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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2004)
. January 23.2QQ4 THEATER ............▼.............. Baa-aad love Albee sends up the American family again in The Goat by G ary M o r r is f “honesty is the best policy,” you wouldn’t know it from gay playwright Edward A 1 bee’s blistering latest work, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, staged through Feb. 22 by Artists Repertory Theatre. The G oat won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Drama, and, judging from this produc- turn, that’s no surprise. Widely considered Am erica’s greatest living playwright, Albee is perhaps best known for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Portland director Jon Kretzu has referred to The G oat as Woolfs twin sister. Both plays feature a couple in crisis or, more properly, collapse, as an ever-ratcheting series of verbal jousts and violent attacks cen tering on family secrets turns into a veritable apocalypse. The Goat plumbs some of the least comfortable depths in the history of main stream theater in a brutal assault on that beleaguered institution, the family. Award-winning architect Martin and his wife, Stevie, have the kind o f relationship most couples dream of. They appear to he true partners— sophisticated, amused and entranced by each other, relaxed and loving. They also have an adored gay son, 17-year-old Billy. A s the play progresses, the slightly pompous Martin seems increasingly befud dled, reacting with puzzlement to Stevie’s sweet provocations. Stevie shrugs off his confusion, unaware that her husband has a secret— and it’s a doozy. H e’s having an affair with a goat named Sylvia. When Martin’s secret is exposed, the result ing horror show takes up the play’s remaining three-fourths. Albee deserves major praise for successfully manipulating the mood to serious extremes— one minute the audience is howling at Stevie’s commanding dish (“I wonder when he’ll start cruising livestock?”) and cringing at Martin’s heartbreaking efforts to maintain his dignity in the face of unspeakable revelations. Stevie’s violent reactions— with no attempt at trying to understand the forces that might have driven Martin to find a second soulmate in the bam—shows how precarious a partner ship can be. I T « he never-ending effort to bring the Bard to modem audiences gets a welcome boost from Hungarian director Robert Alfoldi’s new version of The Merchant of Venice by Portland Center Stage. Merchant is one of Shakespeare’s most important works— the play that gave us the immortal “If you prick us, do we not bleed” speech, the “pound of flesh” conceit and the ill-fated Jewish moneylender Shylock, one of literature’s greatest creations. This reimagined version (with original dia logue complete) is complex and exhilarating, transposing the Elizabethan setting to the pre sent, including a multimedia set, laptops, cell phones and frenzied, erotic dance routines. Alfoldi, in Portland to direct, has punched up the material immediately— setting the first scene in a smoky disco, directly followed by Antonio, the merchant (Charles Borland) and his “special friend” Bassanio (Cody Nickell, recently seen in P C S’ Outrage) naked in bed together in a sexy tableau that literally trans lates a relationship scholars have theorized on through the years. Bassanio’s more “official” love interest, Por tia, is reinvented as a virtual dominatrix— sleek These characters are all on wildly differ ent wavelengths under the cozy exterior of camaraderie, and when truths emerge that threaten that surface, it's best to run for cover. Best friend Ross becomes reviled enemy. Beloved son Billy recoils. And Martin and Stevie become strangers. Ever the provocateur, Albee here pushes into some very extreme sexual areas, but they’re handled with such authority and authenticity that it keeps the audience riv eted— as well as disturbed. T he black-comic touches throughout make what might be too off-putting an experience rewarding indeed. Artists R ep’s production o f The G oat is very well acted, with standout performances by Allen Nause (the com pany’s artistic * director) as M artin and Luisa Serm ol as Stevie. Nause incarnates M artin’s mix of integrity and hopelessness perfectly, while Serm ol expertly captures Stevie's wounded, violent persona. Christopher Woolsey and Gary Powell are accom plished enough as son and best friend, respectively. * While The Goat seems overlong at two hours with no intermission, and Albee ham mers Some o f the same points to excess, the overall effect is a kind of exhilaration that comes from a powerful theatrical experience. Som e critics have theorized that Albee intended The G oat as an allegory about deviance, i.e., homosexuality. M artins pathos-tinged efforts to maintain his identity and feelings in the face o f an uncompre hending society— as represented by Stevie, Ross and to some extent Billy— will be very familiar to gay people whose coming-out process was traumatic. But the play can also, perhaps