[usr 5]
The protagonist in Edward Albee’s disturbing play THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? is urbane, middle aged architect Martin Gray. We first meet him and his wife Stevie as they celebrate his fiftieth birthday in their resplendent New York apartment.
Martin tells his wife that he has lately felt very distracted and can’t seem to remember the simplest things. He comes across as a bit unsettled, a little all over the place. Stevie tries to quell his anxiety. She does, however, ask him however about a woman’s business card found in his top coat pocket, with the name Sylvia on it. Martin offhandedly says to her, Sylvia is a goat. Stevie brushes off his offhand comment as she walks out the door, as Martin’s best friend Ross comes in.
Ross has come to do a television interview with Martin to commemorate him being announced as the youngest ever recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered to be like the Pulitzer Prize of Architecture.
Martin unimpressively fumbles through the interview which Ross reluctantly agrees to give up on. Ross asks him, what’s up? Martin tells him he is in love with Sylvia and takes out a photo from his coat pocket. Ross exclaims, but Sylvia is a goat. Martin replies yes, I am in love with a goat’.
Yes, for sure, and emphatically, we are in Edward Albee territory. Along with Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett, Albee was one of the leading absurdist playwrights who provided Theatre Of the Absurd, a phrase famously penned by theatre historian Martin Esslin. Albee’s first play, the very not cheery ‘The Zoo Story’ premiered in 1959 in a double bill with none other than Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’.
I have seen this play in a previous incarnation. Back in April 2006, I saw Marion Potts memorable State Theatre Company of South Australia production, (where has Marion gone, bring her back?), which was brought across to Belvoir Street. There was a dream cast- William Zappa as Martin, the late, great, beautiful Victoria Longley as Stevie, Cameron Goodall as Billy and Pip Miller as Ross.
Sure there is a lot of humour in the piece, but, and there is a but, I did, and still do, find it harrowing.
What’s this play about? Albee was once asked what his plays are about and he replied slyly, ‘about two hours’. To me, it’s about the almost complete blurring of boundaries that takes place, boundaries between humans and animals and boundaries people in the most familial and intimate relationships. Blurring to the point where everything is broken, heartbreakingly broken, beyond repair.
Mitchell Butel’s production is excellent. One of the brightest of lights in Australian theatre, Butel is now the Artistic Director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia. His creative team, mainly – Set Designer Jeremy Allen (the curtain opens and you just have that wow moment), Ailsa Peterson’s costume design, Nigel Levings lighting design and Andrew Howard’s score – create the bizarre world forthe actors to work in.
The cast are brilliant. Nathan Page cascades across a difficult trajectory, from a middle aged professional worrying that he might have early dementia to a man falling into madness.
Claudia Karvan is great as Stevie. Like Medea, she is red hot rage, a woman utterly betrayed, with vengeance her only option.
As the son Billy whose Weltanschauung has just been shattered, Yazeed Daher gives a very moving performance. Billy’s angst…You can touch it.
Mark Saturno is excellent as close family friend Ross Tuttle, who is sandwiched in a family drama that even the Jerry Springer show couldn’t have emulated.
So, I ask myself, why did I put myself through this play again. BecauseAlbee, beneath the considerable humour, has important things to say. The balance between civilisation, anarchy, bestiality, and brutality is A Delicate Balance, to quote the title of another Albee play, especially when human beings slash basic rules and boundaries.
One only has to think back to Nazi Germany. Cultured Germany, the country of Goethe, created mass gas chambers. Who could have thought this possible. The answer. Absolutely nobody!
THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? is playing the Roslyn Packer Theatre until 25 March 2023