The goat or Who is Sylvia?

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The goat or Who is Sylvia? (Originally The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Notes Towards a Definition of Tragedy ) is a play by the American playwright Edward Albee . It premiered on March 10, 2002 at the John Golden Theater in New York. The two main roles were played by Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman , directed by David Esbjornson.

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Martin and Stevie Gray have been happily married for a long time. There is a 17-year-old son, and neither of them has been in the mood for an affair. Martin is a successful architect, has just been awarded the Pritzker Prize and has also just received a construction contract worth millions. On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday, he is supposed to give an interview on television. The journalist conducting the interview is Martin's longtime friend Ross. During the interview, Martin seems unfocused and not very cooperative. After the camera is switched off, Martin starts to talk. He and his wife have just bought a farm in the country in anticipation of his imminent retirement, and there Martin is kindled in love with body, heart and soul. He threw himself into his first extramarital relationship with passion, the target of his desires is Sylvia, a goat. Ross can hardly believe the story and reports, believing that he could help his friend with it, Stevie in a letter from the "affair".

A world collapses for Stevie. She reacts in horror, and after having breathed herself in a fit of rage, not only is her marriage in ruins, but also her apartment. Martin cannot understand the excitement, he can reconcile his love for his wife with that for Sylvia. He had sought help for his problems in a self-help group for sodomites and is now quoting the knowledge gained there as a matter of course. Martin's son, who is homosexual, also has trouble with the father's passion, a discussion between them turns into a mutual abuse and results in a fight. Stevie also uses violence as the key to solving the problem and puts a bloody end to Sylvia.

Quote

"What can one say? One long act, three scenes, four people and a goat ... There is a real goat and also a person who becomes a scapegoat. The piece seems like one thing at first, but then an abyss opens up the further we go into it. And I think it will shock and disgust a number of people. If we're lucky, people will get up, stretch their fists and throw things on stage during the performance. I hope. Edward Albee . "

The title; subjects

"Who is Sylvia? ..." is a quote from a song in Shakespeare's comedy Two Gentlemen from Verona . The song is sung by one of the applicants for the hand of the beautiful and gentle Sylvia. It became known as "To Silvia" through the setting of Franz Schubert in the German translation by Eduard von Bauernfeld .

Albee adheres to the three three Aristotelian units - unity of place, time, and action. As in a classic tragedy, a conflict is portrayed that leads the hero of the story - in this case Sylvia, the title character - to their death.

The subtitle of the piece, Notes toward a definition of tragedy (= notes on a definition of tragedy), is an allusion to the various references of the drama to ancient tragedy . Ziege / Goat refers to the meaning of the word tragedy , in Greek = goat song (Greek trágos = goat and odé = song). Ross interprets a sound perceived as threatening as the voices of the Eumenids , the goddesses of revenge in Greek mythogy - in reality it is the rumbling of the washing machine - and who thus, without knowing it, foresaw the outcome of the dramatic events. Stevie himself acts like a maenad , companions of the god Dionysus , who causes ecstasies in his followers that border on madness.

In addition to marriage, friendship, parenting and the break-up of a family, the issues addressed in the piece are the problems of sexuality in our society. It's about the limits of tolerance towards behavior deviating from established rules, about morality and hypocrisy, who decides in a “world without God” what is moral and what is not. So shows z. B. Martin has absolutely no sympathy for his son when he comes out as homosexual, while the son suddenly sees in the father a desirable man whom he tries to kiss, overwhelmed by passion.

Awards

  • 2002: Desk Award as "Best New Play"
  • 2002: Tony Award for "Best Play"
  • 2003: Nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for a play

Performances

The play premiered on March 10, 2002 at the John Golden Theater in New York with Mercedes Ruehl as Stevie Gray and Bill Pullman as her husband Martin Gray and saw 612 performances. Over the course of the season, the two leading actors were replaced by Bill Irwin and Sally Field , who celebrated her Broadway debut.

Performed at the Alley Theater, Houston, Texas, 2003

The London premiere took place at the Almeida Theater and went to the Apollo Theater in London's West End on April 15, 2004 . The two leading roles were played by Jonathan Pryce and Kate Fahy, directed by Anthony Page .

