Why Is Albee Estate Afraid Of A Black Nick?
Mark Harris looks at the controversy of casting a black actor as Nick in Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and breaks down the reasons why the policies need to change: ‘It is the job of the Albee estate to protect his property. But barring an African-American actor from playing Nick inevitably leads to the question: Protect it from what? Misinterpretation? Changing times and mores? The future? It’s hard to imagine a playwright’s work long surviving him if it’s shackled to the unexamined enforcement of questionable decisions from another era, or constrained by the terror that it might be mishandled. Who’s afraid of a new idea? Nobody who truly believes in their work, or wants it to last.’
