Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1962 play by Edward Albee
Book · Open Library
- Author
- Edward Albee
- First published
- 1962
- Editions
- 51
- Subjects
- Plays, American drama, English drama, Married people, Drama, Marriage, College teachers, Husband and wife
via Open Library
Key facts
- Written by
- Edward Albee
- Characters
- Martha George Nick Honey
- Date premiered
- October 13, 1962
- Place premiered
- Broadway – Billy Rose Theatre
- Original language
- English
- Subject
- Marital strife
- Genre
- Drama
~25 min read
Article
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive unwitting younger couple Nick and Honey as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship.
The three-act play normally takes just under three hours to perform, with two 10 minute intermissions. The title is a pun on the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from Walt Disney's Three Little Pigs (1933), substituting the name of the celebrated English author Virginia Woolf. Martha and George repeatedly sing this version of the song throughout the play.