The resonant interpretation offered in the Feedback Theatre Company's presentation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee is a reminder that, as an American play, this was, in its time, as epoch-making as Look Back in Anger on the British stage.
George and Martha inhabit a small university town (Patrick Murray's dusty and detailed set almost smells of the place) and relieve academic tedium and an atypical marriage through the mutual creation of an aggressive fantasy life. Their word-play is a kind of sword-play; this, after all, is the work which gave the world the notion of such party games as "get the guests" and "hump the hostess". The unwitting guests are Nick and Honey; unwitting, but not free of fantasy themselves.
The four characters are cast with precision by director Mary Curtin; Gerry McLoughlin, Barry O'Reilly, John Morgan and Simone Kelly expose the strengths of the playwright, the validity of the theme and, above all, in this wonderfully black comedy, the pathos of human pretension. Despite the energy of the playing, this production is smooth, convincing and, considering what goes on, highly entertaining.
Nightly at the Triskel until August 30th, except Sundays.