Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – Octagon Theatre, Bolton

Writer: Edward Albee

Director: David Thacker

Reviewer: Iain Sykes

The Public Reviews Rating:

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee’s 1962 savage vision of bleak marital acrimony, was labelled as an “electric evening in the theatre” on its Broadway debut. Nearly half a century on, does it still carry the same punch? The answer in director, David Thacker’s production at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre is yes.

The execution of Albee’s rapier script is held together by the feuding, bitter, older couple, history professor George and his wife, Martha, here played by George Irving and Margot Leicester. The play calls for a powerful chemistry between the couple and this couple certainly have that. Leicester’s Martha is a fading vamp, still trading on her ability to compete in the college campus bed-hopping games and well aware of her potential for helping ambitious men sleep their way to the top, as the daughter of the college’s founder, whilst constantly delivering waspish put-downs to her “failure” of a husband. Irving provides the perfect foil, his George being quietly focussed and contained, carrying the air of a bended, if not yet broken man, yet one capable of perfectly timed and razor sharp insults with the driest of deliveries. It’s impossible to take your eyes off either of them when they’re dominating both the stage and Nick, the new biology professor, and his wife, Honey.

This unfortunate younger couple, invited for after party drinks by George and Martha only to find themselves on the receiving end of their insults and games, are played by Kieran Hill and Tammy Joelle, again with a couple of outstanding performances. Hill’s Nick is confident and arrogant at first, yet Hill allows the characters mask to slip while still fighting to retain his attitude in the face of the acrimony. Joelle’s Honey is vacuous and annoying enough to convince us that Nick is only after her money.

The interplay between the four characters makes for a ghoulish and at times cringe worthy spectacle especially as the drinks flow more freely and George and Martha’s self destructive relationship and web of fantasy begin to unravel.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a play that demands powerful performances from all four actors and, here, all four actors deliver. The in-the-round setting works perfectly for Patrick Connellan’s simple but effective living room set. It’s never going to be the most fun you’ll ever have in a theatre but this production is three hours of some of the most powerful, mesmerising and thought provoking theatre you’re likely to see.