It’s a kinder, gentler, funnier and more humane production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” that audiences experience at the Old Globe through June 24.
Likely there are several reasons for this, but chief among them is that the landmark play is presented as part of the Globe’s Classics Up Close series, which provides yet another look at a play many have seen on numerous occasions during a lifetime.
If one subscribes to the theory that the play is Albee’s indictment of the American Dream, the allegory becomes most appropriate for today, a pre-election-year gander at political lies, obfuscation and game-playing gone amok; after all, the protagonists are named George and Martha.
Our current leadership, embodied in another George, may be just as insecure as the professorial George on stage (James Sutorious), who’s allowed his needy and monstrous wife (Monique Fowler) and her unseen university president father to run his life.
Albee’s masterpiece, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” debuted on Broadway in 1962 and received the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play. Leading actors Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill also snagged Tonys, as did director Alan Schneider, who subsequently taught at UCSD.
The play was selected for a Pulitzer Prize, but the committee was overruled by the overseers, trustees of Columbia University, who decided that because of its profanity and sexual themes it was the wrong choice. No Pulitzer for drama was awarded that year.
Most experienced the play through the loud and boozy 1966 film, which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, directed by Mike Nichols. The Globe production is much more restrained. The couple and their young visitors, Honey (Nisi Sturgis) and Nick (Scott Ferrara), both USD/Globe MFA graduates, drink unrestrainedly but hold their liquor nobly, with the exception of the cloying Honey, who throws up a lot regardless of the situation.
The intellectually gifted George and Martha, it seems, have kept the excitement alive over their 23-year marriage by playing games, one of which concerns their non-existent son. George is visibly shaken when he learns that Martha has spoken of the child to Honey.
The other games perpetrated on the innocent Honey and Nick are crueler in nature and, throughout one long night of intoxication, both painfully revelatory and destructive (Nick and Honey, for instance, will never be the same). It is apparent that no matter what kind of enabler George is, he does everything for love of Martha. This is touchingly underscored at the play’s end, when he asks his ravaged wife if she is OK. “Yes,” she says; then, “No.” George wraps Martha in his arms as the lights dim.
Sutorious is totally present. His George is sober (he never consumes much alcohol) and rational, a magnificent puller of strings. To see him work in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, where he did “Lincolnesque” last season, is a joy. Possessor of theatrical presence and gravitas, Fowler has always been a favorite, no matter the play and the role. It is marvelous to see her in a part worthy of her gifts, though one senses the difficulty of projection without a proscenium. The arrangement of furniture on Alan E. Muraoka’s set further hampers quiet moments.
Charlotte Devaux’s costumes are especially effective in Rick’s subtle pinstripe suit and Honey’s frothy pink lace cocktail attire. The youngsters hold their own in the acting department. Ferrara’s Nick is more appealing than most, more empathetic, more clearly motivated. Sturgis is excellent as the insecure, vacuous Honey.
Albee gives one much to ponder: relationships, possible meanings and motivations, and one’s life itself. Now, how about “The Goat”?
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” continues at 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. For tickets ($39-$58), call (619) 23-GLOBE or visit www.theoldglobe.org.