You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The National Theatre’s revival of Albee’s excoriating marital drama, written in 1962 and performed most notably on film by the real life couple of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, played to full houses and five star reviews in the late Spring of 2017, demonstrating the undiminished
relevance of the consequences in private and public relationships of merging truth and illusion—the central preoccupation of the play. No doubt the timing of the production was influenced by the death of Albee last Autumn, but given the real life political dramas that continue to be played out over “spin” and “alternative facts” there is an uncanny political timeliness to this revival, and one that allows the play to be read as social commentary, not just as the anatomy of a high conflict marriage stripped down to its marrow.
The drama plays out in real time in the early hours of the morning following a faculty party hosted by Martha’s father, principal of the university. Martha’s husband, George, was supposed to have been the whizz kid academic to head the history department, but now in his forties has disappointed Martha’s expectations and turned into what she describes as “a great big flop”. Arriving home after the party, Martha announces she has invited a newly-arrived young biologist and his wife, Nick and Honey, to have a nightcap—a couple who may have represented for her a carbon copy of their former, more hopeful selves. They are to witness, be a foil to, and ultimately become the side-lined victims of what must be one of, if not the, most visceral depictions of marital conflict. The rapier wit of the main protagonists, exchanged with humour as well as venom, leaves the audience in no doubt that they are spectators to a high stakes contest.
Some years ago, I used Albee’s play to illustrate how different forms of narcissism, attachment, states of mind, and trauma can contribute to abusive and violent relationships (Clulow, 2001). Then I was interested in exploring the dynamics