The sharply written, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" comes to us by way of Edward Albee. Published in 1961 it became one of those classics everyone remembers and many can quote. The play was originally thought too hot for the public due to its suggestive sexuality. Today it's tame fare.

The tale may have hit the stage in the 1960s, but the basis of the account remains affective. Directed by Meredith King, the play is a sad trek of a couple engaged in marital disharmony. The three-hour, two-intermission play, allows the audience to observe the unraveling of a long-term, empty, and unloving relationship. The writing is strong and requires strong players.

The play tells the tale of a non-stop argument between husband and wife liberally lubricated by alcohol. In fact, the evening is an exercise in alcoholic excess. George (Tom Ammon) is a professor of history at the college run by his father-in-law. George and wife Martha (Sarah Shoshana David) slice and dice one another over everything; George's failing to head the history department; Martha's flaw in fidelity and respect. The love they shared decades before has evaporated into tendrils of spite and venom.

On this single occasion, Martha invites newly hired science professor Nick (Jeff Wimett) and his wife Honey (Megan Wilson) to their apartment for a nightcap. She doesn't care that it's 2 a.m. and they had just left a party. She wants to please Daddy so the bar is open. Nick and Honey agree to visit but find that they have stumbled into a maelstrom of resentment and hostility that swallows them whole. The rage Martha feels for George comes out in bitter notes. George retaliates with growing apathy and rage. Caught in the game of the evening, "Let's Get the Guests," Nick and Honey become targets of opportunity.

Martha is written to have claws and a never-ending appetite to chow down on George, her daily banquet. She's contemptuous of her academic anemic and is relentless in humiliating him. Martha is a multi-dimensional dynamo and David presents her in a single dimension, letting her own talent diminish through a piercing volume.

Ammon's George comes across more dominant, though the focus belongs to Martha. George is likable. He is witty and snappish. He doesn't spare Martha. He's resigned to a lifelong contest of wills. David and Ammon show some chemistry in the first act but mostly they have a militant marriage that thrives on conflict. Today, they'd simply divorce.

Enter Wimett and Wilson as Nick and Honey. Nick has self confidence and has no problem facing George. Honey arrives tipsy and endeavors to get tipsier through the free flow of brandy. Wimett plays Nick as a sounding board and opponent to George's cynicisms. He meets Martha's bravado head on. Wilson understood Honey's simple complexity and engages her just as simply.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" plays at the Northside Theatre Company through May 11. The theater is located at 848 E. William St., San Jose. For box office and reservation information, call 288-7820 or go online at northside8@hotmail.com.

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W. Fred Crow is a local music director and frequent attendee of the arts. Contact him at wfredcrow@yahoo.com.