Entire Cast Keeps '...VIRGINIA WOOLF?' Feeling Brand New

What happens when one of the country's top theatre companies tackles one of the country's modern masterpieces? An exhaustive evening of pitch-perfect performances and new revelations.

Set on a college campus in New England, the course of Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? unfolds during an evening of heavy drinking, nasty 'games,' and enough imaginary friends to make Snuffleupagus seem real. George (Pulitzer Prize winner & Steppenwolf member Tracy Letts) and Martha (Tony Award nominee & Steppenwolf member Amy Morton) invite new faculty member Nick (the suave and capable Madison Dirks) and wife Honey (Carrie Coon, perfectly nailing her drunken bits) for a nightcap after a staff get together.

Thanks to luminary actresses in the past (Uta Hagen, ElizaBeth Taylor, Kathleen Turner), WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?'s Martha has typically been presented as larger-than-life. A powerfully bawdy woman with a mouth spitting poison and a liver to rival a college town's most popular pub's most able-bodied patron. Morton is neither bawdy or large, but I'll go out on a limb in saying she delivers the most reinvented interpretation of a classic character Chicago has ever seen. The result makes you rethink what you thought you knew and understood about Edward Albee's 1962 classic. Lett's George is now the show's machismo powerhouse, completely domineering his wife and -with a smile and a wave- merely entertaining her delusion. In the play's final tender moments, Letts shows us what George has been to Martha for their 20-some year marriage: a caretaker. Albeit a physically violent caretaker at times (it makes me uneasy to think about what they're like when we're not around), but that's what makes George and Martha (or Letts and Morton, for that matter) so unmistakeably watchable for the past 40 years.

I am at odds as to when ...WOOLF? is at its best. Letts and Morton certainly shine when their quiet moments -whether vile or tender- sneak up on you with blunt force. Yet, when all four performers share the living room, Albee's wit is flung about with impeccable timing. The play's 4-person ensemble truly makes this modern epic fresh, vibrant, and utterly exhausting, especially with Dirks and Coon effortlessly carry their weight against such established heavy hitters.

Staged with a subtle intensity from director Pam MacKinnon (George's bar cart and fireplace den hold captivating power), a pressure-cooker of emotions pile up atop Tony Award winner Todd Rosenthal's painstakingly detailed set. ...'what a dump'... Books, books, and more books litter George and Martha's near-windowless campus abode, showing the kind of secluded (and diluted?) life they share. A part of academia, but as Martha reveals, very detached from it as well. Allen Lee Hughes' lighting perfectly captures the dark corners of Martha and George's home, though Martha's silky but relaxed costumes seemed to blur the 1960 setting. Her Act III sweater looked particularly modern, but then again, it's just a sweater. Who entirely cares when Steppenwolf's top performers are in control?

I don't, George. I don't.

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Brosilow

Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? runs now through February 13, 2011 at Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted Street. For Student Discounts, Rush Seats, and additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org.

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