The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
#1The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 3:37pm
So I had some free time before class the other day and found the Edward Albee section in my University library and read The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
I was just wondering who here has seen the 2002 production and what they thought of it? I know it won "Best Play" and "Outstanding New Play", and I thought it was hilarious considering the subject of the whole thing.
I was just wondering how the tone came across, how intense it was, etc.
Albee is my favorite playwright and I have yet, unfortunately, to see a play of his performed live.
Becky
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
#2The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 3:51pm
I saw the production with Bill Pullman and Mercedes Ruehl, and ended up going back a second time. Since you know the plot from reading the play, it seems implausible to believe this man and invest in this idea of the goat. However, Bill Pullman's acting was so incredibly convincing - you find yourself buying into it full force. For this play to work, the actor has to be good enough to sell this idea - and he did. I also appreciated that Mercedes' character said all of the reasonable things the audience was thinking - she finds the whole thing as ludicrous and unbelievable as she should, so the dynamics make for a great (layered) story. I didn't care for the actor playing their son, his delivery was forced and unnatural, but his character wasn't significant enough to matter overall.
I've been dying to see another production ever since....
#3The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 3:52pm
I saw it several times with both casts. I preferred Ruehl but I also preferred Pullman. In general I'd say it was pretty intense, certainly not played for laughs for long. I think it is a brilliant play, maybe his third best, but definitely top 5.
#4The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 3:53pm
I saw the original production that The Golden. It was very intense. Granted, a lot of the humor and innuendos that make it witty -- did go over my head at the time because I was younger.
The matter at hand was, I thought, presented very seriously leading up to the end events.
That's saying the least, I don't have time to et into a more descriptive explanation.
Ironically, I did the show not too long ago, great experience.
Owen22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/11
#5The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 3:53pm
It had the audacity of a playwright a quarter his age. It's themes of "we can't control our sexual urges, why should we be punished for who or what arouses us" don't completely land, but it was still thought provoking and surprising. I saw this on Broadway and then again in London with a pre-star Eddie Redmayne as the son and Jonathan Pryce, improving on Bill Pullman (it could have only been Pryce not being forced to go head to head with the blistering Mercedes Rheul giving the performance of her life).
As funny as it was, I consider the play to be a tragedy.
#6The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:01pm
You guys are incredible, thank you so much for your thoughts on it. I definitely read it as more intense, though of course he does stick his witty bits in here and there.
HogansHero, what do you think his top two are if you don't mind me asking?
I love how the theme jumped out at the end of the play. Kind of a "is it so wrong to follow your soul no matter the consequences or are we living our life according to how we are perceived by the people around us".
#7The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:02pm
I saw it twice, both times with the original cast. The first time, late in previews, I thought it was a wild dark comedy, and the audience was laughing like they were at Noises Off. The second time, after the reviews had told audiences that it was significant, there was barely a laugh to be heard all night, although the performances hadn't changed.
I've never before or since seen the same play received so differently by different audiences - the closest was seeing Angels in America late in its run, with a tourist audience that clearly had no idea what they were seeing, and sat like stones throughout.
#8The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:07pm
newintown said: "I saw it twice, both times with the original cast. The first time, late in previews, I thought it was a wild dark comedy, and the audience was laughing like they were at Noises Off. The second time, after the reviews had told audiences that it was significant, there was barely a laugh to be heard all night, although the performances hadn't changed.
I've never before or since seen the same play received so differently by different audiences - the closest was seeing Angels in America late in its run, with a tourist audience that clearly had no idea what they were seeing, and sat like stones throughout.
"
That is so interesting. I think that's why I love his plays so much. If you're going to read them (I can only speak on reading, obviously since I have never seen one of his plays) just to take your mind off something, you only go in shallow and you see all of the wittiness and dark humor to it. But when you read his plays and actually critically think about what he is saying you sober right up.
nasty_khakis
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/15/07
#9The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:14pm
I heard someone on a podcast years ago from the original cast (I believe it was the Theatre Guilds podcast Downstage Center) talking about how when
Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content
the dead goat is brought out they first showed a realistic goat covered in blood. Then they tried covering it in a bloody sheet, then a clean sheet, etc until they finally found the right tone for the moment. I forget the specifics but they talked about how they didn't want it too shocking, too funny, etc.
#10The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:26pm
nasty_khakis said: "I heard someone on a podcast years ago from the original cast (I believe it was the Theatre Guilds podcast Downstage Center) talking about how when
Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content
the dead goat is brought out they first showed a realistic goat covered in blood. Then they tried covering it in a bloody sheet, then a clean sheet, etc until they finally found the right tone for the moment. I forget the specifics but they talked about how they didn't want it too shocking, too funny, etc.
"
I can't even imagine the thought that went into that. I actually didn't think about how that would be portrayed until now.
#11The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:30pm
@Promises, I'd say Virginia Woolf and Thee Tall Women, though I could be persuaded to put Delicate Balance up there too.
re the tone of the original-it did evolve several times, and there was a concerted effort to stifle the laughing. There are interviews discussing this. I don't think one can lay this on the audience. Albee provided the relief of laughter, but most assuredly did not have a dark comedy in mind. At the same time, the audience needs to make the wrong judgments early in order to generate the desired effect, and that manipulation of course is classic Albee.
