THIS 'WOOLF' REVIVAL HOWLS.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Theater Critic

Even the most ghoulish among us will take little delight in seeing a vastly overmatched opponent systematically getting his clock cleaned. Choose your bloodsport: boxing, sumo, pitbull fighting ... who wants to see a loser lose?

Ah, but seeing an underdog make a match of it ... now there's something worth watching. Oddly enough, the same principle holds true for romantic matters. When a person isn't expected to be any kind of a lover, what a delightful surprise to discover something boiling.

Which is a key reason why the revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" -- on tour at the Ahmanson Theatre -- plays as smartly as it does. Portraying a husband and wife who are accomplished at the art of psychological warfare, Bill Irwin shouldn't be able to fight, while Kathleen Turner shouldn't have a teardrop's worth of tenderness.

Yet he can, and she does. And director Anthony Page masterfully understands how equally balanced the play's hurt and heat need to be. The ability of Irwin's George to get in touch with his inner assassin is as heartening as Martha's (Turner's) drunken third-act-

opening admission -- after a failed tryst, no less -- that her husband is her only love.

The power to shock

Heartening and, yes, still amazingly shocking even though many of us will know what's coming. This is "Virginia Woolf," after all. How many Georges and Marthas have danced this dance before?

Classic line

The game is afoot from the opening moments when George and Martha stumble through the front door of their New England house. "What a dump," says Martha, surveying her house, evaluating her life and searching for a movie reference all at once. Then she starts tidying, by tucking strewn bits of clothing under the sofa cushions. The furniture is appropriately worn in John Lee Beatty's set, befitting a couple in stasis. Nice touch with the LP rack.

It's past 2 a.m., and husband and wife have returned from a party. George is inclined to call it a night, but Martha has invited guests for a nightcap. George protests, but he doesn't fight. More liquor, the first of many refills, flows.

Quick first impressions are, of course, deceiving. Martha's resentment and nastiness (Turner isn't the "brayer" that some Marthas are) gradually kicks in with the booze. And Irwin, whose clowning career has established him as a master of communicating through silence, makes George the consummate stealth bomber. You can tell by his movement that the henpecked university professor -- whose lack of advancement and ambition has long rankled his wife -- is out of place even in his own home.

Then the guests arrive, and the first act's promised "fun and games" really begin.

"Virginia Woolf" is not to be treated as a star-vehicle, two-character play in which the younger couple is merely a reluctant witness to the George-Martha massacre.

Page gets these characters right, too. David Furr's Nick, the studly young biology professor, quickly establishes the smugness that makes Nick so threatening to George and such catnip to Martha. Furr plays the character dim but not doltish. The man thinks he can hold his own with Martha. He's quite mistaken.

As Nick's wife Honey, Kathleen Early transcends the limitations of playing a character who is A) dismissed as "mousy" and B) drunk through the majority of the play. As "Virginia Woolf" moves deeper into the night, it's Early's Honey who best reflects the audience's ache over what we're witnessing.

And exactly what are we seeing? Exorcism? Role reversal? Day of reckoning? I like to believe it's the latter, that George and Martha have not spent the past umpteen years enacting scenes like this as a kind of cracked foreplay. Perhaps this is the night when George finally talks himself into using something stronger than a toy gun, and that it takes George's action to finally crack Martha open and let the poison leech out.

A tough Turner

The two headliners certainly play things this way. Turner, 50ish and deglamorized, leans harder on Martha's toughness than on any hint of seductiveness. In those tricky later scenes, when the illusion is firmly stripped away, it's Martha who is left exposed and Irwin's George who -- still quiet -- is in control.

Yes, ultimately he can mix it up. And she can admit that he's not the total failure she thought she married. This "Woolf" burns hotly for these realizations.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

[e-mail]

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? - Three and one half stars

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through March 18.

Tickets: $20 to $80. [phone].

In a nutshell: A psychological bloodbath with a better than standard sense that redemption is possible.

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Photo:

Emotions run high for George (Bill Irwin) and Martha (Kathleen Turner) in the revival of Edward Albee's classic "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at the Ahmanson Theatre.