Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf is the play that made Edward Albee famous. It was first performed on October 13, 1962 and directed by Alan Schneider at The Billy Rose Theatre in New York City and was presented by Arthur Hill and Kermit Bloomgarden. It won the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. It follows the story of a middle aged married couple, George and Martha, who play games with each other that often turn into arguments. They play mind games on their guests, Honey and Nick.
Honey is naive enough to play along; however Nick sees through their antics. The play takes place over one night in 1962 after Martha’s birthday party (page 2). George is an associate history professor at University of Virginia which has seen better days financially because it must compete with other universities like Harvard and Yale for students (page 3). Although he’s not personally ambitious, his job depends on him publishing new work or getting promoted so he can earn more money than his wife which puts pressure on him to produce quality work.
He’s a history professor who teaches history the way literature might be taught, with emphasis on playwright Edward Albee’s style of play writing, which is to say taking it less seriously and having fun with it (page 3). Martha is from a well-off family in Alabama that has fallen into poverty since her father’s health deteriorated. Her mother had to take over his business and Martha had to work at a department store after she graduated high school. She ended up marrying George who was a friend of her brother’s because he promised he would take care of her financially if she did so (page 4).
When they married she left for college but came back when she became pregnant while studying in Greece (page 5). Honey is a young, beautiful, blonde woman who’s naive and young. She married her first love Nick at 22 after she dropped out of college to marry him (page 5). It was only later that they move up the east coast to work on Nick’s play adaptation for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. Honey has found herself exhausted lately especially since she became pregnant three months ago.
Because she believes George is one of the most brilliant playwrights alive, he constantly criticizes things about her which leads her to believe their marriage life must be failing. Nick is an English professor at University of Virginia who also teaches playwriting classes on top of his regular literature courses. He has just turned 50 and is writing plays full time. He married Honey when she was only 22 after dating for three years. He has always thought of her as a poor, naive plaything but the play shows him otherwise (page 5).
The play takes place over one night in 1962 after Martha’s birthday party. The play opens with George conversing with Nick about who is afraid of Virginia Woolf which is what Nick replies to George’s question of whether or not he would like another drink that evening. We learn this language because it will play an important part in the play later on (pages 6-7). After returning home from his wife’s birthday party, where he realizes their guests are getting tired of the games that Martha and him play (page 7), George gets into bed to share his thoughts with his wife.
They play a little mind game of their own in which she tries to get George to admit that he doesn’t love her anymore but he ends up revealing the opposite when he states, “I think I’m in love with you,” before falling asleep after a long day in bed together for what seems like the first time in years (page 8). George wakes up Martha from sleep when Nick and Honey arrive at their home for drinks later that evening. He makes it obvious that there is tension between them by saying things such as “You know how unreliable I am.
When they receive a telephone call from the university informing them of an emergency that will require George’s presence at work, Martha thinks that it is all a play to get her husband to leave the room so he can play mind games with them privately. However, when she walks into the kitchen after everyone agrees to play their game without him for now, Martha sees that he really has left (page 9). After Nick learns of the reason why George had to leave early, he yells at Martha for not telling him earlier about how his wife is pretty much failing in her classes.
She explains this away by saying it’s because she’s pregnant but then adds that if that were true then they would have seen more of her around campus since she was there taking care of things for her husband before she got pregnant. The play shows us that Nick and Martha were once lovers (page 10). Honey is startled when she finds out the truth about Nick and Martha’s past relationship. She feels like a fool for falling in love with someone who was involved in an affair with her husband’s best friend at one time even though he had moved on from Martha long ago (page 11).
He doesn’t exactly enjoy their presence either because they remind him too much of his playwright self early on, but he means well and tries to help them when they open up to him by talking about their marriage. They both realize how unhappy they are in their lives when George speaks directly to them instead of playing games with them anymore (pages 11-12). When Nick finally returns home that night, Honey tells him how she feels about all the things he revealed to her while at George and Martha’s.
He surprises her by telling her that she is one of the few people he has ever known who doesn’t play mind games with other people (page 13). George wakes up Martha again when he returns home after his long day of work so they can play another game together. She believes it will be their last game until they play again which is what she says every time they play but this time it seems as if she means it more than ever before (pages 14-15). Nick spends most of his five months away from them traveling around Europe for playwriting workshops until he decides to return home because he misses them both (page 17).
He returns to find that George and Martha play their games every night now instead of just once in a while. This time they play with him after Nick comes home for the evening (page 18). Honey reveals the truth behind her name when she tells Martha why she hates it so much – because her parents had named her after an alcoholic drink. She feels like people judge her whenever she meets someone new based off the meanings of the words that make up her name which is what makes it difficult for Honey to open up to other people (pages 21-22).