The Sheila Variations

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ....

I made my way to the theatre last night, in the mild drizzle, slogging my way through the unbelievably dense play-going crowds. I never get over the excitement, first of all, of just going to the theatre, and I felt that quite a bit last night. I love it. I love the whole ritual of it. Even if the show sucks, I still love the ritual.

I was in the second balcony. The nosebleed seats. I thought of Vertigo.

However, it didn't matter. This is what is extraordinary to me about truly effective stage acting. I was almost in the back of the theatre, high up and way back, and yet ... it was as though the actors were doing the entire thing in close-up for me. So I know that they were completely aware of us up in that second balcony, and were making sure that we got the performance too. If you've ever sat in the back of a large theatre, and watched a movie actor try to get his performance to you and fail, you will know what an amazing accomplishment it is.

The performances were broad, huge, sweeping - and yet still completely personal. How that magic occurs is one of the reasons why I'm a theatre addict, and why I love to do plays myself.

Kathleen Turner is magnificent. But what I loved the best about the production was that there was an equal balance, completely, between the 4 actors. Now this also is very rare these days, when plays like this are set up to be "star vehicles", and the show is made to ride on the performance of one person. Brian Dennehy in Death of a Salesman was a great example. In order for the show to work, Dennehy had to be good. And frankly, he was NOT. The guy who played his young arrogant boss (a Chicago actor, I am proud to say) acted Dennehy off the stage. So there wasn't that nice balance. A play like that has to be an ensemble piece. Same with Virginia Woolf. If all of them aren't good, then it won't work.

So Kathleen Turner was wonderful, but WHY she was wonderful was because everybody around her was also fantastic. She wasn't acting by herself. Bill Irwin was incredible. And the two secondary characters, who get caught in the web of George and Martha, were so GREAT. Mireille Enos, who played Honey, gives what I would call a star-making performance. The way she comes undone over the night ... I was blown away by her. Not only did she get a laugh pretty much every time she opened her mouth, but in the revelation scene at the very end, when George decides to play "Get the Guests" and begins to tell the story of Honey's life as though it is a bed-time story (which reveals to Honey that her husband has told all her secrets to this stranger) - and by that point, Honey's hair is coming down, she is WASTED, she can barely speak, but as the story goes on, and she keeps making vague drunken comments like, "This sounds really familiar" or "I know these people" - finally she realizes what has happened. And her response - it was one of those moments in theatre that you never forget (because it's so rare). She turned to her husband and said, "You told them?" He starts to bluster about, and she then starts to attack him, not just crying, but screaming with rage and embarrassment - a primal moment - beating at him: "YOU TOLD THEM - YOU TOLD THEM - WHY WHY WHY ..." The way she did this, and where her voice went ... was so full of pain and horror that my throat clenched up involuntarily, and sympathetic tears filled my eyes. It was a spontaneous response, a spontaneous moment of feeling that woman's pain, 5 million miles below on the stage. Her emotions carried across to me - it was REAL.

That chick is the real deal. A great acting turn.

Watching Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin spar was at the same time hilariously fun and also exhausting - because those two characters LIVE to wear each other out, and to wear out any audience. They are relentless. I loved the humor the two of them found. Well, and also Albee's script itself is pretty much high comedy. It's awful, and it's painful, but it's also hysterical.

Kathleen Turner found all the right notes. She was vulgar, embarrassing - she was extremely convincing as a hardened drunk who could drink anyone under the table - but then at the end, when George "goes too far" - her devastation was so real and so awful - she had one moment where she cried out, as she kind of collapsed onto the floor - "Oh NO" which was so raw, and so naked, that you were embarrassed for her. (This is a high high compliment.) Kathleen Turner was not protecting her image, she wasn't up there doing "a star turn", she wasn't trying to show us she was still sexy, she could still get the guy ... she was up there as Martha. It was an amazingly humble performance.

A common mistake in playing Martha is to completely capture the vulgar loud "braying", and the bitchiness, and how mean she is - but not being able to capture the shattered girl inside this woman, not being able to fully do that final scene where she is devastated at the loss of her fantasy. The last lines of the play -

George, singing to her, trying to make her laugh using her own joke from the first act : "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf ..."

Her response is: "I am, George. I am."

If you hire an actress who can ONLY do big bitch-goddess, then that last scene will not work.

Kathleen Turner's acting in that last scene was vulnerable enough to make you want to turn away from her in respect - like, you would never want to witness someone who has just lost everything, you would want to give them their privacy in that terrible moment. Her acting in that last moment was like that.

The curtain calls, too, were an indication of the spirit behind this production. At the end of the play, the curtain fell - and when it rose again, the 4 actors stood there together, and took bows together. As the applause went on, Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin stepped back a bit, and let the two other actors bow together. After their bows, they stepped back, and Turner and Irwin stepped forward and bowed together. Then, they all joined hands, as a group - and bowed one last time together.

Kathleen Turner did not get her own bow. They did not hold her back until the very end, after everyone else's bows, and then have her come trotting out, by herself, to glory in her own success, while the other members of the ensemble stand behind her, clapping for her. (That was how Brian Dennehy's bow was in Salesman.) No. Kathleen Turner bowed with the group. If the play is a success, it is because of ALL of them, not just her. It is not a personal success for Ms. Turner. It is a success for everyone involved.

And what Ben Brantley said in his review is spot on. She has indeed developed into a deep and powerful stage actress. Her work in movies was always very broad - she never played introspective inward-looking characters, her performances never relied on many closeups. Her acting is BIG. (Uhm, Prizzi's Honor, mkay?) And so there she was, miles away from me on that stage, and yet - despite the distance - I could feel what she was feeling. I could see every nuance that passed by her face, fleeting thoughts, sudden bursts of laughter, moments of intense irritation. Her talent is amazingly generous. She isn't interested in being subtle, or hiding her gift - it is OUT there.

But what was greatest of all was her submission to the ensemble. She was a part of the ensemble, a collaborator - she was "in the cast". So often movie stars breeze back into Broadway, and take up starring roles in plays, and you never get the sense that they are actually a part of the production. Their egos won't allow that.

Kathleen Turner's ego was completely submerged into the personality of Martha. It's a glorious triumph for her, and I found the entire evening intensely moving.

Posted by sheila