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American playwright Edward Albee has made a habit of beginning his plays with a seemingly bright and happy couple, whom he then proceeds to destroy piece by piece with Sophoclean wrath and fury. In The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, we meet the successful architect Martin (Philip Quast) and his wife Stevie (Wendy Hughes). Martin has just turned 50, is showered with prizes and has a major new contract. So who is Sylvia? Well, she's the goat, of course, with which (or with whom) Martin has fallen in love and is having a sexual relationship.
Martin's old friend Ross (Peter Curtin) reacts by expressing moral outrage and disgust. Stevie exorcises her dismay by smashing pots and furniture as each detail of the relationship is revealed, finally leaving the house. Only Martin's 16-year-old gay son Billy (Simon Corfield) is able, eventually, to express some emotional bond with his father, though even this is problematic.
Albee's play is ultimately not about bestiality. There is no philosophical debate of the sort in which Peter Singer might engage, about the needs and rights of each party. Rather, Martin's behaviour is mobilised as something beyond the pale, an act for which there is neither understanding nor forgiveness. Like the shards of pottery that cannot be mended, the zoophilia is a metaphor for the gulf of incomprehension between people.
Quast gives a sustained and thoughtful performance as Martin, presenting him as a complex but rational man, desperately seeking a sympathetic audience with whom he can discuss his strange situation. Hughes is mostly in overdrive as the aggrieved wife Stevie. She's fine at the indignation, but her character lacks variation. Richard Roberts's set is exquisite, a beautiful modern house complete with courtyard garden that fits on the Fairfax stage and still leaves room for a Greek wedding's worth of broken pots and glass.
Kate Cherry's production is still a little uneven in rhythm; the first scene is all out of sorts, and the long interplay between Martin and Stevie tends to drag. Albee's play ends as Stevie returns to the house dragging the bloodied carcass of Sylvia, whom she has tracked down in order literally to "kill the beast''. It's a neat ending but wants a second act where the really hard questions are answered, not just asked.
© The Australian