The story I heard about the subject of khakis' spoiler is that when it evoked laughter at the first preview, steps were taken to make sure that was not triggered and they tweaked it until the communicated the moment in all of its intensity because it was no laughing matter.
Becky
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
#12The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:32pm
I did want to add that you could hear a pin drop as the play ended - and at both performances, a great deal of the audience stayed seated, continuing to talk and break down what they'd just seen. I'm not sure I've seen that before or since (to that degree).
#13The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 4:47pm
Thanks HogansHero! I knew Virginia Woolf would be up there (it's my favorite play, period.)
Becky, thanks for that addition. Reminds me a little of when I saw Of Mice and Men, but probably not to that affect since the book is usually widely read in public schools and probably the majority of people knew of the ending.
Boysdontcry66
Swing Joined: 6/4/14
#14The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 10:35pm
Saw the closing performance with Bill Irwin and Sally Field. Edward Albee walked by me outside of the theatre and I was (for the first time ever) completely starstruck. Bill Irwin gave a quiet and heartbreaking performance while she (quite literally) tore it up... One of the funniest and most dramatic performances I've ever seen an actor give. Larger than life, dignified, phenomenal voice work... The audience laughed for a solid 2/3rds of the show. The final third was complete silence.
chi-town_bwayfangirl
Chorus Member Joined: 4/9/16
#15The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 11:36pm
I've only ever seen a production here in Chicago at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company and it was one of the top 3 plays I've ever seen on/off Broadway (not that I've seen a lot on Broadway). It was so intense and I was sobbing at the spoiler posted previously and also when he talks about going to a group counseling session and seeing someone who is so ugly you can hardly stand to look at them. Just so raw and gut-wrenching. The performances in Chicago were phenomenal and seeing it in a 200-seat theatre was intense. I remember there being a handful of inappropriate laughs, but none that ruined it for me.
I would like to see it again, but I'd have to read the reviews first to make sure it's excellent - I don't want to ruin the memory I already have of it!
The Other One
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/08
#16The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 11:49pm
Becky describes it exactly as I would have. (Well, I did not think the character of the son was insignificant, but I did not like the actor's performance at all.)
I think I would give anything to play Martin in a full production.
#17The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/5/16 at 11:58pm
Not enough attention in this thread has been paid to Mercedes Ruehl, who gave a performance to be remembered for all time.
The greatest thing this play did was actually make you feel and feel DEEPLY for this man who, before you stepped foot into the theater if you'd heard about it, was ready to laugh at and think was disgusting. But at the same time your heart ends up breaking for him, you understand what she did and sympathize with her as well. It's brilliant writing at it's absolute best. And I remember the last line was the sons, I think? He just stood there in the silence while everyone's lives were destroyed and said "Mom...?" and my jaw dropped. With all that had just happened, for Albee to make that the last line, I think is just...Genius. It's the "what do we do now?" that nobody has the answer to.
#18The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 2:21pm
I've been thinking about this play non stop since reading this thread last night.
#19The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 2:26pm
I can't think of a Broadway play since The Goat that has challenged audiences in such a way. It's a blistering work that disquiets and confronts the morality of its audience in a way very few works do.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#20The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 2:28pm
I think I'd give anything to see this show done with Jan Maxwell.
#21The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 2:39pm
Jan Maxwell would be absolutely ferocious as Stevie. A shame she's never had the opportunity, and probably won't, given her retirement from stage.
The climate of commercial theater has changed so much since the beginning of this century that I cannot imagine this play being produced on Broadway today, much less running nearly a year. It's a work of genius, and probably Albee's greatest for since 1970.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#22The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 3:29pm
AC126748 said: "The climate of commercial theater has changed so much since the beginning of this century that I cannot imagine this play being produced on Broadway today, much less running nearly a year. "
That notion strikes me as unfathomable. What about the "climate" would lead you to that conclusion? It strikes me as the most incomprehensible thing I've read on here in quite a while - and that's saying something.
#23The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 3:35pm
I saw it with Sally Field. I'm trying to think of a better word, but INTENSE covers it. Loved it.
#24The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 6:17pm
HogansHero said: "AC126748 said: "The climate of commercial theater has changed so much since the beginning of this century that I cannot imagine this play being produced on Broadway today, much less running nearly a year. "
That notion strikes me as unfathomable. What about the "climate" would lead you to that conclusion? It strikes me as the most incomprehensible thing I've read on here in quite a while - and that's saying something.
"
Are you joking? Do you really think an experimental, controversial play with no bankable stars (Pullman and Ruehl don't sell out houses) would not only open on Broadway in a commercial production but run for 10 months, mostly in the red (it closed far from turning a profit)?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#25The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Posted: 7/6/16 at 7:54pm
AC126748 said: "Are you joking? Do you really think an experimental, controversial play with no bankable stars (Pullman and Ruehl don't sell out houses) would not only open on Broadway in a commercial production but run for 10 months, mostly in the red (it closed far from turning a profit)? "
Apparently you know nothing of the play, nothing of the actors and nothing of the current (i.e., most recent) season or its plays and actors. I continue to find what you say unfathomable. More so now than before.
