Fun and Games. Walpurgisnacht. The Exorcism.

Edward Albee’s titles for the three act of his Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are more than editorial guidance or mood board inspirations. They’re the goalposts.

Director Sarah Goodes’ staging, originally created for Red Stitch Theatre’s 80-seat venue in Melbourne in 2023 and now remade for big rooms (Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre in 2024 and now Sydney’s Roslyn Packer), unerringly splits the sticks. 

Goodes introduces her main characters outside the frame of the show. An already-sauced Martha (Kat Stewart) and George (David Whiteley) make their first appearance in the balcony loge of the theatre. They exit and re-enter through the auditorium side door. Martha’s boozy cackling will become a leitmotif; George’s exasperation likewise. They step up to the stage, into the heavily draped, four-sided frame — and the play begins.

Kat Stewart and David Whiteley in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Photo © Prudence Upton

From the start, they seem a combustible combination: Stewart’s lithe, pouting Martha is a blowtorch; Whiteley’s George, a tinder-dry wit. It’s only a matter of time before one of the sparks they strike turns into a wildfire. Indeed,...