Nothing to fear but mind games and marital strife in ‘Who’s Afraid’

Marital strife is naturally dramatic. But few make it as bitterly entertaining as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

The modern masterpiece by American playwright Edward Albee will be the next work tackled in the Gallo Center Repertory Company’s inaugural season. The show opens Friday, March 10, and will run through the weekend at the Gallo Center for the Arts.

Albee’s Tony-winning “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is set in a New England university town in 1963. It also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize that same year, but the board took issue with the play’s profane language and sexual situations and failed to hand out an award for drama that year. It was later famously turned into a feature film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

“The content was shocking at the time, not just because of the language but because of the portrait it gave of American family life. It showed that all is not well under the surface,” said Gallo Center Rep Artistic Director Jim Johnson, who will direct the piece.

The Modesto production, which revolves around two married couples who come together for a late-night drink after a university party, stars some of the area’s most accomplished actors. Dwight Mahabir and Kathleen Ennis play the show’s central couple, George and Martha. Mahabir has worked extensively with Sankofa Theatre Company in shows such as “Piano Lessons” and “Looking Over the President’s Shoulder” and Modesto Performing Arts in past shows “The King and I” and “Phantom of the Opera.” Ennis is the co-founder of the Prospect Theater Project and serves on its board of directors as well as a regular company member, most recently appearing in last season’s “The Clean House.”

Rounding out the cast are Joe Hypes and Raquel Ruelas as young couple Nick and Honey, who come to visit George and Martha for a nightcap. Hypes performed with Gallo Repertory in the show “The Exonerated” last summer as well as for Playhouse Merced and Prospect Theater Project. Ruelas is the artistic director at Murphys Creek Theatre and Executive Director of the Mountain Youth and Community Theatre in Sonora.

“It’s such a challenging show for actors to take on. It really requires experienced actors willing to be vulnerable,” Johnson said. “It’s a difficult play, but I think people (who come) will experience some of the finest acting they’ve seen in the area.”

As the marital mayhem unfolds between George, a history professor, and Martha, the daughter of the university president, strife and secrets are exposed. When Nick, a new professor at the college, and his wife Honey, come calling, the couple’s gamesmanship intensifies as they draw them into the drama.

“It’s an emotionally taxing piece. It’s kind of like being stuck in a marital squabble for three hours,” Ruelas said.

While the setting is mid-20th Century America, Ruelas said the story is a timeless one.

“Everything in this play is about relationships. So no matter when it is staged, it is still so relatable to relationships,” she said. “It asks why do people stay in volatile relationships?”

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Nothing to fear but mind games and marital strife in ‘Who’s Afraid’."