The Ensemble Company To Present Explosive WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

The Ensemble Company, now in their fifth year in residence at Penguin Point Productions located within the Oviedo Mall, continues its 2023 season with a production of Edward Albee's masterpiece, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which celebrated 60 years in 2022. Virginia Woolf is rescheduled from The Ensemble Company's 2022 season.

A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of fun and games. By the evening's end, a stunning, almost unbearable revelation provides a climax that has shocked audiences since 1962. With the play's razor-sharp dialogue and the stripping away of social pretense, Newsweek rightly saw Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as "a brilliantly original work of art-an excoriating theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire."

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened in October 1962 with a cast headlined by Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill, Melinda Dillon, and George Grizzard. It won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play as well as the NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. In 1966, it was adapted into an acclaimed film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis, and George Segal.

Other famous George and Marthas include Ben Gazzara and Colleen Dewhurst, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, David Suchet and Diana Rigg, Patrick Stewart and Mercedes Ruehl, Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner, Tracy Letts and Amy Morton, Conleth Hill and Imelda Staunton, and Zachary Quinto and Calista Flockhart.

Directed by Matthew MacDermid, the producing artistic director, The Ensemble Company production will star company veterans Janine Papin (The Normal Heart, A Christmas Carol) as Martha, Gabriel Garcia (Mother of the Maid, Six Degrees of Separation, The Lyons, Hysteria) as Nick, and Shelby Mae Randle (Hysteria, Stupid F***ing Bird, Speech & Debate) as Honey. David Lowe makes his company debut as George.