Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? first hit stages in in 1962 and quickly become an American classic. Written by a giant of American theater, Edward Albee, it exposed the vulnerable underbelly of American post-WWII triumphalism. Stretching across a very long night, the play sees George and Martha, a middle-aged pair of academics, inviting a younger couple over to their home for what seems at first like a normal soirée. But the audience soon sees the unresolved tensions in George and Martha’s relationship boiling over. On the ay to a bleak dawn, we learn that the younger couple, Nick and Honey, have their own secrets to share. We asked director Pamela Berlin to give us a look behind a curtain at Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 2025 production of this iconic show, running Wed, Mar 19 to Sunday April 6.
Behind the Scenes of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Public Theater
What makes Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? relevant today?
Pamela Berlin: The themes of the play are universal and are as relevant today as they were six decades ago: Edward Albee, the playwright, explores the complicated, messy dynamics that exist in all marriages since time immemorial. Relationships—especially between the husband-and-wife hosts of this middle-of-the-night, liquor-infused get-together—encapsulate the complexities that we all experience over time in our long-term commitments. There is love, hate, wit, cruelty, resentment, and tenderness: you name it, it’s all in the play. Albee doesn’t hold back, and neither do his two protagonists, George and Martha. The play is full of passion, and fireworks. And a lot of humor.
What has come up during the rehearsal process as you’ve directed the play?
PB: I went into preparing to direct this play knowing that if there isn’t, first and foremost, love between these two characters, the play is unbearable. We had to start with that. George and Martha were drawn to one another initially, years ago, by their mutual intelligence, humor, unsurpassed verbal sparring skills, and the psychological wounds they both carried with them. All those qualities still bind them, even as their marriage, over time, has grown contentious and often ugly.
What makes this production unique?
PB: Edward Albee’s ability to hold all the complicated feelings that human beings have and exhibit towards one another is beyond brilliant. He writes with virtuosic intelligence, sensitivity, and scathing humor. And all of the actors who are cast in these four roles—as the middle-aged George and Martha and the younger Nick and Honey—have to bring that same intelligence, humor and sensitivity to their performances. And courage, because it’s what the play demands of anyone playing these parts.
It’s a tall order, and that is what I was looking for and found in the four wonderful actors whom I cast: Daniel Jenkins as George, Tasha Lawrence as Martha, Dylan Meyers as Nick, and Claire Sabatine as Honey. We’re in the thick of rehearsals now and loving every minute of it, as grueling as it often is. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? demands that we hold a mirror up to ourselves, even as we the audience watch the characters go at each other, in delight and often horror.
For more theater, take a look at TABLE‘s spring performance roundup.
Graphic courtesy of Pittsburgh Public Theater
Photo still of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
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