Edward Albee's Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Directed by Janice Honeyman
"There's plenty of blood under the bridge," quips George acerbically during one of his verbal onslaughts.
This reference to the passage of time applies not only to George and Martha's ghastly marriage, but to Edward Albee's play itself.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? may be 45 years old, but it retains its dramatic brawn and brain underpinned by the nerve-jangling veracity which was so shocking in the early 1960s.
The initial shock value of the language and brutal physicality may have evaporated somewhat, but in its place is the residue of a great mind-thumping tragedy.
Director Janice Honeyman enables the four actors - Fiona Ramsay, Sean Taylor, Nicholas Pauling and Erica Wessels - to scuba dive into the nerve centre of Albee's desperately appealing character.
Sean Taylor doesn't take the easy route in his portrayal of George. The pyrotechnics of this riveting performance are steeped in deep restraint and emotional subterfuge.
Slack-jawed George is an ageing academic, married to the university president's daughter, who is wounded by disappointment and expectation. His weapons in the marital war games are cerebral.
In contrast Martha, Fiona Ramsay as you have never seen her, brandishing her crumbling sexually- charged physicality, is loud, vulgar and vicious. But she is no middle-aged bimbo, who has a thing for younger men. She is more than capable of intellectually sparring with George in their dangerously malicious manoeuvres.
The casting of Nicholas Pauling as Nick, the ruthlessly ambitious biologist, and Erica Wessels as his monied mousey wife, is inspired. How wonderful to see young actors of such technical clout and artistic calibre.
At its premiere, this Baxter Theatre production was rewarded by a standing ovation from a highly discerning audience of theatregoers and academics.
Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is still very much alive, relevant and spitting unpalatable truths.