We are animals, and we live in
a zoo.
That is the basic premise behind Edward Albee’s play “The Zoo Story,” starting today in the Pocket Playhouse at 5 p.m. The play was originally performed in the United States in the 1960s when the theme was something of a new idea. Today it initiates an ingrained “duh” response.
The concept that we have an animal nature seems so obvious that it doesn’t need repeating. But, is that because we’ve really thought about it, or have we just brushed it off?
Keeping that question in mind, “The Zoo Story” presents the scope of human interaction boiled down to two guys in Central Park. The older man, Peter, is a book publisher with a wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets; he is happily plugged into society. The younger man, Jerry, is a disenchanted vagrant who lives in a “laughably small room” and skates on the brink of society and sanity.
Peter is quietly reading a book while sitting on a bench when Jerry comes along saying he just went to the zoo. Through this random interjection, he initiates an awkward conversation/interrogation with Peter that starts out with trivial pleasantries and ends with big philosophical questions about love and hate.
Albee makes the two emotions inseparable, calling their combination “the teaching emotion.” Jerry’s coarse personality makes Peter hate him so much that they become bonded by the strength of that emotion. Jerry offers a microcosm within the microcosmic play through the story of his attempted murder of his landlady’s dog for attacking him as he enters his building: He tried to love the dog and failed. He tried to kill the dog and failed. But having experienced both emotions, he finally connected with the creature, and they reached an understanding.
The play requires skilled actors because each part carries equal importance, but in completely separate ways. Ninety percent of the dialogue is spoken by Jerry, played by freshman Jay Hash. While Hash starts strong, he doesn’t cover enough emotional ground to sustain the audience’s interest. To contrast Jerry’s bombast, Peter, played by sophomore Adam Leonard, must provide sufficient action and response to make the audience believe that a real human being would actually listen to Jerry babble. Like Hash, Leonard isn’t quite up to the task.
The problem is that no real person would either talk that long or listen that long. The demands on the actors are large, and it would be surprising to see any college actors perform to perfection.
The play runs today, Friday and Saturday at 5 p.m. in Villard Hall.