The German-language premiere had its premiere on January 10, 2004 under the direction of Andrea Breth at the Vienna Akademietheater . A text version by Albert Ostermaier was played . The two main roles were played by Peter Simonischek and Corinna Kirchhoff . The play had its premiere on January 29th at the Berlin Renaissance Theater . The director Felix Prader had the piece played in the translation by Alissa and Martin Walser, with Christian Berkel and Andrea Sawatzki , who celebrated her debut on the theater stage, in the leading roles.

In 2017 the Theater Royal Haymarket in London's West End brought out a production by Ian Rickson . The play was cast with Damian Lewis and Sophie Okonedo in the leading roles and with Jason Hughes in one of the two supporting roles. The reactions to Rickson's production were different in the US and English press. According to American criticism, it was a failed production with unbelievably acting actors who had tried to speak the American language with varying degrees of success, or rather a rather conventional, rather embarrassing and generally unconvincing production. The English press consistently praised the brilliant performance of the actors and the inspiring production.

In 2005, the American Conservatory Theater produced a video of a Richard ET White production starring Pamela Reed and Don McManus .

Text output

  • The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? . Broadway Edition. New York: Overlook 2002. ISBN 978-1-58567647-7
  • The goat or Who is Sylvia? Übers. Alissa and Martin Walser . Frankfurt a. M .: S. Fischer Theaterverlag 2004. (Theatertexte.)

literature

  • Stephen Bottoms (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007. ISBN 978-0-52183455-1
therein: Ellen Gainor: Albee's The Goat: Rethinking tragedy for the 21st century. Pp. 199-216.
  • Brenda Murphy: Who is Sylvia? Anthropomorphism and Genre Expectations . Leiden, Boston: Brill 2017. pp. 174-185. (New Perspectives in Edward Albee Studies. 1.) ISBN 978-90-04-32494-7
  • David A. Crespy, Lincoln Konkle: Edward Albee as Theatrical and Dramatic Innovator . Leiden, Boston: Brill 2019. pp. 95-110. (New Perspectives in Edward Albee Studies. 3.) ISBN 978-90-04-39470-4
  • Michael M. Wogener: The Limits of the Goat Song in Edward Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia? In: Journal of Contemporary Drama in English. on-line

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "What can I tell you about it? It's one long act, three scenes, four characters and a goat… There's a real goat and also a person who becomes a scapegoat. It is a play that seems to be one thing at the beginning, but the chasm opens as we go further into it. And I think it is going to shock and disgust a number of people. With any luck, there will be people standing up, shaking their fists during the performance and throwing things at the stage. I hope so! ” Quoted from Lewis returns to West End for revival of Edward Albee play The Guardian, October 14, 2016, accessed June 12, 2019
  2. ^ William Shakespeare: Two gentlemen from Verona. Act 4, scene 2.
  3. ↑ Franz Schubert. To Silvia. D. 891; Op. 106, No. 4. (1825).
  4. ^ Text and German translation by Eduard von Bauernfeld
  5. ↑ Steven Dalton: 'The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?'. Theater Review Hollywood Reporter, June 24, 2017, accessed June 15, 2019
  6. ^ Edward Albee Society , accessed June 12, 2019
  7. ↑ Charles Isherwood: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia Variety, October 7, 2002, accessed June 12, 2019
  8. ↑ "The Goat" in the Renaissance Theater. BZ criticism , Berliner Zeitung, accessed on June 12, 2019
  9. ↑ The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? review - Damian Lewis shines in Albee's bestial classic , The Guardian, April 5, 2017, accessed June 12, 2019
  10. ↑ Matt Trueman: West End Review: 'The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?' With Damian Lewis, Sophie Okonedo Variety, April 6, 2017, accessed June 15, 2019
  11. ↑ Stephen Dalton: Damian Lewis and Sophie Okonedo co-star in Edward Albee's tragicomic fable about an adulterous affair between a man and a goat. Hollywood Reporter, June 24, 2017, accessed June 15, 2019
  12. ↑ Daisy Bowie-Sell Did Damian Lewis get the critics' goat in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Premiere reviews, WhatsOnStage press review, April 6, 2017, accessed on June 15, 2019
  13. ↑ The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? This is Theater. Retrieved June 15, 2019
  14. ↑ IMDb