Considered by many to be the
masterpiece of
American playwright Edward Albee, written in
1962.
Martha and George invite (well, Martha does the inviting) Nick and
Honey, two
neophytes at their
university faculty, over for a few drinks. The scene quickly deteriorates into a genuine
Walpurgisnacht, a
hedonistic brawl of
intellect and
imagination where no-one gets out without a scar or two. The script (which is, quite possibly, bloody
brilliant) is
fraught with
intertextuality, shameless
puns and
gags, and more creative
insults than you thought possible in the space of its pages.
Some
themes include:
In
1966 director Mike Nichols turned it into a
film, starring
Elizabeth Taylor,
Richard Burton,
Sandy Dennis, and
George Segal. Out of its many
nominations,
Elizabeth Taylor won
Best Actress at the 1967
Oscars, and
Sandy Dennis won
Best Supporting Actress. The film also
cleaned up at the
BAFTA awards, and remains a
classic to both
film nuts and
theatre nuts to this day.