Review: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Soho Place

Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup are a terrifying and terrific pairing in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Soho Place. The play is set at an after-party early in the morning at Martha (Anderson) and university professor George’s (Crudup) house, with a young married couple, Nick (Josh Dillon) and Honey (Phoebe Horn). But for Martha and George, conversation is a duel. Their words become weapons delivered as probes, pushes and outright attacks. There is intimacy in the fighting. They know each other so well they know just how far to go, the lines to reach and sometimes cross. They live within a fantasy, a series of games or illusions of their own invention that are about survival just as much as cruelty. At the start of the play, their interactions hint at flirtation, suggesting it’s necessary to their love. It’s what keeps them going. Gillian Anderson is feisty but contained compared to what is to come. With more drink and a change of outfit, the gloves come off. Her…