#1
Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:03pm
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
March 24th Performance
From the time I had first heard that Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin were to play the irascible couple in Albee's masterpiece, I found it to be slighlt intriguing. I thought that it would either work extremely well or fall flat.
Irwin and Turner both give fresh interpretations of George and Martha, respectively, and bring out certain subtleies to their relationship. But, by and large, I didn't buy them as a couple. Both give good, at times great, performances in their own right, but together they lack a certain something. Something that makes me belive that they have been together for so long, that something that lets me see that deep down under all the malignant attacks, there exists a real bond between the two.
Turner shines in the first two acts. She commands the stage, and the attention of the other three actors, with monumentous force. She is sublimely earthy and brings a tender, motherly ferocious bitterness to the role. Her use of her famous baritone voice brings about a real sense of domination, yet she conveys this domination (over her husband, her guests, and her world) with this undertone of real insecurity. Turner lets you see how others view Martha, but also gives you glimpses to Martha's soul.
But where Turner greatly succeeds in the first two acts, she more or less fails in the third. It is at this point, where George has affirmed his masculinity and will to fight her, that Turner's performance begins to become a ball of confusuion. Almost as if Turner is not sure when to take and when to give. She does fine in the early moments of the act, but what hurts her performance is that she becomes too devastated too soon.
She gives up combating George and loses her will in a way that it takes away the impact of the end. She runs out of steam too soon that makes the "news" not as devastating to her, and to the audience, as it should be. It's heartwrenching, yes, but it is not, as it should be, heartbreaking.
I really wanted to buy Irwin in the role. He finds a lot of humour, unfortuately some of it is at expense of the material. His line delivery was mostly terrific, but it is distracting when he accompanies every line with an over-the-top physical gesture. I kept wanting to see a man who has been shot down his entire life, but all I saw was a fine actor clowning it up.
I hate to compare anything he does to Richard Burton from the film because the interpretations are just so different. But Burton. an actor who could eat up anyone who shares a scene with him, wonderfully underplays George in the first 2/3 of the moive. He doesn't pull focus, but you see how Martha has bullied this man all of his life. It is because of this fabulous underplay Burton does that your heart beats fast just because you KNOW that when he snaps, all hell will break loose.
Irwin just doesn't find much beneath the surface of George, mainly because he is too active so early on. I really, really wanted to buy his performance all night because I so respect this man. But it was at the "Flores para los muertos" line that I just accepted that he was too much of a clown for his own good. A fine performance in many ways, but just too much in some aspects and not enough in others.
But Irwin does do a fine job in his scene with Nick. A VERY fine job. I just wish he would have carried that heartbreaking sublety with him the whole time before he "snaps," then his performance would have been breathtaking.
The true standout of this production was Mireille Enos, who does an outstanding job as Honey. She finds humor and depth that even Sandey Dennis didn't find. I was thrown ajar by her decision to have Honey come in drunk right away, but it was a perfectly legitimate interpretation and I went with it. But she underplays beutifully when needed and really finds a lot of laughs. But, unlike many of Irwin's laughs, hers don't undermine the material. A fine, fine heartbreaking performance that steals every scene that she is in.
I didn't find much to like with David Harbour's performance at the beginning, but he slowly grows into the character. At first he would react before being given anything to react to, which was entirely distracting. and his Nick comes off as too angry a lot of times. but he does give a good performance in his solo moments with George, and then with Martha.
The set is very homely, and the actors use it beautifully. A perfect mix of slovenliness and cleanliness. I loved how the set got a little darker in each subsequent act. And the lighting at the very end was marvelous and depressing.
It seems as if I didn't enjoy this production as much as I did. Overall, the production was highly enjoyable and one of the better things I've seen this season. The first two acts were overall excellent, but the real test is the third act. And this production just didn't pack the emotional wallop it needs. I was devastated, but not nearly as much as I should have been.
I need to eat. I'll write the other reviews in a bit.
