Rubicon Theatre Company

The growling “Hey!” that Martha uses to summon her husband, George, in the Rubicon Theatre Company’s production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is a guttural noise choked with savagery and a thick smoker’s phlegm. An emasculating sound if ever one existed, her bark is the recurring audio motif of this rousing revival, which brings an invigorating if sometimes strained animalism to Edward Albee’s classic vivisection of WASP marriage.

Joe Spano and Karyl Lynn Burns play the unhappily married academic couple who spend one very long night (and part of the next morning) clawing at each for the benefit of their stunned houseguests, the younger married couple Nick (Jason Chanos) and Honey (Angela Goethals).

For nearly three hours, the play’s quartet of marital misery swerves drunkenly through an obstacle course of accusation, recrimination and infidelity -- ending up on the other side of twilight emotionally bruised and concussed, not to mention seriously hung over.

Albee’s play, which won a Tony Award in 1963, demands performers with a complete absence of vanity, and both lead actors are more than game. As Martha, daughter of the town’s university president, Burns is a frumpy witch whose power to insult is both unattractive and magnificent to behold.

Physically, her Martha is more Elizabeth Taylor than Kathleen Turner -- a stout, curly-haired brunet with a middle-age spread -- but deep down, she’s a vicious animal with a raucous howl. The actress ratchets up the delivery to foghorn levels, and you can’t help fearing for her vocal cords.

Still, it’s Spano, as deceptively meek history professor George, who gives this “Woolf” a sharp set of dramatic fangs. His stealth approach to marital warfare is all bite and very little bark. The actor underplays almost every move and even flirts (deliberately or not) with inaudibility.

Spano is perhaps too old to play George -- the character is supposed to be six years Martha’s junior -- but the actor uses his age to remarkable advantage, showing the damage that years of bitter feuding can inflict on the body.

Director Jenny Sullivan brings remarkable lucidity to the play’s alcoholic haze, but she often allows the bestial impulses in a scene to peak too early, leaving the actors with nowhere to go except over the top. Even by Martha’s hammy tendencies, this “Woolf” could stand to take it down a notch or two.

In a clever wink to the never-seen character of Martha’s father, set designer Tom Giamario has installed a stately portrait of the old man at stage center. Martha (who rivals only Hedda Gabler in her all-consuming worship of her father) doesn’t explicitly acknowledge the painting, but its presence seeps through the play like the contents of a cyanide capsule.

The production sneakily implies that the instigating spark of the marital conflagration didn’t come from George or Martha, but from daddy dearest himself.

-- David Ng

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura. 7 p.m., Wednesdays; 8 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m., Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Ends Feb. 22. $29-$52. (805) 667-2900. Running time: 3 hours, 15 minutes.

Caption: From left, Jason Chanos, Angela Goethals, Karyl Lynn Burns and Joe Spano in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Credit: Rod Lathim

Through a glass, darkly

Woolf’s passion rocks the Rubicon

CROSSING THE RUBICON

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Rubicon Theatre

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Review: 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' at the Rubicon

An emotional battlefield in Rubicon's 'Woolf'

Verbal warfare gets fierce and furious

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?




