Pinky Amador Stars in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ for Singapore’s Pangdemonium
Singaporean theater company Pangdemonium, founded by Adrian and Tracie Pang in 2010, is staging Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the KC Arts Centre in Singapore, running from June 7 to 23.
Directed by Timothy Koh, the story follows the middle-aged and unhappily married couple George and Martha, who come home inebriated from a late-night party when a couple arrives at their doorstep. Young, sexy, and new in town, the surprise guests– Nick and Honey– are everything that George and Martha are not.
What follows is an evening of dangerous mind games and reckless antics fueled by drink and driven by spite, unraveling bitter rivalries and long buried secrets.
Amador takes on the role of Martha, playing opposite Daniel Jenkins as George. They are joined by Salif Hardie as Nick and Ching Shu Yi as Honey.
According to the company, the play is “a visceral exploration of the human psyche, part dark comedy, and part love story, laying bare the primal capacity to hurt those we hold dearest.”
Last seen on the Philippine stage playing The Angel in Atlantis Theatrical’s Angels in America in 2019, Amador says, “I don’t think anything could have prepared us for the intensity and grit-laden script of Edward Albee.”
Like any new role she takes on, Amador did extensive research, from reading the script to watching the 1966 film with Elizabeth Taylor, to listening to the Spotify recording of the Original Broadway production starring Uta Hagen, and watching the Imelda Staunton National Theatre video on YouTube. She also mentioned that they spent seven to eight days just analyzing the script during table work.
Celebrating her 41st year in the acting business this year, Amador considers Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? one for the books. “Apart from it being my theatrical comeback (and on an international stage at that), it is definitely up there, juggling in ranking between first and second spot playing Piaf with Atlantis Theatricals.”
She further explains, “The script is quite complex, and the characters are very intense, so if your mind wanders for just a millisecond, it will show. It is a very challenging, bizarre, provocative, emotional show to mount, but I think our director Tim Koh did an awesome job, together with the other creatives of the show in terms of design, sound, lighting, costume, hair and makeup, etc.”
What can audiences take away from the show? “The play mostly deals with relationships in (and out of) marriage and how complicated, toxic and co-dependent they can be, realities which are still relevant to this very day,” says Amador. “I hope audiences will learn to have more ease in confronting their issues within themselves and with others and learn to take a real hard and brave look at where they are. It also deals with reality and illusion, and in today’s setting of “fake news,” rings a lot of bells!”
Who’s Afraid of Virginia first opened on Broadway on October 13, 1962, where it won the Tony Award for Best Play, Best Actress in a Play for Uta Hagen as Martha, Best Actor in a Play for Arthur Hill as George, and Best Director of a Play for Alan Schneider.
A film adaptation was released in 1966 starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis.
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