Quite possibly the most high profile Canadian theatre production of the year, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Canadian Stage is a big, flashy production complete with high profile script, household names, a totally unnecessary rotating stage, and even a last minute behind the scenes shakeup. But despite its theatrical event status and its general proficiency, the production itself feels somewhat uneventful. It’s a good play performed by good actors but I’m always looking for something I can tell an average non-theatre-goer they have to see and I fear, high though its profile may be, this is not that.

Off the top let’s address that Paul Gross and Martha Burns are very good. They’re always very good and the lack of star system in Canadian theatre really does elevate the moderately famous couple to a rare status that gives seeing them live that extra little zing. Gross’ casual affect and and screen-sized manner contrasts well with his wife’s innate theatricality as the play’s central couple though the heat never rises quite high enough in their major moments of conflict and I never quite believed there was any real danger between them. The giant stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre doesn’t help, giving the couple far too much breathing room when they should be smothering each other.

The secondary pair was meant to be played by another real life couple and much of the show’s marketing was based around the bland gimmick. Neither the soulful Hailey Gillis nor her fiery partner Mac Fyfe felt like particularly insightful casting as giddy Honey and her apologetic husband Nick so it doesn’t seem all that consequential that Fyfe had to pull out of the production last minute for a medical issue. In fact, on opening night, Nick replacement Rylan Wilkie performed the role with less than two weeks notice and fared perfectly fine. Wilkie navigated performing with a script in hand and made it easy for the audience to forget it was there. Though the last minute switch did mean his performance wasn’t quite as fleshed out or unique as might otherwise have been the case, the change ultimately highlighted how uninteresting the secondary characters are, regardless of the marketability of the performers.

At the end of the day, your mileage with this production comes down to the simple math equation of Albee + Gross + Burns. Nothing new or particularly interesting is mined from Albee’s famous text (zippy and sharp with an eye roller of an act three twist) and Gross & Burns deliver exactly to their standard within established archetypes. It’s not bad by any means but I’m wary of declaring it the theatrical event of the year when there are eleven months to go and hopefully someone somewhere has something surprising up their sleeve.