A cult favourite

Ambreen Noon Kazi turns to a classic that questions the boundaries of conventional morality and the realm of illusions with its hard-hitting dialogue.

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
By Edward Franklin Albee

Of the many books, poems and plays lining the shelf, this classic demands a review.

The play focuses on a married couple, George and Martha, who invite a new professor and his wife to their house after a party. Martha is the daughter of the president of a university where George is an associate history professor. Nick (one of the guests) is a biology professor who Martha thinks teaches math and Honey is his mousy, brandy-abusing wife.

Focusing on a series of verbal psychological abuse, the play sees the two couples playing "games" which are savage spoken attacks against one or two of the others at the party.

While the obvious dialogue is blatantly scathing and mean, there are many darker veins running through the play's dialogue which continually challenge the fine line between fiction and reality.

The play's main theme focuses on man's inability to live with the support of illusions and as such points glaringly at human frailties and vulnerabilities.

The implicit statement within the play is the friction between a fear of exposure and the comfort found in having a façade challenged and eventually brutally broken.

Written by Edward Albee for theatre in 1962, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened on Broadway on October 13th, 1962 and was adapted to screen in 1966 with the acting virtuosos and real-life couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as leads.

Winning both the 1963 Tony and the 1962-63 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama but the award's advisory board objected to the play's then-controversial use of profanity and other themes. Consequently no Pulitzer for drama was awarded for 1963.

Simultaneously a powerful literary piece and an engaging debate on human relations, the play is a must-read for any literature student who wants to broaden his literary horizons.

Author of the week: Edward Franklin Albee III

Born March 12, 1928 Edward Albee is an American playwright known for works including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox and The American Dream.

Adopted by Reed A. Albee two weeks after his birth, Albee left home when he was in his late teens. He is quoted as saying in an interview, "They weren't very good at being parents and I wasn't very good at being a son."

Expelled from many schools for skipping classes and not attending Chapel, Albee has received three Pulitzers for drama — for A Delicate Balance (1967), Seascape (1975), Three Tall Women (1994), a Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement (2005), the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1980), as well as the Kennedy Centre Honours and the National Medal of Arts (both in 1996).

His works are considered well-crafted and often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanisation of the theatre of the absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco.

Albee's dedication to continuing to evolve his voice — as evidenced in later productions such as The Goat or Who is Sylvia (2000) — routinely mark him as distinct from other American playwrights of his era.

- The writer is an avid reader and collector of books based in Dubai