The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia

Productions

The play premiered on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on March 10, 2002, and closed on December 15, 2002, after 309 performances and 23 previews. Directed by David Esbjornson, the cast featured Bill Pullman (Martin), Mercedes Ruehl (Stevie), Jeffrey Carlson, and Stephen Rowe. On September 13, 2002, Bill Irwin took on the role of Martin, and Sally Field took the role of Stevie.

The European premiere took place at Vienna's English Theatre in March to May 2003. Directed by Pam MacKinnon, the cast was Laurence Lau (Martin), Jurian Hughes (Stevie), Howard Nightingall (Ross), and Michael Zlabinger (Billy).

The play ran in the UK at the Almeida Theatre in Islington and transferred to the West End at the Apollo Theatre on April 15, 2004, closing on August 7, 2004. Directed by Anthony Page, the cast featured Jonathan Pryce (Martin), Kate Fahy (Stevie), Matthew Marsh (Ross) and Eddie Redmayne.

The play was produced in NSW, Australia by the State Theatre of South Australia at the Seymour Centre (Sydney), from April 6 to May 7, 2006. Directed by Marion Potts, the cast featured William Zappa, Victoria Longley, Cameron Goodall and Pip Miller.

The play was produced in Ottawa at the Great Canadian Theatre Company under the direction of Lorne Pardy, October 28-November 14, 2004. The cast included Stewart Arnott as Martin, Dixie Seatle as Stevie, Peter Mooney as Billy, and Dennis Fitzgerald as Ross.

A new production directed by Ian Rickson and starring Damian Lewis and Sophie Okonedo will open at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London's West End, with previews starting on 24 March 2017.

Overview

The tale of a married, middle-aged architect, Martin, his wife Stevie, and their son Billy, whose lives crumble when Martin falls in love with a goat, the play focuses on the limits of an ostensibly liberal society. Through showing this family in crisis, Albee challenges audience members to question their own moral judgment of social taboos.

The play also features many language games and grammatical arguments in the middle of catastrophes and existential disputes between the characters. The name of the play refers to the song "Who is Sylvia" from Shakespeare's play The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Proteus sings this song, hoping to woo Silvia. It is also referred to in an earlier work of Albee's, Finding the Sun (1982).

Characters

Plot

The play opens with Martin and Stevie in their suburban living room on his 50th birthday. They prepare for a television interview by their friend Ross, but Martin is distracted and cannot remember anything. Stevie casually asks Martin about a woman's business card in his pocket and his odd scent. Martin denies having an affair with a woman, but confesses to falling in love with a goat named Sylvia. Stevie laughs it off, thinking it is a joke. Stevie leaves when Ross arrives. Attempting to celebrate Martin on his show for being the youngest architect to win the Pritzker Prize as well as being chosen to design a multi-billion dollar city, Ross gets frustrated at Martin’s inability to concentrate on the interview. Martin confides to Ross that the source of his absent-mindedness is his affair with Sylvia, which began during his search for a country home. Amazed that Martin could fall in love with anyone but Stevie, Ross asks repeatedly, "Who is Sylvia?" When shown her photo, Ross screams that Sylvia is a goat.

Stevie confronts Martin about a letter Ross wrote regarding Martin’s affair and Sylvia's identity. Billy is shocked, crying as he flees to his room. In this scene, he enters and exits sporadically. Stevie reads the letter aloud and then recounts the normalcy of her life before she opened it. She realizes that Martin was telling the truth in Scene 1 and that she was right to worry about the business card and the odd scent. The card belongs to a member of a support group for bestiality. Martin discloses that members seek animal company as a coping mechanism. For him, Sylvia is not just an animal; she has a soul and reciprocates his love. During his explanations, Stevie breaks various objects and overturns furniture. Finally, she exits, vowing revenge.

Billy enters the ruined living room where Martin remains. Billy remarks that Martin and Stevie are good people and are better than most of his classmates' parents. However, he begins crying once he realizes that Martin's bestiality had torn his normal, happy family beyond repair. He then proclaims his love and kisses Martin. Ross comes in and witnesses Billy's kiss. Despite being initially outraged, Martin hugs Billy to comfort him. Martin defends the kiss to a contemptuous Ross, mentioning that a friend had gotten an erection from having his baby on his lap, heavily implying that the friend was Ross. When Ross becomes disgusted, Martin challenges his judgement and objects to his interference with his family. Ross justifies his letter, stating Martin's actions would have brought bad publicity. Stevie returns, dragging a dead goat. She has killed Sylvia because she could not stand the idea that Sylvia loved Martin as much as Stevie did. Ross freezes, Billy cries, and Martin breaks down.

Tragedy

Albee places parentheses around the play's subtitle: "Notes toward a definition of tragedy." The original Greek meaning of the word tragedy is "goat-song." The play maintains Aristotle's six elements of a tragedy in addition to the three unities. The play's resemblance to a Greek tragedy continues as Greek theater is linked to Dionysus. As the god of ritual madness, he inspires ecstasy that frees his followers from fears and subverts hegemony. Bestiality is considered taboo in contemporary society. Martin's relationship with Sylvia then defies convention. Unlike the other members in the support group, Martin does not understand why bestiality is wrong because he is blinded by love and happiness.

On the other hand, Stevie resembles the maenads with her increasingly frenzied actions. The play also alludes to the Eumenides. Before the interview starts, Ross hears "a kind of...rushing sound...wings, or something," to which Martin replies, "It's probably the Eumenides." The noise disappears and Martin corrects himself because "[the Eumenides] don't stop." The allusion foreshadows Stevie's vow for vengeance, carrying it out so fully that it ends the play.

The Goat is also a problem play. Albee questions, among other concepts, social morality in relation to taboos, the perception of female identity by contrasting Stevie to Sylvia, and the arbitrary nature of social standards and conventions by juxtaposing Martin's distaste for homosexuality with his bestiality.

Awards and nominations

The play was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (won that year by Anna in the Tropics).