For its upcoming return season, Red Stitch's lauded production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? has been upgraded to a commercial theatre – a first in the company’s 23-year history.
Bryget Chrisfield sits down with real-life couple Kat Stewart (Martha) and David Whiteley (George) as well as director Sarah Goodes to unpack the enduring appeal of the classic play Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
- A strictly limited season from 29 June
- Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition Street
- Starring Logie and AFI Award winner Kat Stewart (Underbelly, Offspring, Disgraced, Heisenberg)
- Directed by Helpmann Award winner Sarah Goodes (Sunday, The Children, Julia)
- Tickets here
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Last year, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? was a runaway success, selling out before it opened. Almost six months later, this Sarah Goodes-directed work – featuring the original Red Stitch ensemble cast of Kat Stewart (Martha), David Whiteley (George), Emily Goddard (Honey) and Harvey Zielinski (Nick) – is relocating to the commercial main stage of Comedy Theatre (capacity: 1,000) for its second run.
“Someone made a joke about [how] the last season was amazing, and we did it all on the size of a bath mat,” Kat Stewart beams, referencing Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?’s former home at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre’s 81-capacity venue in East St Kilda.
David Whiteley, Stewart’s partner in life (and also this production of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?), shares, “Sarah [Goodes] was saying the setting of the Comedy Theatre is really sympathetic to the play and to the era that it’s set in. It’s very much that classic period.”
“She called it suburban baroque,” Stewart chimes in. “So I guess that whole experience will start for the audience when they go through the Comedy Theatre’s doors; they’ll be put in the era.”
Prior to sitting down with Stewart and Whiteley in the lounge area of Princess Theatre – just around the corner from Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?’s new home at Comedy Theatre – we interviewed Goodes in an adjoining room. “What an amazing thing that we’re now getting to see these classic plays in these beautiful old classic theatres,” she extols. “People are really flocking to the theatre at the moment, and so wouldn’t it be great if we had a little off-Broadway and a Broadway here [in Australia]!”
Goodes and Stewart had been wanting to work together “for ages”, the director says, but when this project came up she admits she was “worried about how relevant it would be, for now”. “I rang Kat and said, ‘What do you think?’ And she said, ‘I’m really interested in doing a play about female rage,’ and I went, ‘You’re on!’ And then I read it – and Kat and I are both the same age as Martha – and you look at Martha and you go, ‘Oh, I know what’s going on for you’.”
Of the audition process, Goodes recalls, “I remember when I did this audition scene with Harvey [Zielinski] and Emily [Goddard] and these two [Stewart and Whiteley], afterwards we all went [pauses, wide-eyed] – it was slippery and murky and dangerous, and really exciting. It was really good. I was like, ‘Well, I don’t need to see anyone else!’ People always talk about George and Martha, but it’s a real ensemble piece.”
“We’re in such good hands with Sarah Goodes,” Stewart enthuses. “She’s a director I’ve been wanting to work with for years and she has given this play a very fresh lens… So many people have said to us that – in this production – it’s the first time that they’ve really appreciated the journeys of Nick and Honey, as well. Emily Goddard and Harvey Zielinski are phenomenal. And the fact that we’re all back [for the play’s return season] – it’s a really great ensemble.”
“It means that every moment sings; even the smallest moment,” Whiteley concurs. “I mean, Emily’s character is the most underwritten of all of them, but she’s so amazing in that character. She brings it to life and brings a degree of empathy I don’t think I’ve seen before.” Stewart agrees, “I know, she absolutely breaks your heart.”
Whiteley is a founding ensemble member of Red Stitch, which is where he first crossed paths with his future wife. “Dave auditioned me for Red Stitch back in 2002,” Stewart enlightens. When asked what she auditioned with, she hesitates: “It was a monologue from a play called Hush by April de Angelis, I think. A play that probably never made it to Australia.” Stewart clearly nailed it, then. “She did! She nailed it,” Whiteley recounts. “She left the room and we went, ‘YES!’…”
“And then I forgot my handbag!” Stewart interjects, laughing. “That’s right on-brand, anyway – forgetting my handbag.” Whiteley continues: “And then she popped her head back in and said, ‘I just forgot my handbag. I can’t actually get home’.”
Stewart and Whiteley have two young children, Archie and Gigi. Archie, their 12-year-old son, actually watched his parents starring in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?’s debut season late last year. And? “Well, he said he wasn’t mentally equipped to deal with it,” Whiteley reveals.
“They were his words!” Stewart clarifies, chuckling. “Gigi’s definitely too young [to see the play]. She was really funny – ‘cause they hear us muttering lines to ourselves at home, we don’t tend to run them together. But I remember being in the car with the kids and Gigi calling Archie a cluck, which is something that Martha calls George.”
Given that Stewart and Whiteley are married, we’re tipping they didn’t need an intimacy coordinator. “We did, actually,” Goodes clarifies, “just because it’s quite violent. It’s really interesting navigating a real-life couple [as a director] and it’s strange, you sort of just feel it and know it, but you don’t really talk about it that much, you know? But occasionally you go, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s right. You guys have to go home together!’ [laughs] I’ve always wondered whether they’ve had a few quiet car trips home.”
Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? runs for a strictly limited three-week return season from 29 June at Comedy Theatre. Get tickets here while they last.
This article was made in partnership with GWB Entertainment.
