Edward Albee, who was born in Washington in 1928, describes a bitter marriage war between Martha and George, which develops under the intoxication of a lot of alcohol. The two have already drunk a lot with friends and let the night end with George’s new colleague and his wife at home. Unhindered by more and more alcohol, George and Martha present their guests with the deep wounds they have inflicted on each other in long years of marriage. He feels that his wife shows him to the unexpected guests and starts to set back. The two pull the clearly younger couple into a whirlpool of contempt, sadism and interdependence.
Great desire for mischievous arguments
»I am very keen on mischievous arguments. We all like to watch that on TV, «says director Ulrike Maack, who is staging for the second time at the Paderborn Theater. In March the piece “From Now” premiered.
There are new and old faces in the cast of Albees piece: Tim Tölke as a permanent Paderborn ensemble member plays the young colleague Nick, whose wife is embodied by Pornpailin Distakul. It is her first engagement ever after she graduated from the drama school in Hamburg.
For the role of Martha, Josephine Mayer returns to Paderborn as a guest actress. Her husband George is played by Herbert Schäfer from Munich, who last played in Shakespeare’s “What You Want” at the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg in 2017.
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The piece has several levels that not everyone has to understand and not everyone can understand.
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Incidentally, Edward Albee named the older couple after the American couple George Washington and his wife. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Is a generation-long production of experienced to young performers. »The topic is war in marriage. There is a lot of alcohol, a lot of dirty laundry and unpleasant secrets, «says dramaturge Daniel Thierjung. The facade of the bourgeois dream is being deconstructed: “With great linguistic virtuosity and a great dash of black humor,” emphasizes Thierjung.
It’s also about illusion and reality
However, director Ulrike Maack does not want to understand Albee’s play as a pure comedy: »That would be on the wrong track. The piece has several levels that not everyone has to understand and not everyone can understand, ”she explains. It is not just about dirty laundry that is washed, but also about illusion and reality. One topic is the son invented jointly by George and Martha, who creates an interpersonal reality. The basic requirement for this interaction is a coalition between George and Martha.
Both couples are childless and, according to Maack, stand for infertility in societies that are only focused on having. The director likes the author’s stance: “Let’s look at things as they are and treat them with humor.”
Filmed in 1966 with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
She emphasizes: »No noise has to be made to be understood. That’s how I like to work. Albee was a great writer. His pieces elude easy access. «Irmgard Kersting is responsible for the costumes. The stage design is designed by Eylien König.
The bitter marriage satire “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” brought Edward Albee a powerful career boost, which in 1962 made him the undisputed star in the American theater scene in one fell swoop. It was filmed in 1966 with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
However, Albee’s world career as a playwright began in Berlin in 1959. There his play “Die Zoogeschichte” was performed at the Schillertheater after it had been rejected by American theaters.
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