Today I began my three day culture marathon with IES Dublin Acting and Theater students. Eamonn arrived today with 10 students and invited me to join them at the plays they are attending.
Today was The Goat or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee. First of all, I was surprised to find out that Edward Albee is still alive and writing plays, I didn’t realize we studied contemporary writers in college. I guess we did. Sorry Dr. King, I was a bad student.
It is a play about a man who’s life falls apart after he admits having an affair with a goat. The lead was played by the well known actor Jonathon Price. The other actors did not hold their accents too solidy, but were good enough.
The play kind of hits you like a ton of bricks, it is unbelievable–but at the same time quite. The reactions are honest and the words well chosen by Albee. I like the way the characters slip in and out of the arguements, falling into inside jokes while in the midst of a huge fight.
What was more interesting was the audience. From where I was sitting, in the round (balcony) I could see the house was full of elderly people. Men and women who were hunched over their programs and possibly sleeping. I cringed sometimes–counting the number of times the characters said fuck this, fuck that, fuck you, goat fucker. I worried, did these people know what they were coming to? Were they prepared for beastiality?
Yes, they were. British seniors are a lot more open, it seems, than I expected. The woman with a cane at the end of my row told me about an ancient society 12000 years ago. They (archeologists) found carvings called “man’s best friend.”
“It was of a horse,” she said, “of a man fucking a horse. Guess that would be easier than a goat.” But she said it in a British accent and then headed off for tea, I’m sure of it. Some of the students had seen the production in New York and were able to compare it, the staging, the motivations.
I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed joining the students for their group dinner at an Indian resturant. I had the Punjab Feast. Quite good, I must say.
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