March 24th Performance
From the time I had first heard that Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin were to play the irascible couple in Albee's masterpiece, I found it to be slighlt intriguing. I thought that it would either work extremely well or fall flat.
Irwin and Turner both give fresh interpretations of George and Martha, respectively, and bring out certain subtleies to their relationship. But, by and large, I didn't buy them as a couple. Both give good, at times great, performances in their own right, but together they lack a certain something. Something that makes me belive that they have been together for so long, that something that lets me see that deep down under all the malignant attacks, there exists a real bond between the two.
Turner shines in the first two acts. She commands the stage, and the attention of the other three actors, with monumentous force. She is sublimely earthy and brings a tender, motherly ferocious bitterness to the role. Her use of her famous baritone voice brings about a real sense of domination, yet she conveys this domination (over her husband, her guests, and her world) with this undertone of real insecurity. Turner lets you see how others view Martha, but also gives you glimpses to Martha's soul.
But where Turner greatly succeeds in the first two acts, she more or less fails in the third. It is at this point, where George has affirmed his masculinity and will to fight her, that Turner's performance begins to become a ball of confusuion. Almost as if Turner is not sure when to take and when to give. She does fine in the early moments of the act, but what hurts her performance is that she becomes too devastated too soon.
She gives up combating George and loses her will in a way that it takes away the impact of the end. She runs out of steam too soon that makes the "news" not as devastating to her, and to the audience, as it should be. It's heartwrenching, yes, but it is not, as it should be, heartbreaking.
I really wanted to buy Irwin in the role. He finds a lot of humour, unfortuately some of it is at expense of the material. His line delivery was mostly terrific, but it is distracting when he accompanies every line with an over-the-top physical gesture. I kept wanting to see a man who has been shot down his entire life, but all I saw was a fine actor clowning it up.
I hate to compare anything he does to Richard Burton from the film because the interpretations are just so different. But Burton. an actor who could eat up anyone who shares a scene with him, wonderfully underplays George in the first 2/3 of the moive. He doesn't pull focus, but you see how Martha has bullied this man all of his life. It is because of this fabulous underplay Burton does that your heart beats fast just because you KNOW that when he snaps, all hell will break loose.
Irwin just doesn't find much beneath the surface of George, mainly because he is too active so early on. I really, really wanted to buy his performance all night because I so respect this man. But it was at the "Flores para los muertos" line that I just accepted that he was too much of a clown for his own good. A fine performance in many ways, but just too much in some aspects and not enough in others.
But Irwin does do a fine job in his scene with Nick. A VERY fine job. I just wish he would have carried that heartbreaking sublety with him the whole time before he "snaps," then his performance would have been breathtaking.
The true standout of this production was Mireille Enos, who does an outstanding job as Honey. She finds humor and depth that even Sandey Dennis didn't find. I was thrown ajar by her decision to have Honey come in drunk right away, but it was a perfectly legitimate interpretation and I went with it. But she underplays beutifully when needed and really finds a lot of laughs. But, unlike many of Irwin's laughs, hers don't undermine the material. A fine, fine heartbreaking performance that steals every scene that she is in.
I didn't find much to like with David Harbour's performance at the beginning, but he slowly grows into the character. At first he would react before being given anything to react to, which was entirely distracting. and his Nick comes off as too angry a lot of times. but he does give a good performance in his solo moments with George, and then with Martha.
The set is very homely, and the actors use it beautifully. A perfect mix of slovenliness and cleanliness. I loved how the set got a little darker in each subsequent act. And the lighting at the very end was marvelous and depressing.
It seems as if I didn't enjoy this production as much as I did. Overall, the production was highly enjoyable and one of the better things I've seen this season. The first two acts were overall excellent, but the real test is the third act. And this production just didn't pack the emotional wallop it needs. I was devastated, but not nearly as much as I should have been.
I need to eat. I'll write the other reviews in a bit.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Updated On: 3/26/05 at 10:03 PM
Looking forward to the others.
