Transcript Who`s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee
American Theatre, week eight
Revolution and apocalypse
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
 Revolution and experimentation
 Theatrical innovation
 Americanness and apocalypse
 Politics
 Society’s collapse
 Sources and influences
 O’Neill, Miller, Williams
Revolution
‘I am basically concerned with the health
of my own society […] I have always
thought of the United States as a
revolutionary society and our revolution is
supposed to be a continuing one, one of
the very few slow revolutions that is not
bogged down in bureaucracy and
totalitarianism.’ (Albee, in an interview with
Christopher Bigsby, 1980s.)
‘Libera Me’ (a translation of the Latin that
George speaks towards the end of the play)
Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that
fearful day, when the heavens and the earth
shall be moved, when thou shalt come to judge
the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the
judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath,
when the heavens and the earth shall be moved.
That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery,
day of great and exceeding bitterness, when
thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let
light perpetual shine upon them.
George and Martha
Washington
[L]et every nation know,
whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price,
bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend,
oppose any foe to assure the
survival and success of liberty.
(Quoted in Hugh Brogan, The
Penguin History of America,
2nd edn. (London: Penguin,
1999), pp. 613-614.)
John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address,
20 January, 1961
Albee and his time
‘[h]is brilliantly articulate calls for a reinvigorated
liberal humanism, his dramatic parables of the
need for the restoration of human values on a
public and private level, struck just the right note
for the Kennedy years, as did his hints of a
threatening apocalypse.’
(Christopher Bigsby, A Critical Introduction to
Twentieth-Century American Drama, Volume Two:
Williams/Miller/Albee, p.327.)
MARTHA: I don’t suppose, maybe, we
could…
GEORGE: No, Martha.
MARTHA: Yes. No.
GEORGE: Are you all right?
MARTHA: Yes. No.
(‘The Exorcism’, p.140, Penguin edn.)
Language concerns
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Covering things up, use of subtext
Storytelling (true/false)
Destruction
Game playing
Humour
Control
Language taking place of action
Language forming individual worlds between
characters
 Anecdotes
 Use of stage directions, italics
Things to consider
 What roles do truth and illusion have in the play? Consider how
Albee employs ideas about truth and/or illusion in one section (but
not ‘The Exorcism’).
 ‘[T]he health of a nation, a society, can be determined by the art it
demands. We have insisted of television and our movies that they
not have anything to do with anything, that they be our never-never
land; and if we demand this same function of our live theatre, what
will be left of the visual-auditory arts--save the dance (in which
nobody talks) and music (to which nobody listens)?’
(Edward Albee, ‘Which Theatre is the Absurd One?’, New York
Times, February 25, 1962. See wiki for a link to this article.)
 What is Albee’s message in this quotation?
 In what ways does Albee attempt to challenge his audience in
Virginia Woolf?
 What do you think Albee is criticizing in the play?
‘The Exorcism’
 Why must George kill the boy?
 What effect do you think the evening is likely to have upon Nick and
Honey?
 Look closely at the final section, from ‘GEORGE: I’M RUNNING
THIS SHOW!’ to the end of the play.
 How does Albee use humour in this section?
 Is there optimism to be found in the final section of the play?