Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 Curve, Leicester

23^rd October, 2025

“Martha's a devil with language. She really is”

In the middle of the night, we’re invited to spend a few hours of fun and games with history professor George and his wife Martha, along with a young couple they’ve invited back for an after party. As the play progresses the reality of their academic and liberal life becomes increasingly precarious and we spiral into their claustrophobic, booze-fuelled world of bitterness and disappointment. Cathy Tyson and Patrick Robinson give powerhouse performances in this timely Made at Curve production directed by Cara Nolan.

Edward Albee’s 1962 Tony winning play is an American classic up there with Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire. What’s staggering then is that it was his first full length three-act play. We’re in a small New England college town: respectable, liberal, full of young blonde-haired optimism. These values are characterised by the younger married couple Honey (Tilly Steele) and Nick (George Kemp) when they first enter the home of George (Robinson) and Martha (Tyson). What they walk in to is a world of explosive arguments, manipulation and failed dreams. George is a struggling associate history professor unable to have lived up to his father in law’s (who is head of the college) expectations. Martha torments him, reminding him of his failures every chance she gets, whilst living her own fantasy life fuelled by alcohol. The title alludes to a parlour game at the party earlier in the evening, becoming a motif, sung childishly throughout the play. As Nick and Honey are toyed with, becoming embroiled in George and Martha's cruel games, we are similarly drawn into their trickery and backbiting, the rug repeatedly being pulled from under our feet. Albee’s dialogue is rhythmic and cyclical, full of squabbling and revelations that are delicious to watch. Martha and George turn everything from heartache and painful memories, indeed marriage itself, into a game.

As the play progresses, Albee destabilises the ideals of marriage and the American Dream: career success, the nuclear family, a stable marriage. At a time when America is looking in the mirror at those values, its identity and its Dream, Nolan’s production couldn’t be timelier. Her direction is well-paced and revels in the vitriol of Albee’s language, drawing out excellent performances from the cast. Tyson in particular is quite the force as Martha, bringing out her monstrous cruelty, her ability to exploit George, but also evoking a well of pain underneath. There are points, like when describing someone’s eye colour, where she’s undermining George and relishing every word. And there are other moments, like the guttural scream she produces in the third act after George pops the bubble of her make-believe world, where we sympathise with her. Robinson has a natural stage presence, making George’s dry wit and glibness Martha’s perfect match; I loved the way he offered to pour Martha another glass of rubbing alcohol. And Steele gives a standout performance as Honey: initially meek and passive, she gains confidence the more sloshed she gets, revealing the cracks in her and Nick’s seemingly perfect marriage. This is all played out on Amy Jane Cook’s set: a handsome living room strewn with books and peppered with liquor bottles squirreled away in dark corners and bookshelves.

There’s delight in watching these four actors give towering performances as characters who refuse to conform to domestic expectations and instead embrace their inner chaos. Over the three hours 20 minutes running time, bottles are broken, alcohol spilt and mascara runs, but Nolan and her cast keep the audience on the edge of their seats with Albee’s vision of a shattered American dream and marital disharmony.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is playing at Curve until 8^th November. For more information, please visit https://www.curveonline.co.uk/whats-on/shows/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/

(L-R) George Kemp (Nick), Tilly Steele (Honey), Patrick Robinson (George), Cathy Tyson (Martha) - Photography by Marc Brenner