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Joel Ochoa as Billy in Shotgun Players\u2019 production of \u2018The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?\u2019 (Ben Krantz)<\/p>\nThat collateral damage does not spare son Billy in any way. He is 17, but constantly reminded to go to his room or play outside as if he were a small child. Ochoa is a charmer, and his arc leads to a heartbreaking moment that feels straight out of the Greeks, where much of Albee\u2019s script is rooted. <\/p>\n
The play\u2019s greatest surprise is saved for the final denouement, which will not be spoiled here. It is a moment jaw-dropping in its scope, thrusting the set into the narrative as its own character. Combined with the play\u2019s brutality in the final horrid tableau, it ends the play with a collection of imagery that sears into the brain.<\/p>\n
Joel Ochoa as Billy in Shotgun Players\u2019 production of \u2018The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?\u2019 (Ben Krantz)<\/p>\n
On the surface, this is a play about bestiality, and a human finding carnal connection with an animal that, while displaying human characteristics, has no capacity for greater yearning. But that\u2019s not all the play is trying to convey. Ultimately, The Goat is about societal taboos, many of them centered on human sexuality \u2014 but who determines those, where is the line, and who has the right to draw that line? <\/p>\n
Albee asked profound questions in his work, and was thrilled by the absurdity of life, and the mental destruction of human beings toward each other. What exactly is \u201cnormal,\u201d anyway? Do affairs occupy different tiers, based on who the affair is with? Is there such thing as perfection in a family?<\/p>\n
The legacy of Albee\u2019s masterful text is that there are no easy answers. As The Goat questions every aspect of human sexuality, it also pierces the heart, and forces profound questions that just might destroy one\u2019s sense of what normal really is. <\/p>\n