October 13, 1962 - Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee, opened on Broadway. The movie based on the play, starring those star crossed stars who were sometimes married and sometimes not, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, came out in 1966. the story was of a middle aged couple, Matha and George, whose marriage is dissolving into frustration and bitterness, and a young couple, unaware of all this, they invite over after a fuculty party at the college where they teach. Gradually, they are drawing them into their personal hell world. The song George and Martha sing during the film, Whos Afraid of Virgina Woolfe takes its melody, of course from the childrens ditty, Whos Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. The truth is they are, like children whistling in the dark to keep from being afraid. They are afraid of the hard realities their loveless relationship has come to mask with fading success. Virginia Woolfe was a writer whose characters often masked emotional turmoil with a facade to keep it from showing. George and Marthas marriage has become a mask for growing alienation, a reality they are afraid to face. Eventually, it becomes apparent that much of it involves their inability to have a child, and its a reality they have avoided all this time and the dysfunctionality of their whole relationship with each other. This is not Ozzie and Harriet, though, if you read about Ozzie and Harriet, maybe just as dysfunctional. The play won a number of awards, and the four main actors, Taylor, Burton- Martha and George; George Segal and Sandy Denis- Nick and Honey, were nominated for Oscars, Taylor and Drnis won for Best Actress and Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The play, in all its intensity had a major impact on audiences, then, and over 50 years later is still performed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Afraid_of_Virginia_Woolf%3F
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 02:23:01 +0000
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