020 – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, by Edward Albee
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It is 2:00 am, and George and Martha have invited a young couple back to their home on a New England university campus for after-party drinks. What follows is arguably the most extended and vitriolic marital argument ever staged. Over four hours of drunken skirmishing George and Martha tear strips off each other and their young guests, in a terrifying mix of games playing and truth telling, fuelled by anger, shame, disappointment, hatred and possibly even love. As the hostilities intensify both couples are forced to face unvarnished and difficult truths about themselves and their relationships. Who are the survivors of this long night’s journey? Or put another way: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? For this is American playwright Edward Albee’s classic play, with certainly one of the most memorable titles in theatrical history.
The controversial play opened on Broadway in 1962, and it was greeted by both moral outrage – one reviewer labelling it “a sick play for sick people” – as well as critical acclaim: “the most shattering drama since O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. Both types of review contributed to its run-away box-office success, the play running for 664 performances, and famously attracting the interest of Hollywood, the 1996 film version with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor winning five Academy awards.
Joining me to survey the damage of this blistering marital battle are John Mitchinson and Andy Miller, the co-hosts of the award-winning podcast Backlisted, which as its strap line declares “gives new life to old books”.
020 Bonus – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – the film
Along with my guests, John Mitchinson and Andy Miller, I so much enjoyed talking about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in the podcast that we went on for much longer than our allotted hour. Our conversation included a brief discussion about the 1966 film of Virginia Woolf starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, which in the interests of time I edited from the original recording. Given the enthusiasm and wisdom of my friends on the subject it seemed a shame to lose this part of the conversation entirely, so here is that extract from our conversation. Please note that this is very much an accompaniment to the main episode about the play.
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John Mitchinson is a writer and publisher, co-founder of Unbound, the crowdfunding publishing platform for books, and co-host of the award-winning books podcast, Backlisted. He helped create the BBC TV show QI and co-wrote the bestselling series of QI books, including The Book of General Ignorance, which has sold over 2 million copies. Before that he held senior roles in publishing at Harvill and Cassell and was Waterstone’s original marketing director. When he’s not reading, he’s tending to his pigs and bees.
Recommended Play
John recommended Jersualem by Jez Butterworth.
Andy Miller is a reader, editor and author of books, most recently The Year of Reading Dangerously (4th Estate/HarperPerennial). He has also written books about how much he likes the Kinks and how much he dislikes sport. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Spectator, Esquire, Mojo and Sight and Sound. He has toured the UK with his motivational lecture ‘Read Y’self Fitter’ and appears regularly on BBC Radio programmes such as The Verb (R3), The Museum of Curiosity (R4) and Open Book (R4).
Andy is also the co-host of the award-winning literary podcast Backlisted.
Recommended Play
Andy recommended Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.
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057 – Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw
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G.B. Shaw’s Arms and the Man is both a sparkling romantic comedy and a telling satire of love, war and social pretension. It was Shaw’s first public success as a playwright when it premiered in London in 1894, and is currently enjoying an acclaimed revival at the Orange Tree theatre in Richmond, Surrey.
I’m joined by Shaw expert Ivan Wise, who is a previous editor of The Shavian, the journal of the Shaw Society.
056 – Good, by C.P. Taylor
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C.P. Taylor’s powerful, cautionary play Good charts how an ostensibly ‘good’ person can become not just complicit to evil behaviour, but an active participant. Professor John Halder’s creeping moral compromise as he joins the Nazi elite in 1930’s Germany is a disturbing reminder of the dangers of populist political crusades.
The play is currently being revived at the Harold Pinter theatre in London with David Tennant in the role of John Halder, and I’m delighted to be joined by the production’s director, Dominic Cooke, to explore the contemporary resonances of this provocative play.
055 – Spring Awakening, by Frank Wedekind
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Frank Wedekind’s dark, expressionist play Spring Awakening is a cautionary portrait of adolescent angst and rebellion against oppressive social strictures and family pressures. Its frank depiction of sex and violence remains shocking more than 130 years after it was written, and it is the unlikely source of the award-winning modern musical of the same name.
I’m delighted to be joined by Professor Karen Leeder to explore the contemporary controversies and enduring relevance of this extraordinary play.
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