Walpurgisnacht

Currently listening to: I Am a Cage by Right Away Great Captain

Once again, Half Price Books has seen me through. Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a production that I have seen in movie form, but have been told that reading it is much more fulfilling. I am already entranced by the facade presented by the main characters, George and Martha; they are very telling of the 50's and how wrong the "Leave It to Beaver" ideal was. It reminds me of a more comedic, yet still equally disturbing, image presented by Yates' Revolutionary Road. I also have seen the film version of this (Oscar buzz for Kate and Leo?) and it was also scathing of this decade and the falsities it presented. The post-war ideals have been mirrored in an ugly light in many works, and obviously hurt many family lives. The constant need to be seen as the infallible, beautiful family forced many people to be something that they weren't and led to self-degrading. Another book with serious overtones of this theme is The Hours. However, that book also presents many modern criticisms about the facades we live under today.
Anyways, I have made it to Act II, titled "Walpurgisnacht." This is a German word refers to the night before May Day, in that culture, a sort of Halloween, nightmarish sort of evening. It's pretty representative of the entire play thus far. These couples are just tearing at one another. At first it was just George and Martha (presidential reference, perhaps?) but now Nick is beginning to marvel on how he only married Honey because he thought she had a bun in the oven, so to speak. George and Martha keep referring to their son, and it's hard to tell if either he's dead or he doesn't exist and they're just making it up to egg their guests on. I don't exactly remember.
It funny, I just saw an episode of American Dad! where they play on this story. Not having seen the movie for so long, the show serves as my most recent point of reference, which throws me off. Either way, I won't lie, understanding the parody makes me feel kind of smart.