The title is the feminist corruption of the children’s song about the big bad wolf: with the play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” In 1962, American playwright Edward Albee wrote the most exciting genre battle in the history of modern theater. It’s unforgettable thanks to the colorful contributors of the 1966 film version, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Private marital hell, including alcohol addiction, worked as a fire accelerator on set, so that movie couple Martha and George tortured themselves to death in a nightly showdown in front of guests.
On Saturday, Bettina Riebesel and René Schwittay as Martha and George in the stables of the Hans Otto Theater recounted with all their might the timeless struggle for relationships in the bourgeois world of illusion in the United States as an evil pleasure.
Revelation of the most intimate desires
Martha and George are a couple of wealthy middle-aged professors who, despite their beautiful facade, are far from happy with each other. When the two come home a little tipsy one evening, Martha has invited guests against her husband’s will: the young biologist Nick and his wife, known as “Sweetie”. The explosive foundations for the evening have been laid, because the host couple’s relationship is not as free as it seems. Fueled by alcohol, the four reveal their innermost desires and life’s lies over the course of the night. A relentless marital war begins, in which everyone involved will soon stop at nothing.
Moritz Peters, who is no stranger to Hans Otto theater as a director, staged the drama largely with brutal severity. In a minimalist and uncomfortable home environment by Martha and George, which is more reminiscent of a bar (scenography: Juan León), couples collide like ice cubes in their glasses. First it creaks, then cracks. With each new crack that opens, empty relationships become visible, in which Martha and George’s story of the son who doesn’t even exist plays a role.
Strong cast
The gaze into the abyss of the human soul is profound. Albee’s game is often seen as a fun show tournament that causes fun bone. Moritz Peters staged the highly explosive atmosphere in Martha and George’s house as a chamber opera in which laughter, which is also there, gets stuck in your throat. Eventually, in a touchingly still scene, the couple lays down their battle of arms and discovers they are in love.
Bettina Riebesel plays Martha in a self-confident and dominant way. In her long red robe, she appears as a queen, underlining the character’s madness (costumes: Arianna Fantin). Her lack of control, her hunger for love, her flirtation with Nick, her transparent pathos and finally her loneliness are interpreted by Bettina Riebesel as great opera divas. In the almost sad ending, she becomes a vulnerable, normally ticking woman.
René Schwittay as his cynical intellectual opponent George – an arrogant historian and rampant rabble – also dominates the scene with confidence. Nadine Nollau as “Sweetie” and Jan Hallmann as Nick are in no way inferior to the two main opponents in terms of the intensity of the game and the rather helpless nature of their characters is well captured. The audience deservedly gave a warm welcome to the artists.
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