THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? – REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? is a play by Edward Albee that has a shocking theme that does not lose its power even after several viewings. Sylvia is a goat that Martin (Rick Roberts) falls in love with and has sexual intercourse with. That is no doubt beyond the comprehension of most of us (I hope) but Martin defends his actions and tries to explain the genuineness of his feelings for the animal.  

The Stratford Festival gives the play an outstanding production with a superb cast directed by Dean Gabourie. It is playing in the small Studio Theatre for reasons that I do not know. It deserves a larger venue. 

Martin (Rick Roberts) is a successful architect, a private school alumnus, assigned with a huge project to build an entire city in the American Midwest. He is 50 years old. His wife Stevie (Lucy Peacock) is beautiful, smart and classy and they have a happy and successful marriage Their teenage son Billy (Antony Palermo) is gay but that may not be a huge issue. Ross (Mathew Kabwe) is Martin’s friend of 40 years and he is doing a story about his friend as a person of interest.

In the opening scene, Martin discloses to is friend that he is in love with Sylvia, a goat, and is having sex with her. Ross then tells Stevie and there is an explosion that will last with almost relentless drama, comic and emotionally wrenching events to the shocking end of the play.

The acting is stupendous. Martin, dressed in a suit with his school tie, is nervous, forgetful, fidgety and a man with a huge problem. Roberts’ performance brings out Martin’s agony, passion, anger, turmoil and attempts at explanation and self-justification. This is acting on an emotional tightrope without any relief.

Lucy Peacock gives a defining performance as the shocked wife Stevie. She goes through a gamut of emotions that is stunning to watch. She is angry, sarcastic, acerbic, and witty. She breaks mantel pieces and furniture to control her furor. She gives a performance of power, conviction and splendor that one rarely sees and is privileged to witness.

Rick Roberts as Martin and Lucy Peacock as Stevie in The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?. 
Stratford Festival 2024. Photo: David Hou. 

Ross is akin to the Chorus or Perhaps the Messenger in Greek tragedy who sets the action in motion and appears at the end for the denouement. Kabwe gives an excellent performance.

Billy, a student at an upscale private school makes several appearances and discloses a troubled relationship with his father. Kudos to Palermo for his performance.

The single set by Shawn Kerwin consists of a well-appointed, all white living room with four easy seats and bookcases with knick-knacks.

The play has powerful, literate, dramatic, salty and witty language that has the impetus and inevitability of a tragedy in the original sense of the word. It kept me glued to my seat for one hour and forty minutes without an intermission.

Director Gabourie deserves credit for the taut performance that he masterminds.

Tragedy as a theatrical genre was born in the plain of Attica about twenty-five hundred years ago. The word means goat song and Albee is not relying on a lurid story about a modern architect doing something unthinkable. The role of goats in Ancient Greek tragedy is unknown but the sacrifice of goats in the theatre has often been suggested.

If you do not know the ending of The Goat, I will not disclose it but it may throw your imagination to performance on the foothills of the Acropolis a long time ago. Near the end, Martin gives three cries of despair as he realizes the enormity of his actions. I imagined hearing the voice of Thespis, the first actor on stage in ancient Athens in 534 B.C. as he cried out in anguish when as Oedipus, he realizes that he killed his father and married his mother.

That is the pedigree, however imaginary, I prefer to ascribe to The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? and the current production at the Stratford Festival.  

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The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee opened on August 9 and will ran until September 29, 2024, at the Studio Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press