Provocative Playwright
A classic scene by the late Edward Albee
In honor of the recent passing of the great American playwright Edward Albee, PROVOKR presents a snippet from one of his greatest works, 1963’s Tony award-winning Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The play centers on the volatile marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George (played by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the film), who invite a younger couple, Nick and Honey (George Segal and Sandy Dennis), into their home for drinks. At first Nick and Honey watch as Martha and George verbally spar, but then the couple get enmeshed in the domestic drama. Martha attempts to seduce Nick, who is game to cuckold George as an act of revenge for his boorish behavior. Unfortunately, it turns out that Nick has had too much to drink to consummate the act. The following scene—the text is from the play, the video from the film—takes place after that awkward encounter.
Nick: Where is your husband?
Martha: He is vanished.
Nick: You’re all crazy. Nuts!
Martha: ’Tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world…sits too heavy on our tiny heads. Relax! Sink into it. You’re no better than anybody else.
Nick: I think I am.
Martha: You’re certainly a flop in some departments.
Nick: What’d you say?
Martha: I said you’re a flop in some departments.
Nick: I’m sorry you’re disappointed. Maybe some time when I didn’t drink for ten hours.
Martha: Baby, you sure are a flop!
Nick: You’re something. You know that? You’re really something! To you, everybody’s a flop! Your husband’s a flop, I’m a flop.
Martha: You’re all flops. I am the Earth Mother and you are all flops…I disgust me…There’s only been one man in my life who’s ever made me happy. You know that? One.
Nick: The gym instructor or something?
Martha: No, no, no, no. George. [pause] My husband?
Nick: You’re kidding.
Martha: Am I?
Nick: You must be! Him?
Martha: Yep.
Nick: George, sure!
Martha: You don’t believe it.
Nick: Well, of course I do!
Martha: You always deal in appearances?
Nick: Oh, for God’s sake.
Martha: George, who is out somewhere there in the dark. Who is good to me. Whom I revile. Who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them. Who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy. Yes, I do wish to be happy. George and Martha — sad, sad, sad.
Nick (echoing, still not believing): Sad.
Martha: Whom I will not forgive for having come to rest, for having seen me and having said, “Yes, this will do”. Who has made the hideous, the hurting, the insulting mistake of loving… me. And must be punished for it. George and Martha — sad, sad, sad.
Nick (puzzled): Sad.
Martha: …who tolerates, which is intolerable; who is kind, which is cruel; who understands, which is beyond comprehension.
Nick: George and Martha: sad, sad, sad.
Martha: Some day…hah! some night…some stupid, liquor-ridden night…I will go too far…and I’ll either break the man’s back…or push him off for good…which is what I deserve.
Nick: I don’t think he’s got a vertebra intact.
