Introduction & Overview of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Introduction

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee's first full-length play and his first to appear on Broadway, is considered by many to be his greatest dramatic achievement, as well as a central work in the contemporary American theatre. Virginia Woolf focuses on an embittered academic couple who gradually draw a younger couple, freshly arrived from the Midwest, into their vicious games of mantal love-hatred. The play is a dramatic bloodsport fought with words rather than weapons—"verbal fencing," wrote Ruby Cohn m Edward Albee, "in the most adroit dialogue ever heard on the American stage." The play premiered October 13, 1962; at New York's Billy Rose Theatre and starred, in the roles of the battling husband and wife, Arthur Hill as George and Uta Hagen as Martha. The acclaimed production ran for 664 performances and led almost immediately to other successful productions throughout the United States and the world; the play...
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