Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? : a play / by Edward Albee.

New York, N.Y. : New American Library, 1983, ©1962.

242 pages ; 18 cm

BEIN Zab AL14 962We: Paperbound. Number line on title page verso indicates 1st printing: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. From the Jonathan Dodd Collection of Edward Albee, Stephen Sondheim, and Tennessee Williams.

Audiences at the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? were keenly aware that they were witnessing the transformation of a promising playwright into a figure of world importance, through a play clearly destined to become a modern classic. Time has richly borne out this view. This dazzling work of gut-wrenching dark comedy presents perhaps the most memorable of married couples, George and Martha, in a searing night of dangerous fun and games with a pawnlike other couple who innocently become their weapons in the savaging of each other and of their life together. By the evening's end, a stunning, almost unbearable revelation provides a climactic shock of recognition at the bond and bondage of their love. In its superlative construction, in its mastery of razor-honed dialogue and emotional crescendo, and above all in its power to strip away layer after layer of a social pretense to expose the naked nerve of truth, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is one of the most riveting and unforgettable experiences of the American theater.

English

February 21, 2020