WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

At the Cultch until Jan. 17

Tickets: 604.251-1363

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Craig Erickson, Meg Roe, Kevin McNulty and Gabrielle Rose star in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Cultch until Jan. 17.

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George and Martha are no-holds-barred warriors on the marital battlefield, but ironically, the more brutal the verbal attacks, the more we understand how deeply connected they are. Strange but true: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a love story.

But it's hard to tell. And, for a while, George and Martha fool young Nick and his up-chucking wife Honey, whom Martha, with already too many drinks under her belt, invites back for a nightcap after a faculty party.

Martha's "Daddy" is the president of the New England university where George's academic career has stalled. Martha had big plans for "Georgie Porgy, put-upon pie," but he has failed to meet her expectations.

And so the first game of the evening after Nick and Honey arrive is "Humiliate the Host." But two can play games, and soon George, who has been taking Martha's insults on the chin, takes off the gloves with some of his own: "Get The Guests," "Hump The Hostess" and "Bringing Up Baby."

Iconic American playwright Albee has recently revised the 1962 script, and director John Wright finds in it more humour--scathing, dark, bleak or nasty--than in other productions I've seen. The funnier it is, however, the sadder it becomes.

Along with Hedda Gabler and Lady Macbeth, the role of Martha is one to which many actresses aspire. Gabrielle Rose is brilliant--braying one minute, drunkenly reflective the next. She's physically loose, blowsy, sexy and coarse, and yet she shows the disappointment, desperation and grief behind Martha's brassy fa?ade. And the more abusive Rose's Martha gets, the more fragile we see she is. Without a great Martha, says director Wright, you don't do Virginia Woolf; he found one in Gabrielle Rose.

Kevin McNulty is ineffectual, pedantic doormat George. But increasingly McNulty puts steel in George's spine and the balance of power begins to lurch back and forth. Even on the offensive, however, McNulty shows us George's pain when "Hump The Hostess" becomes a reality. In some productions, George is often just a foil for Martha, but here McNulty and Rose go toe-to-toe with an equivalency that makes for almost unbearable tension.

Wright brings Nick (Craig Erickson) and Honey (Meg Roe) out of the background and right onto the field of conflict. Honey may be "slim-hipped" and "mousy" but Roe is anything but uninteresting. She shows a manipulative streak in Honey that echoes the one in Martha, and it's downright chilling when Honey, intently watching the escalating physical clash between George and Martha, gleefully chants, "Violence. Violence."

Erickson's is the most interesting Nick I've seen: he's no none-too-bright jock but nastily opportunistic. We see Nick's wheels turning as he tries to traverse the minefield that George lays out for him--politely agreeing with George or suddenly patronizing or insulting him. Yet we feel real sympathy for Nick as he admits that his marriage--and life--is not all he hoped it would be.