WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?–THE DANCE
When Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was first presented, in 1962, it was exciting theater. But time has not treated it well. Topics that were shocking in 1962–adultery, alcoholism, abortion, and marital game playing–may be greeted with a bit of a yawn these days. George and Martha’s wild manipulations of each other today seem an entirely theatrical construction, with no relationship to any conceivable heterosexual couple. Nevertheless, the play retains an increasingly campy appeal.
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Xsight! Performance Group, in this adaptation of the Albee play, frees it from its naturalistic straitjacket by peppering it with dance interludes. Xsight!, which has a reputation for sometimes preferring to shock rather than dance, may have been drawn initially to the play’s potential for camp. Although it doesn’t stint on outrageous stunts, happily Xsight! chooses to engage the text as well. The result is a dancers’ commentary on the play that demonstrates how dance, video, and music can illuminate its underlying themes.
One of the pleasures of Albee’s play is the push and pull of the conversations between George and Martha, with the struggle for power just below the surface. The other, wilder power plays are in many ways an absurdist heightening of the control issues in some marriages. Xsight! captures these conversational rhythms in clever movement. As Martha (Mary Ward) tries to remember the name of a Bette Davis movie, George (Timothy O’Slynne) lies curled at her feet, hugging her ankles. When she asks George a question, she falls backward; the momentum brings George to his knees while it cushions her fall. George grunts an answer and falls to the floor again, bringing Martha to her feet. The movement is a lovely visual metaphor for the imbalance of power in their relationship.
