This is not my first time around with this play - I previously saw the 2007 West end production with Kathleen Turner, Bill Irwin, David Harbor, and Michelle Enos, in which Turner's husky vocals, Irwin's physical skills, Harbour's all-American square-jawed determination and Enos's confusion brought Albee's drama across in a skilled production that hit all the notes brutally. Albee's play is a close-up view of an American marriage circa 1962, pre-feminism when wives determined their status by the status or lack thereof of their husbands, and in private marriages were battles of attrition as the disappointments were given full air. It was controversial at the time (being selected for the Pulitzer prize by the drama jury board but overruled by the awards advisory board due to the obscene language and sexual references), and it's still startling to see characters be this vicious with one another. It's a surprisingly balanced four-hander too - Nick and Honey are not just the victims set up to be baited, mocked, and discarded by George and Martha - they're independent players with their own complexities in their relationship emerging over the course of the show.
Close is, of course, perfection - able to turn on a dime from angry sarcasm to genuine hurt, boozily sarcastic but still able to aim her quips so caustic you could scour a pan with them with precision. You feel every inch of her frustration at living in the shadow of her father, at being trapped with her professionally disappointing husband, at her possible liberation with the hunky new biology teacher, and eventually her shattering in the finale. Sparks is every bit her equal, building from his initial exhaustion and mild-mannered nature to a truly demonic smile at the end of act one, very much willing to join battle and play the game to its only possible finish. Josh Wiseman gives a Nick who starts as a slightly off-centred guest before proving himself arrogant enough to think he's able to match with George and Martha, only to realise just how far they're willing to go. Karina Hudson's Honey is a delight with a Disney Princess voice (it's almost Snow White, sunny and optimistic), drunk out of her mind most of the time but with occasional hints that she's not quite as naive as the world's led her to appear.
Cate Clelland directs on a 3 sided thrust (along the lines of the Ensemble stage in Sydney), bringing the audience ringside for the battle, allowing an intimacy which allows every breath and eye-glance to register. It's a shattering long-night-of-the-soul for the cast and audience, and one where, well, you should not miss a chance to see Andrea Close, Michael Sparks, Karina Hudson, and Josh Wiseman, playing at this level of intensity in a classic that feels immediate and intense.
They were terrific.
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