Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Saw this play last night at Seattle Repertory Theater with ebourne. I figured that since I'd never seen it--not even the Burton/Taylor film--and since it's Albee, I really ought to; it was a hole in my theatrical education. The script is amazing and the performances were all brilliant--courageous, full-throated, completely exposed. It was perhaps one of the best productions I've ever seen in Seattle.
And to be perfectly honest, I'm glad I never have to see this unpleasant exercise in human cruelty, truth, illusion, and consequences ever again. I feel about it the way I feel about A Clockwork Orange and Unforgiven: I can appreciate its artistry, its relevance, the truths that it portrays, but I didn't like it. At. All.
I note that the cast got a standing ovation--well-earned and well-deserved--but only one bow. They deserved more. But by the end of the play I was so exhausted and found the company of the characters so distasteful that I couldn't muster any more enthusiasm and, I suspect, neither could my fellow audience members.
When I got home last night, I did a little reading about it on the Web. It was interesting to find this nugget in the Wikipedia article about the play:
It was also selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by that award's drama jury. However, the award's advisory board - the trustees of Columbia University - objected to the play's then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes, and overruled the award's advisory committee, awarding no Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1963.
Rather than giving the Pulitzer to anyone else that year, they gave no award at all. Wow. Quite a distinction in the annals of theater.
And to be perfectly honest, I'm glad I never have to see this unpleasant exercise in human cruelty, truth, illusion, and consequences ever again. I feel about it the way I feel about A Clockwork Orange and Unforgiven: I can appreciate its artistry, its relevance, the truths that it portrays, but I didn't like it. At. All.
I note that the cast got a standing ovation--well-earned and well-deserved--but only one bow. They deserved more. But by the end of the play I was so exhausted and found the company of the characters so distasteful that I couldn't muster any more enthusiasm and, I suspect, neither could my fellow audience members.
When I got home last night, I did a little reading about it on the Web. It was interesting to find this nugget in the Wikipedia article about the play:
It was also selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by that award's drama jury. However, the award's advisory board - the trustees of Columbia University - objected to the play's then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes, and overruled the award's advisory committee, awarding no Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1963.
Rather than giving the Pulitzer to anyone else that year, they gave no award at all. Wow. Quite a distinction in the annals of theater.