Newcastle Theatre Company’s interpretation of Edward Albee’s classic “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” was a refreshing but confronting view on interpersonal relationships and the darkness which is inside us all.  Director Janet Nelson has said the play is a “a love story…about two people desperately trying to stay together and fill the cracks.”  Nelson has achieved what she set out to do.

 

The cast are as follows Howard Rawlinson as George, Wendy Ratcliffe as Martha, Graham Wilson as Nick and Nyssa Hamilton as Honey.

 

Rawlinson and Ratcliffe bring humanity to their characters and have avoided the pitfall of playing George and Martha as a pair of drunken fools baying for the other’s blood, a mistake which has been predominant in many previous stagings of this work.

 

From Act One we see a couple not unlike any married couple coming home in the early hours of the morning from a university faculty party their playful banter reveals the ease they have with one another.  It’s when the young couple, biology professor Nick and his wife Honey arrive on the scene we see the complex issues between George and Martha unfold layer by layer.

 

The young couple are an obvious reminder and reflection of who George and Martha once were-young newlyweds in naïve idealistic bliss.  It’s not long before the night becomes a battle of wits as George and Martha involve the couple in their psychological games.

 

Rawlinson, delivering a flawless performance as George,the master puppeteer pulling the strings of his victims.  Ratcliffe’s Martha desperately crying for her husband’s affection and attention resorts to stinging putdowns and openly seducing Nick.

 

Graham Wilson’s Nick is a quiet self -assured young man whose ideals are put to the test.  Nyssa Hamilton’s Honey is a little girl lost with secrets of her own.  The familiarity in the characters interplay of personal relationships may hit too close to home for some.

 

The uncomfortable truths about the darker aspect of human nature and the questions the play poses about universal themes such as the desire to be loved, what extent we will go to for this perfect love and how destructive this force in our lives can be.

 

There is a touching moment in the final scene as George’s tenderness and love for his wife shine through as he consoles her as she grieves for an illusion that has been destroyed which has been a comfort to their marriage.

 

You get the sense that the couple will put the games behind them and work on repairing their fractured relationship and perhaps the “happy ever after” will happen after all.