The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, a 2002 play by Edward Albee, deals with mature content—to say the very least. For three evenings, October 26th to 28th, director Leo Morgenstern staged this dark comedy in Vic’s very own Cat’s Eye. The cast was composed of only four main characters, with David Madras as Martin, Mirka Loiselle as Stevie, Cole Zemel as Billy, and Tomas Vilde as Ross.
The room was packed on the second day of the play. When the lights dimmed, a contemporary living room arrangement was visible on the Cat’s Eye stage and dozens of eyes watched as the four characters waltzed in and out of this one set. Although the set was not the most dynamic, the characters managed to bring it to life with their gestures and presence. At times, it did seem as though the actors had not yet had the chance to progress from reading the script lines to really acting them; the progressions were not always natural, nor were the tones and intonations projected by the characters.
Nonetheless, I found myself enjoying the sheer and unabashed honesty of this play. All four characters played their parts with an electrifying energy, and many moments were darkly hilarious. The costume department did an excellent job of keeping with the atmosphere of the play, dressing Stevie (Mirka Loiselle) in a turtleneck dress, which was later matched by the blood-stained outfit of The Goat (Miranda Cullen) herself. The décor was eerily reminiscent of any upper middle-class American family home. As were the costumes, with different degrees of formalwear. The story was very easy to follow, with such a small cast and no character switches, making the hour-long play a straightforward and certainly amusing presentation.
A small caveat, though, was that at many moments, I was extremely uncomfortable with the subject matter of the play. Although I’m not one to shy away from art that makes people uncomfortable, I do think some of the themes that this play touches on are sensitive, and a more detailed warning would have been appreciated. For instance, when Martin called his son Billy a gay slur, I slunk back into my seat. I know this play wasn’t exactly made to be pleasant, but a fair warning would have been to announce the nature of the content in this play, without reducing it to only “sexually explicit material” and “mature content.” A post was made by the Victoria College Drama Society addressing audience concerns on October 28th, demonstrating that the producers have heard this message and are dedicated to improving the theatergoer’s experience.
Overall, the play certainly did what it set out to do, which was to invite a feeling of vague discomfort, while also making us consider questions of morality, values, and social taboos. It will be interesting to see how VCDS develops in terms of handling plays with sensitive topics, especially with the upcoming Assassins musical.
