NEW YORK -- There they go again. "Martha and I are merely exercising," Bill Irwin, as George, protests in the deliciously toxic new production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Ha! Like virtually everything else George and Martha utter, the statement is a serious subterfuge. If what transpires here is their idea of exercise, the workout is more likely to induce a heart attack than prevent one.
Irwin's co-conspirator is the formidable Kathleen Turner. And while an actor known for restrained silences and an actress of a certain histrionic excess may not strike you as a natural pairing, the fact is they mesh -- which is to say, they clash -- in abundantly entertaining fashion in this solid, acidly funny revival, which opened last night at the Longacre Theatre.
Kathleen Turner does a fine job as the bitterly predatory Martha.
(Carol Rosegg)
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Playing the marital warriors in Edward Albee's landmark comedy-drama is a little different on Broadway in 2005 from what it was in 1962, the year of the play's blistering debut. George and Martha's pitiless, precision-guided needling -- he of the withering gibe, she of the emasculating retort -- has been the domestic mortal-combat model for a thousand other works for stage and screen. We now know where their destructive impulses are leading before George and Martha do, and this robs the play of some of its sting. The evening is not as harrowing as one might remember, or at least not as tumultuous as in the 1966 film, which featured two volatile stars with gossip column cachet: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Even so, Albee's liquored-up long night's journey into morning remains a marvelous vehicle for actors who know how to go for the kill and audiences who love the smell of one. Irwin, who's made his reputation chiefly as a mime and clown, has heretofore come across a bit washed out in dramatic roles. And Turner, of the smoky voice and do-as-I-command gaze, seemed headed for something like the pasture, thanks to campy turns in stunt plays like the stage version of "The Graduate."
This production, then, is a thrilling breakthrough for both. Precisely how well they fit comes as a surprise. Singly and together, the pleasure they derive from each twist of the knife leaves no doubt that they were to the stiletto born. In this three-act account of the games of humiliation played in the home of George, a history professor, and Martha, the college president's daughter, Irwin is a bitter, supercilious wimp, albeit one who packs a dangerous punch. Turner, meanwhile, makes of heavy-breathing Martha a wondrously predatory boozehound. She seems just the down-and-dirty sort who might sit in the bleachers for a college basketball game, chugging from a flask while ogling the beefy merchandise.
"Come on over here and give your mommy a big sloppy kiss," Turner taunts Irwin early in the play, before the couple's unsuspecting guests, studly young Nick (David Harbour) and his tiresome hangnail of a wife, Honey (Mireille Enos), show up. How much fun Turner has, practicing the unsubtle art of drunken seduction! These mannish demands issue forth convincingly; it is she who wears the pants (or so she pretends) in this brittle marriage of brutal lies and truths. She looks just as Albee describes Martha in the script -- "ample but not fleshy." And her husky laugh is a huge asset. As it escapes from her throat, it is as if she were the hawker of some licentious sideshow.
Another viewing of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" reminds you what a potent poet of belligerence Albee can be. Just as his latest play, "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?," now playing at Arena Stage, provides him a fresh chance to display his arsenal, the Broadway revival recalls for just how long lacerating wit has been his forte. The language remains so captivating partly because it veers so close to the kind of venomous rage we're all encouraged to suppress.
"If you existed," Turner informs Irwin at one glorious point, "I'd divorce you."
Director Anthony Page, responsible several years ago for a shattering "A Doll's House" with Janet McTeer, reasserts his impressive ability to elicit the strongest possible teamwork. That includes the guidance he gives the younger couple, too. Harbour is a first-rate Nick, the aggressive biology prof who reveals more about his amoral ladder-climbing than he means to. And Enos is a suitably pathetic Honey, the academic wife who watches her hopes drain with her every swig of bourbon.
The set designer, John Lee Beatty, is another vital contributor, giving George and Martha exactly the sort of dark, disappointing, book-filled domicile you'd expect to find on a New England college campus.
While the first hour of this three-hour production is by far its finest -- and funniest -- the sure-fire theatrics of Irwin and Turner ensure that it's worth sticking around for the whole 15 rounds. You're a grateful witness to how fiercely they go the distance, chins defiantly out.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. Directed by Anthony Page. Set, John Lee Beatty; costumes, Jane Greenwood; lighting, Peter Kaczorowski; sound, Mark Bennett; fight director, Rick Sordelet. Approximately 3 hours. At Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St. Call 212-239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com.
