Just got the DVD and wayched it last night. The similarities to Albees, Virgina Woolf are uncany. I am certain Albee must have seen this in his youth and left an impression he could not ignore.
Anyone else aware of this?
JUST CHECKED
I was wrong. Virgina Woolf was first performed in 1962, Seanceon a Wet Afternoon was released in 1964. It is possible that Albee had read the book which influenced him.
I was thinking the same thing as I was watching Seance on a Wet Afternoon this evening. I kinda figured that Virgina Wolf was an ode to this movie but did not realize that both movies/plays were so close together. Its actually interesting to think of both as two different treatments of the same theme. With seance, the tragic treatment, there is a kinda catharsis at the ending particularly with Billy *SPOILERS* as he 'saves' the little girl while implicating himself and his wife in the crime. With 'Virginia Wolf', the comic treatment, when we find out the impetus behind Martha and Georges behavior but there is no resolution. The ending gives you the feeling like its played out before and it will play out again the same way. You laugh at something when you are powerless to change it. Interesting parallels.
shareYou are correct, Sir (or Madam). The similarities are uncanny.
shareThe comparison is very apt. First thing I thought about this movie when watching it last night.
My accountant says, "1 + 1, 40% of the time, equals divorce".
I thought exactly the same thing. The plot points are very similar: a domineering, demented wife who is ultimately taken down by her own delusions at the hand of her put-upon husband; the central character in both works is a never-seen child of dubious validity.
shareSheer coincidence and not much of that anyway. The model for George and Martha were a major couple in the New York art world and famous for their knock-down drag-out fights.
shareThe model for George and Martha were a major couple in the New York art world and famous for their knock-down drag-out fights.Who were they?
"In an interview, Albee acknowledged that he based the characters of Martha and George on his good friends, New York socialites Willard Maas and Marie Menken."
Because Albee was gay the critical attempts to see George and Martha as two men is a cheap and easy lie. The very theme of childbearing = life is central to the play and needs a heterosexual couple. Granted gay couples can real bitch up a storm from my experience!
Because Albee was gay the critical attempts to see George and Martha as two men is a cheap and easy lie
The very theme of childbearing = life is central to the play and needs a heterosexual couple
Yes, a childless couple having some sort of mind games over a child who is dead or non-existent. That is an obvious similarity. The Seance on a Wet Afternoon is based on a book by Mark McShane that was published in 1961, a year earlier than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Is it possible that the author of the Who's Afraid was influenced by that?
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