is one of the most popular plays by an American playwright, ranked with any by Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, or Tennessee Williams.

If Arsenic and Old Lace is playing somewhere in the world today, so, too, must Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? be on the boards.

Edward Albee has produced his own version in Manhattan with a text revised to the standards contemporary with the production date. While all rights for productions in the New York City metropolitain area remain with Mr. Albee, it is produced elsewhere over the continent and throughout the world.

In one year, a production was noted for Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho, another was scheduled to be by Patrick Stewart, a.k.a. John-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise (Sadly, it did not come about. Another director, who missed the religious overtones of the play, directed this London production with Diana Rigg. It missed too much of what the drama is about, despite Ms. Rigg's presence.)

This presentation attempts to place Albee's work in the mainstream of drama, from the time of the Attic Greeks to the present, not as "black comedy," a serious misnomer too-often used, but as the pure tragic drama of the mid-Twentieth Century that has made this work one of the all-time masterpieces of dramatic literatire. By comparing Albee's text and the original stage production with Ernest Lehman's filmic version as directed by Mike Nichols, we learn the full range of elements that contribute to the play's popularity.

This entire presentation is copyright © 1968 and © 1999 by William Allin Storrer. Phd. For permission to quote, contact Dr. Storrer at mindalive@storrer.com

A Comparison of Edward Albee's

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

as Drama and as Film

by

William Allin Storrer, PhD.

To access a chapter, click on its title. This will bring up a web page with the full text and footnotes.

CHAPTER

I. ARTIFACTS OF DRAMA AND FILM.

II. A STORY OF COLLEGE LIFE: THE DRAMA.

III. CLASSIC TRAGEDY: THE DRAMA .

IV. TRUTH VERSUS ILLUSION: THE DRAMA .

V. MARTHA AND GEORGE WASHINGTON,

SYMBOLS OF THE DECLINE OF THE WEST: THE DRAMA

VI. APPROACHING THE FILM.

VII. A STORY OF COLLEGE LIFE: THE FILM.

VIII. CLASSIC TRAGEDY: THE FILM.

IX. TRUTH VERSUS ILLUSION: THE FILM.

X. MARTHA AND GEORGE WASHINGTON,

SYMBOLS OF THE DECLINE OF THE WEST: THE FILM.

Xl. STAGWOOLF AND CINEWOOLF COMPARED: CONCLUSIONS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

APPENDIX A. DETAIL OF TEXTUAL CHANGES FROM DRAMA TO FILM

APPENDIX B. DESCRIPTION OF THE FILM BY SEQUENCES, FOR PURPOSES OF

IDENTIFICATION AND DISCUSSION.