Kim Martin-Cotten, Elysia Roorbach, Gabriel Gaston and Brian Vaughn in South Coast Rep’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Lisa Rothe. Photo by Scott Smeltzer/SCR.
If anyone told me 50 years ago I’d be visiting Vietnam and Laos as a tourist, I’d have had them committed. And to my surprise, Vietnamese people are friendlier than almost anyone I’ve met in my travels, apart from the Irish and the British. As good a reason as any for going AWOL…
I got back just in time. If you love live theater and you haven’t seen the current South Coast Repertory production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” you’ll want to avail yourself of the opportunity to catch this seldom-staged classic before it closes this Saturday. You may have seen Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton spar in the film version, but it comes alive on stage in a far more potent way.
Make no mistake, this vicious, booze-fueled battle of the sexes is no romantic comedy, though it’s often explosively funny. History professor George and his long-suffering wife Martha, the middle-aged couple at the center of this enigmatic three-act psychodrama, aren’t above slapping each other around but principally arm themselves with words of malice, and Albee weaponizes the language with great skill.
Chief among the reasons to see this production are Kim Martin-Cotten’s sensational performance as Martha, and Lisa Rothe’s imaginative direction. Martha is the engine that drives the play—that much is dictated by the script—but Martin-Cotten is a firecracker who makes the most of Albee’s barbed dialogue and hits every target with his shards of wit. And Rothe gives a master class in direction, maneuvering four characters around in a room for more than three hours with nary a dull moment.
Brian Vaughn keeps things going as George when Martha’s offstage, dragging the family skeletons out of the closet and puncturing the hypocrisy in the room as the abundance of alcohol takes effect. Solid support is provided by Elysia Roorbach as a delectable Honey opposite Gabriel Gaston’s prim and proper Nick, the younger couple in the equation—who come calling at 2 a.m. and unwisely remain at Martha’s “party” until the crack of dawn despite George’s warning they’ll be sucked down into the quicksand.
Regina Garcia’s splendid set does double duty, being pressed into service for Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage” as well. The offbeat comedy, which likewise features Martin-Cotten and Vaughn, also closes Saturday. Both productions are part of SCR’s continuing experiment dubbed The Rep, supported by a new partnership with UC Irvine. For info: scr.org.
Next up at SCR: the world premieres of Talene Monahon’s “Eat Me” (Apr. 12-May 3) and Reggie D. White’s “Fremont Ave.” (Apr. 25-May 23). Both are part of the 28th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, which offers five staged readings May 1-3.
If real life seems to resemble the Theatre of the Absurd more than ever, one of the plays that defined that genre is getting a rare staging at Cal State Fullerton. Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros,” his brilliant response to Fascism and conformism, is sadly as relevant as ever today but seldom gets produced. The last time I saw it, at UCLA, Ionesco himself was in attendance (quite friendly by the way), and he left the planet 32 years ago this month. Through Mar. 28 at CSUF. For info: www.fullerton.edu/arts/theatre/events/season.php.
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