Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at 60: Elizabeth Taylor still crackles with feral energy
After a long day at work, we may not instinctively leap to films about toxic marriages and relationship breakdowns – but by God they can make good drama.Blue Valentine, The Squid and the Whale and A Separation are some of the great portraits of love turned septic.But perhaps greatest of all is Mike Nichols’ directorial debut – a sizzling adaptation of Edward Albee’s legendary Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which arrived in 1966, four years after the play, and helped cement it in the zeitgeist.The film was nominated for every eligible Academy award and won five, including best actress for Elizabeth Taylor, who delivers a searing performance as the ferocious yet vulnerable Martha.It’s lost none of its gut-busting charge today and her brilliantly performed experience still crackles with emotional electricity.
The drama takes place over the course of one long booze and bile-filled evening between Martha and her husband, George, played by an equally astonishing Richard Burton.Watching him and Taylor go at it is a masterclass in screen acting – if not a bit unpleasant.It doesn’t take long for the principal characters to start sniping, and things get very nasty very quickly.Take, for example, their equivalent of pillow talk: lying in bed, Martha tells George “you’re going bald”, to which he responds “so are you” – and not in a gently ribbing way.When she tells him she can drink him under the table, he shoots back: “There isn’t an abomination award going that you haven’t won.
”Their dynamic in these early scenes is testy, even volcanic, but nothing compared with what’s coming when they’re joined later in the evening by a much younger married couple: Nick (George Segal) – who works in the same university as George – and Honey (Sandy Dennis),It’s perhaps not Martha and George’s finest hour, though it’s hard to imagine them as paragons of virtue even while sober,In fact, they’re living testaments to that old saying: “misery likes company”,These are not people who are prepared to drink by themselves or sit and stew; they want to share their pain and bring others down with them,There are only four characters, with one very interesting exception: Martha and George’s son, whose presence hangs over everything despite him never being named or seen – or even existing.
Early on, Martha mentions him to Honey, telling her that his 16th birthday is the following day.This upsets George, and we later realise that merely mentioning their son betrays a special pact between them.It’s famously revealed, deep into the runtime, that this son is a fiction shared between them: a protective shield, perhaps, distracting them from their loneliness and emotional seclusion.The meaning of this twist, though, is up for grabs, enabling all sorts of readings about the story’s metaphorical essence.The Guardian’s Michael Billington described it as being in part about “the stock American theme of truth and illusion”, arguing that Nichols’ film stamped the play “in the public mind as a liquor-fuelled marital slugfest”, pushing critical readings away from its commentaries about the state of America.
Maybe that was inevitable, given the immediacy of the film format compared with the very literal distance between the audience and the actors in stage productions,Nichols does indeed get right up in the characters’ faces,Sometimes the frame moves slowly, and sometimes in sharp and unexpected ways; sometimes the camera is fixed and sometimes it swings madly about,Always, the staging feels closely tuned to the performers, sometimes very uncomfortably so; you can practically smell the rancidness of their breath,Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is available to stream on HBO Max in Australia and available to rent in Australia, the UK and the US.
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US Postal Service to introduce 8% fuel surcharge on packages
The US Postal Service (USPS) plans to introduce its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages to offset rising energy costs, according to a statement.The surcharge, set at 8%, is expected to take effect on 26 April and remain in place until 17 January 2027, under the current plan.Packages under Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select will be affected by the surcharge.“Transportation costs have been increasing, and our competitors have reacted with a number of surcharges,” reads the statement by the USPS. “We have steadfastly avoided surcharges and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone, so even with this change, the Postal Service continues to offer great value in shipping with some of the lowest rates in the industrialized world
Rising profit margins turbocharged Australia’s latest inflation figures – but something worse is just around the corner | Greg Jericho
It is rare for economic data to be out of date the moment it is published – and yet that is the case with the February inflation figures out on Wednesday at 11.30am. By 11.31am they had been digested and ignored amid a flurry of “before the full impact of the Iran war” comments.In February, annual inflation was 3
Meta and YouTube designed addictive products that harmed young people, jury finds
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Record investment in quantum computing talent | Letter
Dr Simon Williams (Letters, 19 March) writes that ambition in quantum computing cannot succeed without sustained investment in people and fundamental science. He is correct on that point, but wrong to say that UK’s investment plans risk losing quantum computing talent.The UK’s advantageous position in quantum has only emerged through sustained long-term public investment from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and partners into fundamental physics research projects, and the best people, infrastructure and partnerships. It is through this that the UK is poised to reap the benefits of the quantum revolution.In the last 10 years, UKRI’s councils have made investments in physics research, supporting hundreds of academics and building the foundation for where we are today
Jessica Pegula left frustrated as Elena Rybakina roars back to reach Miami last four
Jessica Pegula had her chances. Midway through the second set of yet another showdown with Elena Rybakina, the American had engineered a flawless start. After bulldozing through the opening set, Pegula’s level at the beginning of set two put her in with a fair shot of snatching a win against her Kazakhstani opponent, who has dominated their recent meetings.Instead, Pegula departed Miami with another tough lesson to parse through after being shown once again that the best players in the world pounce on even the smallest drops in intensity. Despite her mediocre start, Rybakina produced a brilliant comeback to reach the Miami Open semi-finals with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win
NBA expansion explained: teams in Vegas and Seattle, LeBron’s role and hungry billionaires
The NBA has moved a step closer to adding teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.The league’s board of governors met this week and voted to explore bids and applicants for teams exclusively in those two cities, beginning the process for its first expansion in more than two decades. Bids are expected to be in the $7bn to $10bn range per franchise.Commissioner Adam Silver had previously described this year as a target for a decision on expanding the 30-team league, which last added a new franchise in 2004. The league will now evaluate bids over the next several months
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