Guest
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? 1966 “'Tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world sits too heavy on our tiny heads.“ The above statement, spoken half in jest (and in a Barry Fitzgerald accent) by a subdued, down-cycle, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) in a brief moment of introspective lucidity, is proffered as a response/admission as to why she and husband George (Richard Burton) seem only to relate to one another through cruelly sadistic games of “truth and illusion.“ This surprisingly self-aware avowal of the role illusion and willful self-deception play in tent-posting lives of disappointment and regret not only sums up the plot of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but, especially noting the ironic use of the word “unreality“ in the quote, could also serve as an explanation for my own lifelong fascination with, and attraction to, film. Edward Albee's provocative, 1962 Tony Award-winning stage play was adapted into a censorship-shattering motion picture in 1966 by Broadway wunderkind Mike Nichols.
