Edward Albee classic takes Athenian stage
How is it that you never get tired of watching a play in which the lead characters are being brutally cruel to each other? «Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?» is one of those classic contemporary plays. The focus is on a married couple who have created their own isolated universe with strict boundaries, using the presence of other people solely for the needs of their own emotional and psychological games. It could be that audiences discern behind the characters’ sharp words not only the depth of hatred but also the desperate love that exists in an equally desperate relationship, which at the same time provides a hellish and heavenly refuge. Edward Albee wrote «Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?» in 1962. Since then, the play has been staged in countless theaters around the world and has also been transferred to the silver screen. This season audiences are fortunate to have the opportunity to watch it at the Aplo Theater (4 Harilaou Trikoupi, Kallithea, tel 210.922.9605), as directed by Antonis Antypas and featuring a new translation by Jenny Mastoraki. Dimitris Kataleifos plays cynical thinker George while Rania Economidou is his vulnerable, and at the same time, harsh wife Martha. Mayou Trikerioti’s sets, which met with the approval of the author who still leaves nothing to chance, successfully depict a middle-class country home in 1960s America. The play unravels during a summer night, as George and Martha entertain a young couple, Nick (played by Alexandros Bourdoumis) and Honey (Sotiria Rouvoli), for social reasons but also to let off steam. The game, the illusions, the crossing of boundaries, the revelation and acceptance of reality are some of the words that could describe Albee’s drama, yet it is more than that. It is also a depiction of the 1960s middle-class mentality not only in America but also in other countries at the time.
