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I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture GabFest Hump the Host edition. It's Wednesday, February 13th, 2013. On today's show, Edward Albee's play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf has turned in probably 50 years old, and it's been revived, and we the Gab Fest crew went to go see it. And then we discussed the death of Aaron Swartz, the young internet hacktivist. And finally, we finally talk about the movie Lincoln in the run-up to the Oscar telecast. Joining me today is Slate's film critic Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana. Hey, Stephen. It's been a while, I feel like, somehow. Because you were away last week. I filled in your shoes. But wait, if you filled my shoes, who filled your shoes? There were just a pair of empty shoes in there. Because mine are easy to fill, and yours are impossible to fill. Thank you. And joining me today is a slate contributor, June Thomas. June, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Steve.

It's such a pleasure to see you. It's such a pleasure to be talking about this specific topic with you. Oh, my Lord. Before we get into ullulating collectively over this production, which I sort of assume we're going to do, let me briefly set it up by saying,

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a play by Edward Albee, premiered 50 years ago this past October.

It absolutely destroyed and remade people's sense of the possibilities for American theater.

I believe it was one of the first productions to liberally use the word fuck.

For that and for other shocking reasons, it was denied the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

It's won virtually every other conceivable award, and it's now a permanent part of the American repertory.

Very briefly, for people who haven't seen it, it takes place over the course of a single night during which a college professor named George and his wife named Martha.

Banter back and forth, though I would say banter is not precisely the right word.

They spar, they bait, they taunt, and in general torment one another.

One quickly gets the sense that this is the household routine, but on this particular night,

it's for the benefit of a young couple.

They've invited back to their house with them after an academic party. As the nightcap bleeds into the wee hours

of the morning, George and Martha, draw the young and unsuspecting couple into their verbal and

eventually sexual gamesmanship. The new production is courtesy of the Steppenwolf Theater

company. It stars Tracy Letts as George.

...