Who's afraid of Virginia Woοlf?

Edward Albee

Welcome to the relationship jungle. Marriage is no longer sacred. Two couples. A long, wild, brutal night. A battle fought over cocktails. A legendary play, forever associated with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton thanks to the film of the same name, is to be staged at the Onassis Stegi as a “living museum” of behaviors from decades past.

Photo: Elina Giounanli

Let’s put an end to the illusions. Edward Albee asked us to do that back in 1962. From the 12th to the 30th December, on the Upper Stage of Onassis Stegi, two couples stay up late drinking copious quantities of alcohol. The party begins. Emotions bide their time, ready to set the sanctity of marriage, the very heart of Western civilization, ablaze. Knowledge is used to neutralize — and neuter — the other. In the living room-jungle, they set traps for each other and wait to snare their prey.

Maria Panourgia directs this classic American work free of illusions. She gives us a "stuffed" bourgeois sitting room full of relics of the past, and leaves the radio on. And as the murder of a child slowly comes to the surface, Maria Panourgia, with an outstanding cast featuring Konstantinos Avarikiotis, Lena Kitsopoulou, Giannis Papadopoulos, Stella Vogiatzaki, and a soundtrack by Blaine L. Reininger, invites us to view Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the play with which Albee rocked Sixties’ audiences, as a “living museum of behaviors past — a window on, and tribute to, homo sapiens and our headlong, desperate search for love down the millennia".

Credits

Translation: Jenny Mastoraki
Director: Maria Panourgia
Dramaturg: Tassos Koukoutas
Set Designer: Poulcheria Tzova
Costume Designer: Ioanna Tsami
Lighting Design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Movement: Zoe Hadjiantoniou
Music and Sound: Blaine L. Reininger
Assistant Director: Rania Kapetanaki
Costume Assistant: Kelly Papadopoulou
Hair Design: Chronis Tzimos
Costume Manufacture: Panagiota Tsompanaki
Special Constructions: Dimitra Kaisari
Digital Model: Nicol Chorinopoulou
Painting: Iasonas Kampanis, Katerina Psaradeli
Set Construction: Stelios Lampadarios
Surtitles Translation: Memi Katsoni
Simultaneous Surtitling: Yannis Papadakis
Cast: Konstantinos Avarikiotis (George), Lena Kitsopoulou (Martha), Yannis Papadopoulos (Nick), Stella Vogiatzaki (Honey)
Βehind the curtains: Narik Aidinian, Evdoxia Androulidaki, Myrto Kontoni, Alexandra Delitheou

Line Production: Blackbird production
Produced by: Onassis Stegi

At weekends 15-16 and 22-23 December 2018 with English surtitles

Edward Albee’s sardonic humor, psychoanalytical perspicacity and singular use of the absurd made him the greatest American playwright of his generation, the heir to Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. His very first theatrical work, the one-act "The Zoo Story" (1958), caused a stir. He won the Pulitzer Prize on three occasions, for "A delicate Balance" (1966), "Seascape" (1974) and "Three tall women" (1990) along with numerous other distinctions including a special Tony award for lifetime achievement (2005).

"Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" premiered in 1962 in New York, where it caused a stir, winning Tony and Drama Critics Circle awards.

In 1966, it was adapted for the cinema by Mike Nickols with a pair of leads legendary both for their performances and their own marital squabbles: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The film won two Oscars.

The work’s title is a play on the song "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?", which was heard for the first time in Walt Disney’s animated "Three Little Pigs" in 1933. Edward Albee replaced “wolf” with the name of the English writer and suicide Virginia Woolf, asking us to ponder “Who isn’t afraid of a life without illusions?"

"Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" remains his best-known work. As he said himself: “It has hung around my neck like a shining medal of some sort — really nice but a trifle onerous. Everyone was always asking me to write a new Who’s afraid... I never paid them any attention. You mustn't become an employee when you write something”.

About Maria Panourgia

Maria Panourgia could have been a painter but chose to be an actor, director and stage designer instead.

Born in Corinth, she studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and Acting at Akis Davis’ studio.

As an actor, she has worked with directors including Akis Davis, Ploutarchos Kaitatzis, Yorgos Kakanakis, Anna Dimitriadis, Albrecht Hirche, Elena Penga, Dimitris Mavrikios, Yorgos Lanthimos, Michael Marmarinos, Dimitris Nakos, Akyllas Karazisis, Sofia Vgenopoulou, Sotiris Hatzakis, Dimitris Karantzas, Thanassis Sarantos, Angela Brouskou, Michalis Konstantatos, Elli Papakonstantinou, Filippos Kanakaris, Dimitris Xanthopoulos, Haris Fragoulis and Yannis Skourletis.

She was one of the leads in the Russian director Konstantin Bogomolov’s production of Dostoyevsky’s The Demons, which received its world premiere at Onassis Stegi in 2017.

"Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is the fourth play she has directed and her first at Onassis Stegi. The three plays she has directed previously are "Minion, a Christmas Stor"y (Bios, 2013-2014), "The Master and Margarita, a picnic with the devil" (National Theater of Greece Experimental Stage, 2016) and "The legend of Saint Kartak and the little flower" (Athens Festival, 2017).