more properly, be read as symbolic of the tragic results of human weakness and the difficulty, even impos sibility, of people maintaining love and under standing in the face of dark truths. JH Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Alder St., runs T he G oat , or W ho I s S ylvia ? through Feb. 22. Tickets are $l5-$32 from 503-241 '9807. GARY M orris is a Portland free-lance writer. A married am ple and their gay son try to deal with (ahem) modern-day infidelity in Edward A1 bee’s The Qoat, or Who is Sylvia? Directing Albee’s zoo on Kretzu, ass<x:iate artistic director at Artists Repertory Theatre, is a prolific gay director, with credits including The Laramie Project, Dinner uith Friends, Love! Vainer! Compassion! and the Drammy Award-winning Kelly and Du. He’s no stranger to Edward Albee, either personally or professionally, having met him and directed several of his plays. I inter viewed Kretzu just after the opening of The Goat. G M : Albee is widely considered the great est living American playwright. Is his legend especially challenging for you as a director? JK : Well, I had the great joy of meeting Albee. ..and found him to be extremely person able and charming and truly interested in dis cussion. Since then I have not been bothered by the legend but simply honored to have had the joy of working on his incredible plays. Gary Morris: What drew you to T he Qoat? Jem Kretzu: 1 am a huge fan of Albee’s work.. .. Naturally I was intrigued by all the reports about The Goat once it opened in New York in 2002.1 went to see it there and was completely blown away. Here was one of America’s finest playwrights at the age of 74 still writing at the peak of his pow ers and still able to shock, astonish, delight and disgust.. .1 had to direct it.... And after months of prep time and five weeks of rehearsals, it has not lost its amazing impact on me. 1 think what attracted me most to the script were its powerful theatricality, brilliant lan guage, ra 2 or-sharp wit, fiendishly clever literary gamesmanship and devastating emotional impact. You know, what else do you need? It has been wonderful watching it exert its particular magic on the audience. It creates a true frisson in the theater—a crackling electricity. I’ve seen few plays that equal its ability to cause thun derous laughter and equally thunderous silences. G M : The Qoat has been interpreted as a parable about gayness. J K : T h e play is a beautiful m editation on all aspects o f the human heart and soul and the bottom less well that is love and sexuality. There is a sensitively written gay role in the piece, but that is hut one thread o f the tapestry. To say that the goat repre sents a coded gay subtext greatly diminishes and simplifies the often troubling questions the script brings up. Venice the menace Portland Center Stage renders a truly original classic by G ary M o r r is in her tailed men’s business suit and, later, fetishy black slip. Alfoldi’s inventiveness with this materi al never flags. On huge triple screens, Shylock is interviewed on “V FN ” (Vene tian Financial Network), a hilariously funny moment. The play also makes The quality of mercy is pretty darned strained in P C S’ The Merchant of Venice special nods to Portland— most will recognize the Venetian video segments of the fetching Bassanio over Tribune seen in gigantic close-up and outside looking Portland’s recent snowy skyline. These G M : T he only other onstage goat I can recall is in Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo. What’s it like directing a goat? JK : Let’s just say that working with “Sylvia” has been a delightful experience, and she infus es her cameo appearance with great dramatic impact. A s to Mr. Williams’ and Mr. Albee’s zoological inclusions, I feel that two goats do not a gay playwritirig fetish make. JF ! kinds of inspired touches come fast and furious, making the show’s nearly three-hour running time surprisingly comfortable. The anti-Semitic angle isn’t downplayed hut enhanced; Shykx:k’s speeches are the play’s most powerful and impassioned. When he finally gets his comeuppance, those who deliv er it appear as a kind of Nazi force, brutally assaulting him as much for who he is as for what he’s done. PCS sardonically comments on the matter in the background— Shy lock’s dilemma foregrounding the big screens’ selec tive rapid-fire images, turning Venice’s sins into Germany’s, into the United States’. The acting is first-rate throughout. Wade McCollum of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Bat Boy fame is a virtuoso Launcelot Gobbo, employ ing verbal and physical trickery to dominate the stage. Jennifer Erin Roberts brings all the power of Portia to the fore in a perfectly judged perform ance. Scott Coopwcxxl’s Shylock electrifies the stage, with the actor’s measured delivery bringing all the character’s pathos and passion to life. JH1 T he M erchant of V enice plays through Feb. I at Newmark Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway. Tickets acre $ 16-$51 from 503-274-6588.