Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Product Type: Book
Product Price: $14.00
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
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Description
"Twelve times a week," answered Uta Hagen, when asked how often she'd like to play Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Like her, neither audiences nor critics could get enough of Edward Albee's masterful play. A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of dangerous fun and games. By the evening's end, a stunning, almost unbearable revelation provides a climax that has shocked audiences for years. With the play's razor-sharp dialogue and the stripping away of social pretense, Newsweek rightly foresaw Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as "a brilliantly original work of art-an excoriating theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire [that] will be igniting Broadway for some time to come."
Reviews
Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2010-05-18
Summary: "Not the acting edition"
This edition is not the one used by theaters. I don't know why but it is condensed.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-05-10
Summary: "Smooth transation"
Product as described, shipped quickly and arrived in a timely manner. I'd use again. Thanks!
Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-02-18
Summary: "4 and 1/2 Stars -- An Incredible Drama"
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is one of the greatest post-World War II dramas, the play that made Edward Albee's name and has become a modern classic, still popular and riveting in various stage and film adaptations. Though the kind of play that can become truly superlative when well acted, it also reads better than nearly any other drama, making it a feast in all forms.
The main asset is incredibly high emotional pitch. Though the play has but four characters, one setting, and almost no conventional action, intensity peaks early and hardly lets up until the highly-wrought finale. Perhaps no dramatist since Henrik Ibsen has been able to keep things at such a fever pitch regardless of what is happening. Simply impossible to ignore, the play grabs attention almost immediately and never lets go; it not only engrosses us but practically forces us to be engrossed. Few dramas act so skillfully on our emotions; Who's Afraid makes our hearts beat with excitement and runs us through a gamut of other feelings. This is all the more remarkable in that none of the characters are even remotely likable; Albee manages to create much drama and pathos - not to mention black humor - despite this, a truly rare and notable achievement.
The play would be little more than a dramatic trick, though a very compelling one, if there were nothing else to it, but thankfully there is significantly more. It works on several levels. Perhaps most obviously, it is an unflinching psychological portrait of several character types; all except perhaps Nick are deeply disturbed, but that sadly does not prevent our recognizing them - and perhaps even identifying or sympathizing on some level. Albee has penetrating psychological insight into such characters, dramatizing their interactions in an extreme form that lets their core neuroses stand in stark relief.
Who's Afraid also vividly shows the dark sides of love, marriage, and human relationships generally. Its examples may be extreme but shine a bright light on bitterly painful areas that, though rarely spoken of, are familiar to many. Albee's picture of American domestic life is bleak, but this is a trait running through twentieth century American drama from Eugene O'Neill[check] to Tennessee Williams and beyond, and his is one of the most memorable, moving, and thus valuably plausible depictions. The darkness at the play's heart is thought-provoking and has possibly led many to reflect on their own lives and relationships - hopefully with relief but very possibly not without at least a little sad recognition.
Albee's play is also a noteworthy technical achievement in being at once almost shockingly realist yet very Modern in skillfully blending reality and artificiality so seamlessly that we are rarely sure which is which. The characters and their personalities are given very bluntly, but the extreme verbal games and psychopathology leave us constantly unsure if they are telling the truth - yet another disturbing layer to what is in many ways a very disturbing work. Also of note here is the penetratingly realistic dialogue; few match Albee at capturing how people actually talk. This allows the play to flow very well and makes for extremely quick reading - an element common in recent novels but rare in plays; Who's Afraid is indeed so compelling and breathtakingly written that many will finish in one setting.
Finally, the play is of historical interest for its unadorned portrait of mid-twentieth century American college life, especially focusing on professors' overlooked role. College is typically shown as a joyous, relatively carefree time - youth's last hurrah before one enters "the real world." However, this is of course student-focused, and the play unforgettably shows how it can be very much otherwise for professors, while the dark overtones are of course applicable to many others.
In short, this is an excellent play that should ideally be experienced in performance, but its rare literary qualities make it fine reading for those unable to attend or who want to relive the play after watching it.
Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2009-07-14
Summary: "This is the most atrocious play ever created"
Do anything you can to avoid reading or seeing this play seeing as it is the most horrible thing ever written.
It is not a masterful play in the slightest. It is just arguing and yelling. Constantly. It does not come close to exploring the meaning of the American marriage or any other B.S. such as that.
It is terrible. Do not buy. Death is better.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-06-02
Summary: "Albee's Greatest Work"
If you aren't famliar with Edward Albee, this play is a great way to introduce yourself. This play tells the tale of George (a professor) and his wife, Martha (the daughter of the university president), who have invited a new professor and his wife to their house for late-night cocktails. As Nick and Honey come to learn, George and Martha dance a very fine line between contempt and love, and their unique expression of that love can, at times, be disturbing. Albee's exploration of the very complex relationships among the fascinating characters in this play makes it perhaps the greatest work he has ever written. This play not only contains some of the best dialogue Albee has ever written, but the story, while dark and disturbing, is also engaging.