Review: Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf Is Emotional Whiplash

Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? first shook Broadway audiences in 1962, going on to claim Best Play at the 1963 Tony Awards and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. Now, Holden Street Theatres is bringing the classic back to life in The Studio this August, with Peter Goers at the helm. Leading the charge is a powerhouse local cast including Martha Lott, Brant Eustice, Chris Asimos, and Jessica Corrie.

Walking into The Studio at Holden Street Theatres, the living room is already telling secrets. It’s the kind of set that makes one linger before the show even starts. Chaise lounges that have seen better parties, sculpted busts with a thin coat of dust, Life magazines propping up a chair leg, and empty bottles pushed into corners like guilty confessions.

There’s style here, yes, but also something unresolved. It’s a marriage on display in furniture form; potential that maybe never lived up to its billing. Or perhaps was doomed from the start.

Martha Lott strides into the room as Martha, a role she now wears like a favourite, slightly dangerous coat. If you saw her in Looped, you’ll recognise the cackle, the bitter one-liners flung with pinpoint accuracy.

She’s paired again at long last with Brant Eustice, the first time they’ve shared the stage in decades, and the spark between them is immediate. His George starts almost sympathetic, the tired professor, making wry asides. But that sympathy frays fast as the verbal barbs and mind games mount. At first, you think he’s just a victim, not a willing participant in this marital Squid Game.

Chris Asimos, Adelaide theatre’s resident heartthrob, doesn’t just ruffle George’s feathers. He threatens the masculinity of every man in the audience. His Nick is all quiet calculation under the charm.

Then there’s Jessica Corrie as Honey, which is a role some productions let fade into the wallpaper, but not here. Her turn from polite guest to tipsy wildcard is a masterclass in slow-burn transformation. The moment she first slurs a word, the air shifts. Her unhinged dancing is also a little bit like Elaine from Seinfeld.

It’s a long haul; three hours locked in a cluttered lounge with a couple whose toxicity could be bottled and sold, and yet Peter Goers’ direction keeps the energy from sagging. This isn’t a play that moves like the moon, with its rises and falls. It’s more like a firework that just refuses to burn out. Even the rare moments of reprieve are loaded, like when George walks in with flowers and you think, just for a second, that everything’s going to be fine. (It’s not.)

Some of the sharpest relief comes in the absurd beats. The men squaring off like peacocks while Honey is vomiting in the bathroom. The unspoken jabs that land harder than the shouted ones. Goers makes every zinger zing.

The design team deserves their snapdragons, too. The set is a subtle character in itself, balancing elegance and entropy while the lighting gently blacks out at the ends of the acts, like a heavy night on the booze.

Underneath the booze and bile, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is still a play about illusions. The ones we build into marriage, into status, into the Australian dream itself. In 1962, it was the white-picket-fence fantasy. Today, when cost of living and housing crises push that dream out of reach, the illusions feel thinner, more fragile.

The play’s chromosome imagery even echoes our own age of AI; new forms of creation that could disrupt what we think of as real or possible. Maybe our mental health crisis is partly down to running out of illusions. Maybe we’re all, in some way, afraid of Virginia Woolf.

If you can handle three hours of emotional whiplash, grab a ticket. If you take your partner, though, maybe prepare for some loaded conversations on the drive home.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? runs to 16 August at The Studio, Holden Street Theatres, 32 – 24 Holden Street Hindmarsh SA 5007.

Tickets are available here.

Website: https://www.holdenstreettheatres.com/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf

Socials: https://www.instagram.com/holdenstreettheatres/

Images supplied.