Ray Dooley and Julie Fishell don’t recall ever being married.
Maybe once, Fishell says, but she poisoned him early on.
Beginning tonight, Dooley and Fishell will take the Paul Green Theatre stage as George and Martha, the dysfunctional husband-and-wife pair leading Edward Albee’s award-winning play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
The two 20-year PlayMakers Repertory Company veterans have appeared together a handful of times on stage. Their turn as George and Martha will be one of the few in which they play battling leads.
The characters, who Fishell called “Everests of American theater,” have been married for 23 years. They host a young couple at their home for drinks and put their changing relationship on display through a progression of stunts and arguments.
Dooley said he and Fishell have developed a sort of shorthand in their years together that lends itself perfectly to tackling a piece like “Virginia Woolf.”
“When you work with someone you don’t know, it takes more time,” he said.
McKay Coble, PlayMakers’ costume designer and chairwoman of the Department of Dramatic Art, came to the company in 1987, only a few years before Dooley and Fishell. Having watched the two actors for years, she echoed Dooley’s sentiment.
“If you’re forever changing partners, it’s hard to hit your stride,” she said. “If you’re working with the same people, you can set new goals for yourself.”