Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2016) is a theatre production by Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre), based on the play by Edward Albee. The production is performed at the theatre's main stage.
Kim Bjarke directs it.
Linn Skåber and Sven Nordin interpreted the roles of Martha and George.
Information
(Objekt ID 54982)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | September 1, 2016 |
| Produced by | Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre) |
| Based on | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee |
| Audience | Adults |
| Language | Norwegian |
| Keywords | Drama, Theatre |
| Running period | September 1, 2016 |
"After a party the middle-aged university couple Martha and George invite the young couple Nick and Honey to an afterparty with nightly 'party games'. The games develop into a marriage fight on life and death, in an orgy of drunkenness, horniness, lies and humiliation."
SOURCE:
Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre), www.oslonye.no, 08.05.16, http://oslonye.no/hvem-er-redd-for-virginia-woolf/
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Edward Albee | – Playwright |
| Kim Bjarke | – Direction |
| Tone Johnsen | – Dramaturge |
| Siri Løkholm Ramberg | – Dramaturge |
| Milja Salovaara | – Stage design |
| Milja Salovaara | – Costume design |
| Øyvind Wangensteen | – Lighting design |
| Eldar Skar | – Actor (Nick) |
| Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes | – Actor (Honey) |
| Sven Nordin | – Actor (George) |
| Linn Skåber | – Actor (Martha) |
| Julie A. Clark | – Mask design |
| September 1, 2016 – Hovedscenen (The Main Stage), Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre) | Opening night |
"Imagine staring into the abyss. A snickering face stares back. This is the effect of Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre)'s new interpretation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In any case, that is how it is for large shares of the time. A boisterous tone signals that this is entertainment, nothing to be afraid of. (...) A bit too long, sound level is mistaken for intensity, and the actors seem to be playing for laughs. A discomforting laugh, an uncomfortable laugh? The kind of laugh to delight and pain at the same time, to be felt as brutal, because one feels the cost? No, that important it isn't, that deep it doesn't go, not this once. For that, the form is to light, the expression too external."
Øystein Dahl Johansen, Utmattende etterfest (literally: Exhausting afterparty), VG September 2 2016:
"If you are only going to one afterparty this year, go to Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre)! (...) This is disturbing, sparkling theatre that will long be felt for those lucky enough to get a ticket. I have tried, but I have yet not found a dead zone during the three hours the play lasts. (...) Much, the very most in this production, rests on the four actors. The timing between them is tremendous, but what fascinates the most is the way they nuance and surprise absolutely all the way. It is intensive, but never nagging, emotional, but never sentimentally soapy."
"When this classic marriage drama from 1962 still unfolds like a flower (approximately like a carnivorous plant) on theatre stages all over the world, it is because everyone can recognise some of it and most can think 'at least, it's not quite as bad with us'. Albee wants to say something about the impossibility of living together without the Ibsenian life-lie as a survival mechanism, and about how entertaining other people's misery can be. (...) So streamlined and seamless the voices float between them - lines, situations, pauses, aggression, forced calm - that it, at times, seem too practiced. While they in increasing intoxication build and build toward their respective Pyrrhus victories, the humour isn't always funny enough, or the tragedy deep enough. Towards the end it reaches the bottom - where the despair is so limitless, in particular with Linn Skåber, that it pulls the heartstrings."