If there is one person that every student has encountered, it is the crazy professor. He doesn’t win the popularity contests and is often underestimated by all of his students; he is absent minded, but brilliant. As students, it is often imagined that these eccentric educators have no personal life outside of the college.
In Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf a play by Edward Albee, a professor’s deteriorating personal life is shown in a dark yet hilarious manner. It is being showcased by the director Randy Wolfe at the Whole Arts Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo.
George, played by Richard Philpot, is an associate professor of history at a small town college. He is married to Martha, Marti Philpot, the daughter of the college president. George and Martha invite the new, very young biology professor and his wife to their house after a faculty party at two in the morning. Drunkenly they insult, berate and toy with each other, as well as the guests, in a comedic way before the plot takes a more serious turn. George apologizes to the guests, “Martha and I are merely exercising… that’s all, we’re merely walking what’s left of our wits.”
Martha and George play games with one another to see who can get on top. Martha attacks George with a slew of names, “cluck”, “floozy”, “paunchy”, “swampy”, and the one that cut his pride “big flat flop”. With a bright red face and clenched fists, he violently throws and empty vodka bottle across the stage. Richard Philpot is perfect as the crazy professor pushed to his last nerve. His every facial movement and even the hunch of his back is believable, an especially difficult feat in a theatre in the round.
Three hours in a black, boxlike room in uncomfortable chairs listening to marital drama seems worse then lecture, but Virginia Woolf is theatre at its best. Using language such as “screw you” and “little bugger” the lines are delivered perfectly to shock and engage the audience. Not only are the lines well written, there is action! At one moment, George comes calmly onto the stage pointing a gun to Martha’s head. The guests scream and jump up in shock. He shoots and a red flag pops out of the gun. In a deadbeat tone, he says “pow”. The guests and the audience visibly relax, just to face another round of obscenity and profanity from Martha and George.
These hostile moments finally come grinding to a halt at the end of this crazy night. In these final moments, the death of an imaginary son occurs, the guests finally comprehend George and Martha’s games, and the illusions of their lives are set forward. It leads to the question, does everyone survive through illusions?
8 p.m. Feb. 22-23, 29 and March 1,
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