“I have got more questions, at the moment, than I do answers about this piece, and I think we are all in the same boat on that front - but that is a really great place to begin from."

That's how the first day of rehearsals for the Playhouse production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? began, as the theatre's Artistic Director, Mike Tweddle, at the helm of the new project, greeted the full team for the very first time.

“It is a privilege that we will all have this time to investigate and explore a play that is this rich and this special, one that will gradually reveal itself to us, and also to our audience.”

A sea of creative people from across the country now filled the foyer early on Monday morning, brought together by The Playhouse, united by a shared excitement to be a part of the theatre's brand-new chapter.

“We are just delighted to be able to start to make this sort of work again for our audiences. A lot of rebuilding and regrowing has occurred to get us here and we are just thrilled to jump in!”

Gathering in a large circle, introductions were made across the cast, creative team, production, stage management and Playhouse team. In attendance were Katy Stephens, Matthew Pidgeon, Leah Haile and Ben Hall, who will collectively take to the stage in just over a month to bring Albee's iconic characters to life.

As the meet and greet drew to a close, Mike shared that, for him, this play is a "real love song to theatre" and, at its heart, "a laboratory of human behaviour".

"The audience will take their seats and see four people's lives unfold and unravel in real time, every night. In some ways, this play is more like an event out than just a story told on stage, and there’s something very exciting about trying to harness that."

Before the first read-through of the script, the morning concluded with a tour of the Playhouse's vibrant auditorium and a design meeting. Liz Ascroft, in charge of both set and costume design, gathered the company around a model of Martha and George's living room - a room panelled with books and decorated with mid-century modern furnishings, the setting for this production.

"The overall aesthetic draws on vaudeville influences, combining conventional realism with moments of deliberate provocation...We're hoping to shift the audience's perception of themselves."

Then, the scripts opened and the work began. In just under five weeks, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will be off the table and bursting to life on the Main Stage.