WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

Liz Taylor and Richard Burton

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966). Director: Mike Nichols.

"I'd divorce you if you existed." --Martha regarding George.

George (Richard Burton of Becket) is an Associate Professor of History at New Carthage University. His wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor of Giant) is the daughter of the university president. Married for some years, they are enmeshed in bitter disappointment and alcohol. They were not able to have children, and George had hoped to be head of his department by now. The contempt they feel for themselves and for one another bursts out in lacerating games and accusations.

George Segal and Sandy Dennis

After a party one night they invite a younger couple, new to the university, to their home at two in the morning. Nick (George Segal) is a new biology teacher, and Honey (Sandy Dennis of That Cold Day in the Park) is his wife. The two were only married because of an hysterical pregnancy, and Honey's family is wealthy. Copious amounts of alcohol keep the "games" coming, with Martha pretending that she and George have a son. Before long all four people are lashing out at each other, and George decides it's time to put one rumor to rest.

George notices that Martha has plans for Nick

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? intelligently opens up Edward Albee's play with scenes at a roadhouse and on the lawn, and the film is very well directed by Nichols, who gets excellent performances from the entire cast, and an especially strong one from Oscar-winning Elizabeth Taylor. Alex North's music is used very sparingly but it adds to the grim atmosphere of this black comedy, as does Haskell Wexler's top-notch black and white cinematography.

George fences with Nick

Since the play is much longer than the movie, cuts were obviously made, but I suspect that the movie is better than the play. It is debatable if Virginia Woolf is a great work of theater or more along the lines of kitsch, and in truth it probably lies somewhere in the middle. Although seen as a dissection of typical married life back when it premiered in the sixties,  it was obviously not the first play to deal with dysfunctional marriages. There was a typically sixties frankness and crudity to the language that was different, however, and Albee's dialogue is often very good and very funny.

George and Martha 

The whole business with the "son" doesn't really make much sense, but one's left with a vague air of tragedy because these people seem so pathetic, despite the fact that they are not that likable nor sympathetic. As played (beautifully) by Sandy Dennis, who also garnered an Oscar, even Honey is simply too freaky to engage our sympathies. Although we obliquely learn certain things about the characters -- the whole business with George's book, his parents' (?) deaths and so on is admittedly intriguing if obscure -- it might be said that we don't quite come to know them that well (nor do we want to).

Still, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf holds the attention and has its fascinating aspects. Underneath the laughs and bitchy interplay there is genuine pain and loneliness, but other plays have perhaps gone into the same themes with more brilliance and compassion. (Admittedly, there are undoubtedly big differences between the play, which I have not seen in some years, and the film.) Albee based George and Martha on a straight couple he knew -- they were never intended to be a gay couple, which is probably why he nixed an all-male version that Burton and Henry Fonda wanted to do with Jon Voight and Warren Beatty in 1970. True!

NOTE: The film Martha is referring to when she imitates Bette Davis saying "What a dump!" is Beyond the Forest.

Verdict: Who's Afraid of Alcohol Poisoning? ***.