Vanguard Faces a Classic Conflict : Ensemble Seeks to Balance Dark, Light Sides of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’

After more than a month of six-day-a-week rehearsals preparing “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Vanguard Theatre Ensemble director Terry Gunkel decided to give his cast a break.

So he called off last Sunday’s run-through. It wasn’t because it was Father’s Day--the actors had agreed to work even on holidays--but because everybody was suffering a little fallout from Edward Albee’s explosive domestic drama.

“They were just drained by the experience,” Gunkel explained. “It requires a huge emotional commitment to do it right, huge emotional depth in an actor’s approach, and I could see that everyone was tired out.

“You ask them to get into their souls to do this the right way and that impact has an effect after a while. It was good to get away from it, to take a little time off.”

That’s how it goes when you take on a heavyweight. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” which previews at the Vanguard tonight and opens Friday, wears the title “classic” easily--it stands as one of the elite plays of the modern American theater.

“It’s such a great play, I’d put it up there with ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Death of a Salesman,’ ” said Gunkel, who also is the fledgling Vanguard’s artistic director.

“It describes something significant about the American experience in a timeless way. I think you could see this play in 100 years and it would still be relevant.”

First produced in New York in 1962, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” initially baffled some reviewers but went on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as best play. Its stature has continued to grow, resulting in hundreds of revivals across the country and an Oscar-winning 1966 movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as the incendiary middle-aged couple, George and Martha.

The plot has always been small-framed, but it holds jagged edges that can dig into an audience.

George, a boozing loser of a history professor, and his wife, Martha, a boozing harridan, go at it for more than two hours. Through some of the nastiest and darkly comic dialogue written in the ‘60s, they reveal a domestic disaster that is further upended when a young upstart biology instructor and his mousy wife show up.

“It’s a wild roller coaster, and at times a very depressing play,” Gunkel said. “It can be a difficult experience, and I think that my job is to capitalize on that but also put some life into it so the audience won’t be too worn out” by the end.

“I wanted to bring out the caustic humor, because the play can be very funny, and look for the ironic shadings. Of course, that has to be balanced by keeping in touch with the dark side.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge, Gunkel noted, is creating a bond between the viewer and George and Martha, not the most likable of characters. “We have to care about them, even while they rip each other to shreds. Without that connection, the audience won’t be interested in what happens to them.”

His take on George and Martha is that they represent an American ideal, albeit a perverse one (“I don’t think it’s coincidence that their names (remind us) of George and Martha Washington”). He also believes that there is a passionate love at the core of their unstable marriage.

“George isn’t just a gutless wimp; we have to understand how much he loves Martha and the choices he’s made because of that love,” Gunkel said. “And Martha isn’t just a braying, overbearing, drunken woman. We have to make her human, too.”

The play is the third in the Vanguard’s first season and, according to Gunkel, represents the ensemble’s toughest assignment yet. After opening with “To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday,” followed with George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man,” Albee’s drama “raises the stakes” for the Vanguard, he said.

“For one thing, this is a very well-known play, and people will come in with some expectations because of that. Also, just the complexity of it represents challenges.

“Really, I see this as a showcase piece for us because a lot of people are going to come with a ‘prove it now’ attitude. That’s fine, though, because I think we’re ready.”

* The Vanguard Theatre Ensemble’s production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” previews tonight and opens Friday. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. through July 25 at College Business Park, 699-A N. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Tickets: $8 (preview) and $10 to $14 (regular run). (714) 526-8007.