Part of Hastings Book Festival 2025
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf + Intro
Nominated in all categories for the Oscars on its release, over the course of a painful night, a bitter couple uses their houseguests as fuel for their emotional agony toward one another. Introduced by Roger Lewis, author of Erotic Vagrancy.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast includes: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton
With introduction from Roger Lewis, author of erotic vagrancy
131 mins / 1966 / USA
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were a '60s supercharged couple. As a pairing they were fantasy figures, impossibly desirable. Liz supple and soft, in perfumes and furs - yet with something demonic and lethal about her. Dick, in turn, with his ravaged, handsome face, looked as though lit by silver moonlight - poised to turn into a wolf.
In Erotic Vagrancy, Roger Lewis uses this glamorous and damaged pair as the starting point to tell the story of an age of excess: the freaks and groupies, the private jets and jewels and the yachts sailing in an azure sea; the magnificent bad taste and greed. It is about the clash of worlds: the filth and decay of South Wales and the grandeur and elegance of Old Hollywood; the fantasies we have about film stars and the fantasies the Burtons had about each other.
Apart from its widespread critical acclaim, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf provoked more discussion, interest and excitement than any other picture in memory at the time of its first release. Nominated in all categories for the Oscars that year, people wanted to see it - in unprecedented numbers and its first engagements it shattered every record in the history of all theatres involved. The film has become a significant and extraordinary entertainment event. It is truly a unique motion picture that showcases the Taylor/Burton dynamic like no other.
We are delighted to welcome Roger Lewis to introduce the film and take questions and sign books after the screening.
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