\u00a0As Edward Albee\u2019s offbeat, provocative play\u00a0\u201cThe Goat,\u00a0Or\u00a0Who Is Sylvia?\u201d\u00a0begins,\u00a0the rapid banter between the married couple feels comfortably Theatre of the\u00a0Absurdish, with its\u00a0tight, clever,\u00a0certain rhythm, not quite realistic.\u00a0In the Shotgun Players\u2019 production in Berkeley,\u00a0Martin (William Giammona)\u00a0and Stevie (Erin Mei-Ling Stuart), in color-matching white and pink outfits, seem familiar enough as theatrical characters.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a050, a prize-winning architect, and seems distracted\u2014\u00a0a bit muddled,\u00a0and\u00a0worried about his memory.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0witty,\u00a0sardonic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the beginning of this 2002 Tony Award winner,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0on notice that \u201cThe Goat\u201d is not a realistic play.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0no furniture, no decoration on the blank, gray walls. When Stevie carefully places a bunch of flowers into a vase, there is no vase, no table. The flowers,\u00a0of\u00a0course,\u00a0fall to the floor, but that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0matter to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Later, when Stevie\u00a0learns about\u00a0Martin\u2019s bizarre extramarital affair, she goes into a rage and starts breaking everything in the room, her destruction carefully, cleverly represented by sound effects.\u00a0The\u00a0sound design by Matt\u00a0Stines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As usual in a Shotgun Players production, the acting is superb, as is the direction by longtime company member and actor Kevin Clarke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So\u00a0is\u00a0the choice of material. In a drama that could be simply absurd, or comic, or one dimensional, or\u00a0totally not\u00a0believable, this production is, yes, funny at times, and shocking, but also heartbreaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the hopelessly smitten adulterer Martin, Giammona seems at times to be channeling actor Steve Carell, in\u00a0a good way; considering the fix\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0in, he muddles bravely,\u00a0almost innocently\u00a0through,\u00a0always staying true to himself.\u00a0When he insists he\u00a0loves his wife,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0believable, as are\u00a0his cluelessness\u00a0and his\u00a0acceptance of his fate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But\u00a0Stuart\u2019s rage and pain\u00a0also are\u00a0believable. So is Joel Ochoa\u00a0as\u00a0the\u00a0couple\u2019s\u00a0teenage, coming-of-age-gay son Billy,\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0confused\u00a0and\u00a0fearful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also believable: the\u00a0complete conviction of Martin\u2019s best friend, Ross (Kevin Singer) that\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0doing the right thing for Martin and family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That belief in all the characters seems to expand the onstage universe. Although\u00a0they are\u00a0not so purposefully tormenting each other as George and Martha do in\u00a0Albee\u2019s\u00a01962 \u201cWho\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?\u201d Stevie and Martin at times echo that combustible duo.\u00a0And Tennessee Williams\u2019 character Hannah\u00a0in \u201cThe\u00a0Night of the Iguana,\u201d\u00a0who says, \u201cNothing human disgusts me,\u201d\u00a0also\u00a0might come to mind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0help thinking about Albee, who died in 2016, living as a gay man in the mid-20th century\u00a0and\u00a0known to avoid \u201cexplaining\u201d his more mystifying plays. As he said about this one, bestiality is discussed, but the play is about \u201clove, and loss . . . who indeed we really are.\u201d Make of that what you will.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for\u00a0\u2018The Goat\u201d\u00a0subtitle,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0in\u00a0a love song in Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwo Gentlemen of Verona\u201d:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen to Sylvia let us sing,\u00a0That Sylvia is excelling;\u00a0She excels each mortal\u00a0thing\u00a0Upon\u00a0the dull earth dwelling: To her let us garlands bring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hmm. As always, Albee leaves us pondering the mysteries of\u00a0the human\u00a0condition.<\/p>\n
Shotgun Players\u2019\u00a0\u201cThe Goat,\u00a0Or\u00a0Who Is Sylvia?\u201d\u00a0continues through\u00a0April 26\u00a0at\u00a0Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Tickets are\u00a0$23-$80\u00a0at shotgunplayers.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The post Review: Shotgun Players bring humanity to absurdist \u2018The Goat,\u00a0or Who Is Sylvia?\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Local News Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0As Edward Albee\u2019s offbeat, provocative play\u00a0\u201cThe Goat,\u00a0Or\u00a0Who Is Sylvia?\u201d\u00a0begins,\u00a0the rapid banter between the married couple feels comfortably Theatre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-247438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}