June 3- 9, 2004

theater

The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia?

ANIMAL INSTINCTS: John Glover and Elizabeth Norment play a troubled couple in Albee's play.

by David Anthony Fox

Who is Sylvia? She's the new mistress of Martin Gray, a fabulously successful architect who has just turned 50. Martin has what seems to be a perfect life: In addition to his career, there's his loving wife, Stevie; both have a great, supportive relationship with their charming gay son, Billy.

Who is Sylvia? Well, she's also a goat. Literally.

As you can imagine, it's complicated.

In some ways, The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia? continues a favorite Albee trajectory, exploring the dark underside of seemingly elegant, upper-crust folk. Other familiar themes include the breakdown of family structures, and the thin line separating highly functional people from insanity. You'll find echoes of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance.

What you won't find in The Goat is the subtlety of those earlier (and better) Albee plays. The central idea here is a sophomoric plot gimmick. Worse, it's utterly implausible, seems comprehensible only as a metaphor and yet it's not clear what that metaphor represents. The unpredictable nature of love, perhaps? A plea for tolerance and understanding? (One might describe The Goat as a play for bleating-heart liberals.)

Actually, I think it's not a metaphor at all. Albee wants us to accept that Martin has genuinely fallen in love — and is having an active, fulfilling sex life — with Sylvia. There is also a fleeting hint of something interesting and unexpected between Martin and Billy (the latter's name suggests that on some level he is Sylvia's doppelganger). Despite a truckload of one-liners (some funny, others less so), we are apparently meant to view the whole piece — with its dissolving marriage and sense of betrayal — as profound. To that end, Albee gives The Goat a second, pompously academic subtitle: "Notes Toward a Definition of Tragedy."

But The Goat never achieves tragic grandeur. How could it, with a frat-boy joke at its center?

To me, the play is successful — and then only intermittently — as black comedy, where we can still recognize Albee's skillful use of language and idiosyncratic wit.

Having seen the celebrated Broadway and London productions of this play, I am happy to report that the version presented by Philadelphia Theatre Company is more successful than either of those, and in fact makes a better argument for The Goat as a worthwhile piece. Director Tim Vasen keeps the pace fast and the textures light and bantering. It's a much more effective solution than pushing for pathos, and allows us to laugh at what might otherwise seem ludicrous or pretentious. (I'm sure some people will find The Goat scandalous, but to me it is simply not significant enough to offend.)

Two of the actors could hardly be better. Elizabeth Norment (Stevie) navigates the character's treacherous path — withering wit one minute, melodrama the next — with consummate grace, and remains deeply sympathetic throughout. Bradford William Anderson (Billy) is at once funny, heartbreaking and utterly real. In the thankless supporting role of Ross, Martin's friend and (ultimately) betrayer, Tom Teti is also quite fine.

I have mixed feelings about John Glover (Martin): It's critical that the audience initially views the character as a dream come true, the perfect family man. Glover is an actor who specializes in roles that are creepy or gay (or both), and he can't entirely shake that resonance here. (He's also a decade too old.) At the same time, he is masterly and often very funny.

So it is a bittersweet victory for PTC, which here has put some of its best work on display. Alas, it's in service of a second-rate piece (though one by a first-rate playwright).

Oh, to think what this group might have done with some good Albee!

THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? Through June 20, Philadelphia Theatre Company at Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., 215-569-9700