on what they wanted to do. If only the set and lighting served the actors a little better. Tackling this play needs enormous financial commitment, and time, and South African productions never get this luxury. Considering these limitations in the South African theatre context this is an absolute triumph.
Go. Go and see it. Just go.
What: Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf
Where and when:
Cape Town: Theatre on the Bay from Friday 16 September to Saturday 8 October 2022
Johannesburg: Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre in Fourways from Friday 14 October to Sunday 6 November 2022
Tickets: Computicket
Pictures: Jesse Kramer
WS
