Stay Afraid of Virginia Woolf

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Stay Afraid of Virginia Woolf

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By Ben Elliott

March 15th, 2024

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Time has not dulled Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It’s tense. Bruising. Fifty-eight years later, it’s still difficult to spend an evening with George and Martha.

So why revisit it? Why do we keep reliving the same awful night over and over?

First, there's what's on screen. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are forces of nature in Woolf, fueling their performances with their own real-life, complicated relationship dynamics. The fact that George Segal and Sandy Dennis aren’t completely blown off the screen says everything about the subtle complexity they bring to the roles of Nick and Honey, George and Martha’s seemingly innocent guests.

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All of this is captured by Haskell Wexler’s unrelenting cinematography and guided by Nichols' electric and suspenseful directing choices. That same level of thought and artistry is in every aspect of this movie — it’s little surprise that Woolf is only the second movie in history to be nominated in every category it was eligible for at the Academy Awards.

But it’s the story of how Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? made it to the screen that really cements its legacy in Hollywood. Edward Albee’s liberal use of profane and vulgar language in his play left most assuming it could never be adapted into a movie. So when screenwriter Ernest Lehman decided to keep Albee’s dialogue more or less intact, it was immediately controversial: Both the Catholic League of Motion Pictures and the nascent MPAA threatened to withhold approval as the movie went into production.

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But filming continued, and ultimately both groups backed down after the studio agreed to a few cuts and the condition that theaters showing the movie would prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from seeing it without adult supervision. This process directly led to the creation of the MPAA’s rating system, which is still in place today.

It might seem odd that a rating system that’s become synonymous with sex and violence was brought about by a movie that’s essentially just four people talking. But Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is an adult movie — a movie for adults — through and through. It forces us to spend time in a messy darkness that most of us don’t want to acknowledge that we recognize in ourselves.

That’s why it’s so hard — and so crucial — to keep spending time with George and Martha.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? plays this Saturday at 3pm at The Triplex, followed by a conversation with Philip Gefter, author of the new book Cocktails with George and Martha: Marriage, Movies and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum. Copies of the book will be available for purchase in the lobby from our friends at The Bookloft.

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