Albee classic, with a twist
New first act sheds light on the drama of 'The Zoo Story.'
Edward Albee, America's most important living playwright, can still roil an audience.
They gasped, grumbled, discussed and theorized over
Peter and Jerry
, the umbrella title for
The Zoo Story
, which Albee wrote nearly 50 years ago, plus a new first act, called "Homelife."
The Zoo Story
, a frequently performed, much anthologized classic, begins with Peter reading on a bench in Central Park on a Sunday afternoon. Jerry, an odd, talkative stranger, walks by, stops and tells him about his repulsive landlady and her vicious dog and he taunts Peter for his bourgeois, feminized life. Finally their encounter turns dangerous. One of the many questions
The Zoo Story
raises is why a New Yorker, presumably used to peculiar strangers, would stay and listen so helplessly, so vulnerably.
The new Act One, "Homelife," sheds light on that by showing us what happened just before Peter left for the park. Ann, who mildly mocks her mild husband, "Mr. Circumspection," elicits his long-kept secret story of a fraternity "sex party," where, having hurt a girl, he resolved always to be a restrained, gentle lover. She reveals her dissatisfaction with their tame married life, longing for a little "chaos," for sex that is more "animal" and less "civilized." "Something bad," she says, "might be a good idea."
Exit Peter to read in Central Park. Enter Jerry - and chaos - when, after intermission,
The Zoo Story
begins.
Jerry is one of the plum roles of American drama. Huge, fierce and mysterious, Jerry has to hold us as fascinated as Peter is for what is an hour-long near-monologue. Disappointingly, Dallas Roberts, with his drawly accent and flappy hands, lacks the driven energy, the charismatic terror implied in the character.
Johanna Day's fine performance as Ann has been honed to a sharp point since the premiere of "Homelife" in Hartford, Conn., two years ago. Her sarcasm is now nastier, her dissatisfaction - perhaps with herself or with life generally - more palpable.
Bill Pullman is astounding, if it is possible to say that about so quiet, so meek and troubled a role. He sits scrunched up in the corner of the sofa or on the end of the bench, his face a study in perplexity. It is a brilliant, modest performance.
Pam MacKinnon's direction creates a wonderfully theatrical sense of expectation. The opening set is shrewd; we begin in silence in a living room, but the domestic scene is surrounded by walls of vivid, lurid green, as if Central Park looms just outside, and the famous Act Two awaits.
Jerry's discovery, "what is gained is loss," is the great lesson, not only of
The Zoo Story
but of the many Albee plays that follow it. The addition of "Homelife" may be just such a gain, diminishing through realism, domesticating through easy causality, the powerful punch of the original play.
Peter and Jerry
Written by Edward Albee. Directed by Pam McKinnon.
Sets by Neil Patel, costumes
by Teresa Squire, lighting
by Kevin Adams.
The Cast: Bill Pullman (Peter), Johanna Day (Anne), Dallas Roberts (Jerry).
Playing at 2econd Stage Theatre, 307 W. 43d St., NY. Through Dec. 9. Tickets $70 ($25 for people under 25). Information: 800-766-6048 or
» READ MORE: www.2ST.com
.