Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The Minotaur Theatre Company has delivered once again with this superb performance of Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’

The stage was set as the unkempt and bottle-strewn living room of middle-aged couple George, played by George Ronayne, and Martha, played by Anna Chessher.

‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ began with George and Martha returning from a social event late at night, where from the offset the audience are treated to their turbulent and aggressive relationship, portrayed impeccably by Ronayne and Chessher.

Martha soon informs George that despite it being 2am, she has invited ‘guests’ that she had met at the party; the younger and more enigmatic couple, Nick, played by Ed Jones, and Honey, played by Molly McGeachin.

Despite the first act of the play being commanded by George and Martha’s persistent abuse towards each other, Jones and McGeachin successfully conveyed Nick and Honey’s personalities to the audience with relatively less dialogue.

Nick was consistently uncomfortable as he realised what he had got himself into, whilst Honey was desperately trying to keep the atmosphere light-hearted.

All four of the actors were without fault – the transitions between characters frequently leaving and returning to the stage could have been clunky and awkward but were always smooth and convincing.

The actors dealt particularly well with the continually changing mood to the play – the inclusion of comedy in the play was often set alongside the unpleasantness of other themes, such as domestic violence, murder, and death.

The depth of the four characters was captured perfectly by all of the actors, yet special mention must be given to George Ronayne’s portrayal of George. His frequent digressive monologues maintained the audience’s captivation, with all the eloquence and convolution of a desperately unstable history professor.

The most striking scene of the play was in the second act, where George practices telling a non-existent Martha that their son had died. One was never sure what to expect from such a character on the brink of breakdown, simultaneously making him pitiful and dangerous.

The praises of The Minotaur Theatre Company’s performance of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ cannot be sung enough. Despite its challenging length of just under three hours, it was indeed well worth the watch, and absolutely deserving its five star rating.