Each act here has its own subtitle: “Games and Fun,” “Walpurgis Night,” “Expulsion of the Demon.”
Forty-six-year-old George, Ph.D., a teacher at a college in New England, and his wife Martha (she is six years older than her husband) return home late at night after receiving from Martha's father, the rector of the same college. Already on the threshold, they begin to wage a familiar skirmish, which has been continuously going on for many years.
Over the years, Martha and George have learned to fairly torment each other, everyone knows the vulnerabilities of the other and “hits without a miss.” The husband did not live up to Martha's expectations: she and her father once hoped that George would become the dean of the Faculty of History, and later - the successor to his father, that is, the rector. In fact, Marta chose her husband with an eye to first attach him to the first hierarchical step, and then sculpt in the image and likeness of his father-in-law and eventually solemnly elevate him to the highest teaching rank. But George was not as complaisant as expected - this living person had his own idea of his fate, but was not so strong as to oppose Marta to his pragmatic ambition. However, he had enough strength to confuse all the plans of the rector’s family and even dare to write a novel that aroused so much disgust among the rector that he tore the promise from his son-in-law not to print it. Then Marta declared a war to her husband, which takes away all her strength from the spouses, drains and drains them.
George and Martha are extraordinary people who master the word brilliantly, and their verbal duel is an inexhaustible source of caustic witticisms, brilliant paradoxes and apt aphorisms. After another dive, Marta announces to her husband that she is waiting for guests, - her father asked to “sip” the young generation of the college.
Soon there are guests - a biology teacher Nick, a pragmatic and cold young man, with his wife Hani, a plain-looking thin woman. Next to George and Martha, who went into courage, this couple looks somewhat frozen: the young spouses clearly do not own the situation. Nick is a handsome young man, and George quickly wanders that Martha is not averse to having fun with a new teacher, hence the hasty invitation to visit. George, accustomed to his wife’s constant tricks, this discovery is only funny; his only request to his wife was not to mention their son in a word.
However, Martha, who came out briefly with Hani, manages not only to dress up in her best evening dress, but also to inform the young woman that she and George have a son who will be twenty-one tomorrow. George is furious. A new series of mutual injections and open insults begins. Drunken Hani from all this becomes ill, and Martha drags her into the bathroom.
Left alone with Nick, George selects a new target for attacks, drawing the prospects for Nick's promotion and prophetically declaring that he can achieve a lot by fawning before the professors and wallowing in bed with their wives. Nick does not deny that it occurred to him. He does not really understand what is happening in this house, what the relationship between the spouses really is, and he either laughs at George’s witticisms, or is ready to fight with his fists. In a moment of frankness, Nick says that he married Hani without love, only because he thought that she was pregnant. And the pregnancy was imaginary, hysterical - the stomach quickly fell off. But there are other reasons, suggests George. Probably money? Nick does not deny: Hani’s father led a certain sect, and after his death, the state acquired by him on the feelings of believers was very impressive.
While drunken Hani is resting on the tiled bathroom floor, Martha leads Nick into her bedroom. Although George had previously shown complete indifference to an affair, but now in a rage he throws the book that he was holding before it, it strikes the door bells, and they hit one another with a desperate bounce. The ringing wakes Hani, and she, still not quite recovering from the nausea, appears in the living room. "Who called?" - She asks, George announces to her that they brought a telegram about the death of their son Martha. He hadn’t told Martha yet - she didn’t know anything.
This news makes an impression even on everything indifferent to Hani, drunk tears appear in her eyes.
George solemnly smiles: he prepared the next move: Marte is a mat ...
Already almost dawn. Martha in the living room. She hardly overcomes the disgust from intimacy with Nick ("in some senses you, frankly, do not shine"). With sad sadness Martha talks about their relationship with George, says not to Nick, but to the space: “George and Martha - sad, sad, sad ... He can make me happy, but I don't want happiness and still wait for happiness” . Here, even Nick, with his stupid blunt straightforwardness, laughs that everything is not so simple in this home war - apparently, once these two were united by a feeling much more elevated than they had with Haney.
Appearing, George is clowning around, fooling around, teasing Martha, hiding with all his might that her infidelity hurts him. And then he offers to play the game “Raise a Child”, inviting guests to listen to how they raised their son with Martha. Marta, who is not expecting a dirty trick, loses her vigilance and, joining George, recalls which son was a healthy bootuz, what wonderful toys he had, etc. And then suddenly George dealt a crushing blow, announcing the death of his son. “You have no right,” Martha shouts, “he is our common child.” “So what,” retorts George, “and I took and killed him.” Nick finally realizes that new acquaintances are leading the monstrous and cruel game. These two invented a child, in fact, this is not and never was. Martha blurted out their secret, and George took revenge, putting an end to their long-standing game. The protracted party came to an end. Nick and Honey finally leave. Quiet Martha sits motionless in an armchair.
George with unexpected warmth asks if she should pour something to drink. And for the first time Martha refuses alcohol.
For a long time, the invention of the son helped Martha and George to spend their lives together, to fill the void of their existence. George’s decisive action knocked the usual soil from under his feet. The illusion is shattered, and they will inevitably have to deal with reality. Now they are just a childless couple, without ideals and high aspirations, they made a deal in the past with their own conscience and then piled deception into deception. But now they have a chance to see themselves for who they are, to be horrified and maybe try to start all over again. Indeed, unlike Hani and Nick, they are still hot, full of emotional forces people. “It will be better,” George says confidently. In fact, why would they "be afraid of Virginia Woolf"? But no, chillingly wrapped up, Martha sadly says: "I'm afraid ... George ... I'm afraid."
