The Studio
Holden St Theatres
Tue 13 Aug, 2025
George and Martha have been out at a college work party and return home around 2.00 am already pretty well cut. George is happy to retire for the night, but Martha wants to party on. In fact, unbeknownst to George she has invited a younger couple back to their place for an after party. An already apparent animosity bubbling away between George and Martha is quickly transferred to the new arrivals, Nick and Honey. Nick is a teacher/academic at the same college as George and George pounces on this opportunity to make him squirm. He senses a possible challenge from a young bull and is well and truly up for the fight. Martha is delighted at the spectacle. In fact, one wonders if she hasn’t invited Nick over to precipitate it.
It all begins as a relatively good-natured slagging match but spirals down into the deeply hurtful and deeply personal with each passing drink. And the drinks flow endlessly in a shameless display of self-destruction. Nick and Honey have to witness some fairly unsavory insults being traded between George and Martha and not wishing to be witness to the airing of such personal grievances suggest they might leave. But the die is cast: their hosts have already begun one of their secretive and spiteful social games. Games with names like “Get the Guests” and “Hump the Hostess.” Nick and Honey are effectively bullied into staying until they’ve had sufficient drinks and they too join in the debauchery. Lambs to the slaughter you might say.
All this unpleasantness is offset by what is a brilliant and sustained piece of writing from Edward Albee. The pace is sparkling with wit in abundance but you find yourself wondering just how far this can go. When will the bickering and character assassination stop? Is any redemption possible here?
The men eventually bond via a sleazy conversation where they each reveal secrets about their relationships, and George is thrilled to discover that the younger couple are not perfect. George and Martha both flirt with infidelity, as much as anything to further provoke the other. (Martha to Nick: “You look like you still got a pretty good body.”) But somewhere in all this there is a kind of love and affection. Despite everything Martha has told us she says that George makes her happy. This is both remarkable and deeply sad.
A Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf audience needs to reconcile several issues: is the belligerent mean-spirited bullying excusable if it’s just a game? If it’s part of long-standing ritual of mutual abuse that somehow brings George and Martha closer? Does their flailing relationship need this kind of brutal exorcism to bring everything to a head? Did George really write novels? Whatever your feelings may be along the way the show ends up being a very positive experience. Superb writing and flawless performances from the cast of four deliver exhilarating theatre. Chris Asimos and Jessica Corrie were magnificent in their supporting roles of Nick and Honey. And the performances of Martha Lott and Brant Eustice as Martha and George are as good as you’ll ever see in any theatre at any level anywhere. Martha Lott was born to play this Martha – flamboyant, sulky, spoilt, rambunctious, and willing to push things right to the edge. Brant Eustice excelled as the mean nasty insecure little man full of wit and barbs to pump up his fragile ego.
Other highlights: a chair that squeaks perfectly right on cue; a set that includes a messy corner complete with a half-eaten apple and overflowing waste paper bin, and a script that included gems like ‘Jesus money’, ‘personal screwing machine’ , and ‘nibbling warts’!
Directed by Peter Goers.
5 stars
Michael Coghlan
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf continues at Holden Street Theatres at 7.00 pm until Sat Aug 16. Purchase tickets HERE.
The Clothesline Rating
Michael Coghlan
Exhilarating. Acting as good as you’ll ever see in any theatre at any level anywhere.