The Rubicon Theatre’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf is one that I have been eagerly awaiting since it was first announced as part of the Rubicon’s 2008-9 season, and to end any suspense, let me say right away that this Virginia Woolf does not disappoint. It is a flawless production of one of the most famed and discussed plays of the second half of the 20th Century, the tale of one drunken evening at the home of college Assistant Professor George and his wife Martha, and their two young late night guests. The reason I was (and still am) so excited about this production is its star, the divine Karyl Lynn Burns. Unlike the actresses who have preceded her in the role of Martha (Uta Hagen, Mercedes McCambridge, Elaine Stritch, Coleen Dewhurst, and the film’s Elizabeth Taylor), Burns is nothing at all like the ballsy ball-breaker Martha, and none of the abovementioned actresses has likely ever been referred to as a “ray of sunshine,” an absolutely apt description for the incandescent Karyl Lynn. Seeing Kathleen Turner play the role two years ago (and she was great, make no mistake), I couldn’t help feeling that playing Martha was not much of a stretch for the 2005 Tony nominee. Burns’ tour de force performance a few years back in the two-act one-actor Shirley Valentine proved that the Rubicon’s Producing Artistic Director can do anything, bringing to vivid life not only Shirley herself but all the people in the English housewife’s life, including the handsome Greek she falls in love with on a trip to the Aegean. Her Martha is further proof. From Burns’ first entrance and her “Jesus H. Christ!” in a voice nothing like her own, indeed braying the words as husband George later accuses her of doing, to her first “goddamn,” to her first “FUCK YOU!” (the all caps are Albee’s), this is the playwright’s loud, vulgar, drunken Martha through and through. Burns also captures Martha’s earthy sensuality, and her vulnerability. It is superb, three-dimensional work. Opposite Burns is the equally memorable Joe Spano, recent winner of the Ovation Award for Best Leading Actor for his performance as F. Buckminster Fuller at the Rubicon a year ago. Where Martha is in-your-face, Assistant Professor George (accent on the word assistant) scarcely raises his voice, except when Martha’s verbal poisoned daggers hit their target and he explodes, in one instance smashing a liquor bottle against a wall. Though buying Spano as mid-forties stretches the imagination, it is not at all difficult to believe that this is a man whose life came to a standstill years ago, a man who has been stuck in a hellish rut ever since. Publicity for the Rubicon production “cordially” invites guests “to George and Martha’s for an evening of fun and games,” but beware, these are not your usual party games, though there is a great deal of liquor imbibed, a great deal indeed. Martha taunts George for being a “great big fat flop,” for being “in the History Department ... as opposed to being the History Department,” all the more disappointing as Martha’s father is the college President. Later, she refuses to be silenced about George’s unpublished novel, the story of “a naughty boychild … who killed his mother and his father dead” (which may or may not be George’s own story), causing husband to grab wife by the throat and nearly strangle her. The final, most destructive game is “Bringing Up Baby,” but to say more would be to reveal too much information to anyone seeing Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf for the first time. George and Martha’s games are reserved not just for themselves but for their guests as well. Handsome young Nick and his mousy wife Honey get their fair share of their hosts’ cruelty, the visitors’ level of intoxication soon matching George and Martha’s. There’s Nick’s revelation of the supposed pregnancy which led to their precipitous marriage and later turned out to be one of the “hysterical” variety, a fact he later humiliates his wife with in front of their hosts. Martha has her own game in mind for Nick, one involving the seduction of this studly young faculty newbie, smack dab in her husband’s face. The roles of Nick and Honey are impeccably performed here by Jason Chanos and Angela Goethals. Chanos, making a welcome return to the Rubicon following his sexy cowpoke in last year’s Bus Stop, is a Nick who grows in intensity and power. and ends up giving as good as he gets. Goethals, an Antaeus Company favorite, is a fine choice for Honey, starting out all mousy near invisibility and gradually (with the help of alcohol) revealing the pain under Honey’s placid surface. For a play as deadly serious as Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf is, there are enough laughs to classify it as almost a black comedy. Almost. And under Jenny Sullivan’s assured direction, the play scores full marks both for its comic and tragic elements. Thomas S. Giamario’s wow of a set is a finely detailed reproduction of an East Coast college prof’s living room, with books stacked the proverbial “mile high,” and his lighting subtly emphasizes the mood shifts of Albee’s opus. Marcy Froehich’s costumes are just right for each character and for the play’s early 60s setting, with a particular tip of the hat for Martha’s blousy costume changes. David Beaudry’s sound design is equally fine. If there’s anything to complain about (and Albee aficionados may cry “Sacrilege!”), a three-hour play, even one as compelling as this, is still three hours long, and that’s, well, a bit long. End of complaint. The Rubicon’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf is once again proof that “the region’s professional theatre company” is one that Ventura and surrounding communities can indeed be proud of. This is a production that is well worth driving up from Los Angeles to see … and savor. Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura. Through February 22. Wednesdays at 2:00 and 7:00, Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00, Sundays at 2:00. Reservations: 805 667-2900 www.rubicontheatre.org --Steven Stanley February 1, 2009 Photos: Rod Lathim