Power couple return for Albee classic
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? little did he know that, soon after, he was going to have to step into the loafers of one of its leads.
“I first saw Saartjie’s translation at the 2013 Aardklop National Arts Festival in Potchefstroom. It had just debuted there and at the time Andre Jacobs was still playing the part of George,” the veteran stage and screen actor recalls.
Directed by this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, Christiaan Olwagen ( Dogma, Doll’s House), Wie’s Bang vir Virginia Woolf? arrives at the Fugard for its first-ever (limited) theatre run from July 28 – August 8.
Performed with English subtitles, the production is designed by Jaco Bouwer (Balbesit, Rooiland), and features costumes by Birrie le Roux, lighting by Wolf Britz as well as sound by the star of the Fugard’s current musical hit, Cabaret’s Charl-Johan Lingenfelder.
“The first time I remember seeing Virginia Woolf was actually the Mike Nichols 1966 film with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Later on, during my Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT) years, I also saw it staged with Michael McCabe and Jacqui Singer in the lead.”
Describing the script as “special” and “a classic”, Weyers goes on to say that he therefore jumped at the opportunity to join this Olwagen-directed version when offered the role a mere two months after seeing it at Aardklop.
“Andre was offered an opportunity to star in the American pirate television series Black Sails, which films here in Cape Town. It is a great opportunity, and one that no one blames him for taking up.
“And although it certainly was not easy for me to join the team at such a late stage, George was likewise the kind of role that I, too, could not say no to.”
Weyers has since toured along with the production to various other festivals, including the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK) in Oudtshoorn and US Woordfees in Stellenbosch. Starring alongside him are original cast members Sandra Prinsloo (playing the part of Martha), Wessel Pretorius (Nick) and Greta Pietersen (Honey).
“It’s much easier now, but for the first stretch I had my work cut out for me, because there wasn’t a lot of time to catch up.”
As an actor, Weyers says he leans traditionally more towards creating his characters organically, as opposed to being told from the outset what their motivations are and, therefore, how they should react on stage.
“With Virginia Woolf, however, this was not possible as all other aspects of the production was already ironed out and workshopped into a routine on stage. So it came down to learning my lines and directions as fast as possible, really.”
“Because Albee is such a thorough, clever writer his script at first appeared like a massive mountain in front of me. I remember reading it for the first time and thinking, ‘God, this George never stops talking!’”
Simultaneously, Wyers also had to learn and rehearse for Vir Ewig en Altyd, Hennie van Greunen’s adaption of Tom Holloway’s And No More Shall We Part. To get the job done, he says, he had to adopt the strategy of “eating an elephant”.
“You just have to do it bite for bite. Line for line. So I fell into this routine of learning Vir Ewig en Altyd in the mornings, Virginia Woolf in the afternoons, and then off to rehearsals in the evenings.
“Luckily, as it turned out, Sandra was also in Vir Ewig en Altyd. We’ve know each other for a long time, and first appeared on stage together over 30 years ago.
“Similar to our characters on stage, we share a real history together. This helped a tremendous amount when it came to jumping into all the work, and her involvement was a major reason for me taking on both productions.”
Set on the campus of a small university, Wie’s Bang vir Virginia Woolf? takes place over the course of one night in the sitting room of academics George and Martha. Spread over three acts, the plot sees them being joined by a new young professor and his ditsy wife following a party during which everyone had too much too drink.
“This is a play about a dysfunctional relationship between a man and a woman, who, somehow in the midst of all their chaos, have found a way to coexist with one another. You see it sometimes in couples, you know, this feeding off each other’s negativity.
“George and Martha still love each other, I think, even though this ‘love’ may be a bit lost. We get to see everything, after many years of being built up, finally come to an end. All the games they play, all the insults they trade and all the lies they’ve told; after this there is no going back.”
Strangely enough, however, Weyers has always believed that the play’s ending with a twist symbolised something positive, a sort of rebirth for the couple.
“It’s a good thing. This elaborate, intricate lie they’ve built up finally gets shattered, yes. But there can only be a new beginning after that for these two. How long it’s going to last this time, of course, is another story altogether.”
Tickets: R90 – R180, 0861 915 8000.