Holden Street Theatre Company have produced some incredible theatre over the past few years. Their current production, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, is another one of these theatrical gems.
The production, directed by Peter Goers, features an incredible South Australian cast: Martha Lott as Martha, Chris Asimos as Nick, Jessica Corrie as Honey and Brant Eustice as George.
Brant Eustice is no stranger to the South Australian stages, having appeared in numerous productions and receiving a long list of accolades for his work. Brant spoke to Glam Adelaide about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, character development and what it is about performing that keeps drawing him back to the stage.
“I love the whole thing from the beginning to the performance. The process of developing a character is great fun because there’s research, that whole element of creating the production both as an individual, creating your own interpretation of the character and then collaborating with others. Working collaboratively is one of the best things in theatre. The number of people that are involved in any production all working together to a common goal is great.”
Brant has played so many different types of roles over the years. We asked him what prep he does going in a show and its rehearsals.
“That really depends entirely on the play and the character itself. For Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, I read a book about the whole creation of the play and its history as well as the film, which was interesting. I don’t know if it really had any bearing on how I’m playing the role, particularly, but I love doing research into the works I’m doing. A lot of the other research is within the script itself — when you’re reading the script, what does the character say, what do other characters say about them, what do they say about other characters, what are their attitudes, and that sort of thing. This is all sort of sub-textual research to look at why they behave in that manner, why they say that.”
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was first staged in October 1962 and famously adapted for film in 1966. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive unwitting younger couple Nick and Honey as guests and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship.
Brant shared with Glam Adelaide what it is about the play that drew him to be part of this production.
“I love the play and I have been fortunate to have played George previously. I believe it is just one of the greatest pieces of writing that exists in the theatre world, as could be said of any of Edward Albee’s plays. One of the things about Edward Albee is he’s done so much work for you because he’s so precise with his punctuation and word choices and word orders. As an actor, to work with this sort of material is just an absolute joy.”
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Is now playing in The Studio at Holden Street Theatres until 16 August, 2025.
“I can’t wait for audiences to get immersed into the world and be taken on the crazy journey of this play, of these people being outrageous to each other. I just hope that people get as much joy from the play as we do in performing it, because so far in rehearsals we’re really loving getting to work with each other and with this text and with Peter Goers as a director. It’s been a very exciting and fulfilling experience.”
Tickets on sale now at: http://holdenstreettheatres.com/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf
Photo credit: Toni Lee
