(Alfred Hicklings’article appeared in the Guardian, 9/27.)
There are pleasanter – and shorter – plays than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But a good production, which David Thacker's certainly is, becomes an almost spiritual experience: an alcoholic immersion from which you emerge feeling shriven. Edward Albee's concept is simple. Disaffected college professor George and his vituperative wife Martha roll home late one night from a faculty party, bringing with them a younger couple, Nick and Honey, in the spirit that a cat might drag a half-eaten mouse in off the lawn. What follows is an excruciating game of charades with self-explanatory names such as "humiliate the hosts", "hump the hostess" and "get the guests".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/sep/27/whos-afraid-virginia-woolf-review