The Jungle Theater's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Closes 5/30

The Jungle Theater continues showcasing the 20th century's most formative plays with a new staging of Edward Albee's masterpiece, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? The second production in the Jungle's 20th Anniversary Season features Jungle favorite Stephen Yoakam and Michelle Barber in her Jungle debut. Artistic Director Bain Boehlke directs the audacious play that has been captivating audiences for nearly 50 years.

The Tony Award-winning play, running April 23 through May 30, focuses on George (Yoakam), as a disillusioned academic, and Martha (Barber), his caustic wife, who invites a handsome young professor (Sean Neely) and his mousy wife (Jane Froiland) home for a nightcap. An innocent night of fun and games quickly turns dark and dangerous when long-buried resentments are unleashed as George and Martha turn their razor-sharp wits against each other and use the guests as pawns in their verbal sparring.

"Virginia Woolf burst on the landscape in the early 1960s just as the American Dream was coming into question," said Boehlke. "Albee was really looking at the destruction of false illusions and the journey to personal freedom as he examined the hypocrisy of the changing culture. With our recent recession and the rethinking of consumeristic values, we think it's the perfect time to do this play again, which is bitingly hilarious, profoundly tragic and exceedingly hopeful."

Playwright Albee's unsympathetic view of modern times was selected for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1963. However, the award's advisory board--the trustees of Columbia University--objected on the grounds that the play did not represent a "wholesome" view of American life, and also on the then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes. The advisory board overruled the award jury and no Pulitzer Prize for Drama was granted that year.

The Jungle's creative team includes Bain Boehlke (set), Barry Browning (lighting), Amelia Cheevers (costumes), Sean Healey (sound) and John Novak (properties).

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
by Edward Albee
Directed and designed by Bain Boehlke
April 23-May 30, 2010
THE JUNGLE THEATER
2951 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis
Tickets: $25-35
Box office: 612.822.7063 or www.jungletheater.com

When George, a disillusioned academic, and Martha, his caustic wife, invite a handsome young professor and his mousy wife home for a nightcap, an innocent night of fun and games quickly turns dark and dangerous. Long-buried resentments are unleashed as George and Martha turn their razor-sharp wits against each other, using their guests as pawns in their verbal sparring. Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play, and considered by many to be Albee's masterpiece, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? runs April 23-May 30. Box office: 612.822.7063 or www.jungletheater.com

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