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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > November > 08 > Entry
Review: ‘At Home at the Zoo’
While one plus one equals two in arithmetic, this isn’t the case for people. Our eternal existential conundrum is that we can never get outside our own heads. We can’t ever know what those around us are thinking, feeling, seeking.
Palindrome Theatre’s production of “At Home at the Zoo” by Edward Albee, playing now through November 21st at the Off Center, is a stunning illustration of loneliness and isolation, of the yearning for contact with another being regardless of whether it brings pleasure or pain.
The show is a combination of Albee’s foundational “Zoo Story” (his first play, written in 1958) and a companion prequel, “Homelife,” written in 2004. “Homelife” explores the dysfunctional relationship of humdrum publishing executive, Peter (Jude Hickey), and his wife, Ann (Robin Grace Thompson), prior to Peter’s harrowing encounter with Jerry (Nigel O’Hearn), the down and out drifter of “Zoo Story.”
The script of “Homelife” demands extreme subtlety, asking the actors to do a double performance — the facade they show their spouse layered over the inner life of the character — and the audience needs to see the cracks to understand the relationship. Thompson’s smiling and Hickey’s indifference don’t effectively convey what’s going on inside. Though they keep our attention and ultimately earn our sympathy, for most of the piece we’re kept in suspense. Like the characters themselves, we wait for something to happen, to be explained.
In “Zoo Story,” however, Nigel O’Hearn’s gorgeously nuanced performance is imbued with the infinite sadness of the misunderstood, simultaneously terrifying and tragic. Utterly captivating, O’Hearn proves the lasting power of this bona fide piece of theater history. We just have to wait for the second half to see it.
Albee forbids solitary productions of “Zoo Story,” and it’s too bad, since the glaring gap between when the two pieces were written does a disservice to both. Shocking language is only effective if it fits its time period, and the “queer” of 1958 is flimsy compared to the F-bombs of 2004 - especially since director Austin Sheffeild doesn’t seem to have made up his mind about when this production is set.
The third production for this up and coming company, “At Home at the Zoo” delivers precisely what Palindrome Theatre promises - an intimate, human, and fallible performance of a canonical piece of modernist theater. Beyond all else, it shows us our desperate need to feel connected, to touch and be touched - by a person or, in this case, by a play.
‘At Home at the Zoo,’ continues 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday at The Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo St. Community nights 8 p.m. Nov. 15-16. www.palindrometheatre.com
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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