Review: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at Portland Center Stage

Edward Albee's Tony Award-winning 1962 play WHO’S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf receives a powerful revival at Portland Center Stage. This darkly humorous and devastating exploration of relationships, illusion, and human fragility remains as relevant and impactful today as it was over 60 years ago.

Set in the alcohol-soaked wee hours of morning, the production plunges us into the toxic relationship between George (Leif Norby) and Martha (Lauren Bloom Hanover), a middle-aged couple whose marriage has devolved into psychological warfare. When they invite young biology professor Nick (Benjamin Tissell) and his wife Honey (Ashley Song) for drinks after a faculty party, what begins as an uncomfortable social gathering spirals into a night of vicious games where the boundary between truth and illusion gradually disintegrates.

As dramaturg Kamilah Bush points out in her excellent program notes, this “is not just a takedown of tumultuous relationships between husband and wife, but between citizen and society, settler and state, inhabitant and empire.” To that, I’ll add between old and new, as well as status quo and progress.

Hanover and Norby are well-matched as the central warring couple, who have spent years perfecting the art of hurting each other precisely where it causes the most pain. The younger couple provides both a mirror and a contrast to their hosts. Tissell captures Nick's ambition, which gradually gives way to horror, while Song emerges as the production's surprising highlight, as a woman who is not only the main comic relief, but whose apparent naivety masks her own painful secrets.

Under Marissa Wolf's direction, the production masterfully balances the play's darkness with its comedy and its faint glimmer of hope. The characters are vicious to one another, but their cruelty exists alongside moments of vulnerability that make them much more than mere monsters. This is my fourth encounter with George and Martha, and my first at roughly their age – between that and the battles royale raging all around us, this production packed a unique emotional wallop.

WHO’S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf demonstrates why Albee's work continues to resonate across generations. Whether you're encountering these characters for the first time or revisiting them from a different stage of life, Portland Center Stage's production offers a searing look at self-deception and the games people play to avoid facing reality. I recommend it very highly.

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