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by Edward Albee, directed by Micheline Chevrier

CanStage, Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs, Toronto

November 3-December 10, 2005

Last year Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company presented the Canadian premiere of Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? in a production that was thrilling, hilarious and ultimately devastating.  None of these adjectives apply to the current CanStage production marred by poor direction and miscasting.  By now most people know the play concerns a married man who is having an affair with a goat--a situation by turns ridiculous, tragic and symbolic.  In fact, the 90-minute play deliberately follows the structure of tragedy (“tragedy” means “goat song” in Greek) by focussing on a man at the pinnacle of life who has transgressed the boundaries of what society finds acceptable. 

Director Micheline Chevrier’s pretentious tableaux show she’s aware of the play’s symbolic side, but to succeed either as comedy or tragedy the action must be as realistic as possible.  Chevrier, however, encourages stagy performances that never make Albee’s biting dialogue sound natural.  R.H. Thomson as the mystical goat-loving architect Martin comes off best, though he communicates bewilderment more than rapture or desolation.  Gina Wilkinson, badly miscast as Martin’s wife Stevie, can play rage but not wit in a character who needs both.  Neither John Jarvis as Martin’s best friend nor Paul Dunn as Martin’s gay son is wholly convincing.  It’s sad Toronto should first see Albee’s late masterpiece in so weak a production.               

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-11-10.

Photo: R.H. Thomson, Gina Wilkinson and Paul Dunn (back) plus goat.