Early Albee Plays Presented

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 18

Early Albee Plays Presented

On Sunday evening the University Drama Society, using the intimacy of the Plainsman Coffee Bar, presented two of Edward Albee’s early, short plays, “The Sandbox” and “Zoo Story.” After the plays there was some discussion (led by Mr Merven Thompson) over a glass of wine and a nibble of cheese. There was an atmosphere of exploration even if discoveries were not obvious. “The Sandbox” takes a dash of absurdity (Grandma is taken to the beach to die), a fashionable soupcon of symbolism (Grandma needs the sand box again!) and a whiff

of incipient satire (a violinist to supply the melo-, and a hen-pecked husband to supply the -drama) and produces an irritating snippet which is at best an appetiser. The inexperienced cast saw some of the fun, but toyed with the lines when strong overacting was needed. Judy Cleine, the producer, should obviously not have been in the cast as well.

“Zoo Story” is a better play. It is about a man who cannot communicate with his fellowmen, but, having made some contact with animals, tries to communicate with his fellowman on an animal level. It is a sort of parable which asks: is man vegetable, animal or spirit?

Brian de Ridder said his lines effectively without ever acting in the sense of impersonating his character. Because the play is so often ambiguous (infuriatingly so) the actors must not be. This is why Richard Brooke’s playing of the middle-class family man was so good, and why his animal outbursts at the end were acceptable—they were so obviously the animal underneath everyone’s respectability. The producer, John Reid, should have helped Brian de Ridder by letting the audience see much more of this dispossessed madman's face—especially his eyes. Many of his lines needed to be given straight to the audience-

perhaps the whole of Jerry and the Dog, for example.

The plays, which will be staged again tonight, are provocative enough to be worth a visit. Albee’s dialogue in “Zoo Story” is potentially as dramatic as any in recent plays. The actors must establish a calm surface of sophisticated, intellectual chit-chat, and then, in lightning flashes, expose frightening, sudden rocks which gash the audience’s sensibilities in a genuinely dramatic way. This all requires tremendous control and variation in technique on the part of the actor. Perhaps Shakespeare is really much easier on the actor after all. —P.R.S.