Everything You Need to Know about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

**What is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? about? **

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a new production of a play by Edward Albee. The show follows a sociable evening of after party drinks between two married couples - Martha and George, and a younger couple Nick and Honey.

With the flowing alcohol, Martha and George let the mask slip, giving Nick and Honey a taste of their toxic mind games, until eventually the evening reaches a climax with devastating truth telling. 

What happens in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Skip over this part if you want to avoid spoilers!

The play is split into three parts; ‘Fun and Games,’ ‘Walpurgisnacht’ and the final act, ‘The Exorcism.’ 

In Act 1: Fun and Games, the night continues at George and Martha’s place, after they leave a college faculty party. George works as a professor of history, and Martha is the daughter to the president of the college. She reveals she has invited a couple she met to come round for after-party drinks. As the drink flows, so does the verbal abuse, making it increasingly uncomfortable for Nick and Honey. Martha shares embarrassing stories about George, spurring him on to fire a rifle at Martha, instead a chinese parasol pops out of the gun, further increasing the embarrassment. 

Act 2 is called ‘Walpurgisnacht’ which is the name of a witches' annual meeting. Nick and George talk alone, about their wives. They share stories of hysterical pregnancies, accidental deaths, and old friends sent to asylums. Honey puts on some music, whilst George refuses to dance - Martha dances with Nick to taunt her husband and tells the story of George’s failed book. Again, George attacks Martha and Nick separates them. George then turns to playing a game called ‘Get the Guests,’ where he vaguely retells the story Nick told him about Honey’s hysterical pregnancy and how she used this to trap Nick into marriage. When Honey leaves the room, Martha seduces Nick to make George jealous, who seems unphased. She claims she will have sex with him if he does not stop her. George is unmoved, which pushes Martha to go upstairs with Nick; which does eventually enrage him. 

The final act is named ‘The Exorcism,’ where more is revealed of the evening through twisted metaphors about the moon being up or down. It is suggested Nick was too drunk to have sex with Martha. They play a final so-called game, called ‘Bringing Up Baby’ where Martha and George blame each other for creating distance between their son and them. George then reveals the doorbell earlier was a telegram informing them that their son was dead, killed in a car crash. Martha is distraught. But the couple slowly realise the fictional son is a game between the couple, one they have played since discovering they were infertile. George decided to ‘kill’ their fictional son, as Martha broke the single rule of the game; not to mention their ‘son’ to anyone else.