Photos by Ryan C. Loyd, RyLo Media Design
Power—as in, who wields it best?—is primary in the production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? now playing through April 12 at SLO REP in downtown San Luis Obispo.
The play itself is a powerful statement about how we as humans (and perhaps particularly Americans?) create illusions to get ourselves through the day . . . and weeks . . . and months . . . and even years.
Veteran local actors Suzy Newman as Martha and Billy Breed as George are the principal peddlers of that statement in the pageant that director Kevin Harris has created of desperate people employing what little power they possess to control other people—especially the ones they love.
Newman and Breed exercise the power that Albee’s language gives them with an authority and expertise that comes from years of honing their skills onstage.
Yelling, whining, and growling at each other, they wind expertly through the three-hour play, allowing us glimpses of the misery and pain underneath that isn’t expressly evident until the very end.
Newman is in great form—her Martha reads as the culmination of years of experience studying human behavior and then being willing to put all she’s learned out there for an audience. And it’s a pleasure to see Breed, an actor’s actor that we usually associate with comedy and parody, using his excellent timing in one-on-one scenes with Newman and the other two actors.
Michael Gould and Carley Quintana as Nick and Honey, the younger couple who must endure the hurtful games that George and Martha devise for their late evening gathering, are appropriately and effectively oblivious, bemused, aroused, and horrified as the action progresses. Albee lets these characters also explore the power they possess over each other, but their interactions can’t hold a candle to the intense sparring of the older, more experienced couple.
Gould plays the progressively drunken Nick as callow—and his character is often perplexed, especially by George’s silences and unexpected profanity. Quintana’s reactions are mostly understated but convincing, making her the least noisy of the quartet but startling when she does hold forth.
Harris keeps the pace lively, adroitly moving the actors around the extensive and impressive set that Dave Linfield and his crew have created. The scenic design, along with the set dressing by Linfield and Newman (she’s also SLO REP’s production manager), are among the best I’ve seen at the theatre. The costumes by Reneé Van Niel are perfect expressions of the characters and the time period.
Finally, a word about why a local theatre company should produce a major American drama, with actors playing flawed-but-human characters, for audiences to experience for more than three hours.
When the lights go out at the end of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?— with a spent George holding an equally-spent Martha on a snap-dragon-strewn stage—audience members can’t help but absorb such a powerful experience into their hearts and minds.
The experience is strong enough to give us the power to think, to ask questions: What is real? How do we affect—or try to control?—the people we love? Do we ourselves know the difference between our truths and our illusions?
SLO REP’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? doesn’t hold back. It packs a powerful punch into a few hours that are well worth your time and contemplation.