The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?
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The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?, a play written by Edward Albee, premiered on Broadway in 2002. Although it opened to mixed reviews, it won that year's Tony Award for Best Play. In 2004, it opened in London and was a considerable success.
Albee wrote a play that drew film stars Bill Pullman and Academy Award-winner Mercedes Ruehl to Broadway. Ruehl was later replaced by two-time Academy Award-winner Sally Field, and Pullman was replaced by Bill Irwin who later won a Tony Award for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
[edit] Plot
The tale of a married, middle-aged architect whose life crumbles when he falls in love with a goat, the play focuses on where the limits of an ostensibly liberal society are. Through showing this family in crisis, Albee challenges audience members to question their own morality in the face of other social taboos including infidelity, homosexuality, incest and, of course, bestiality.
The play also features many language games and grammatical arguments in the middle of catastrophes and existential disputes between the characters.
The name of the play refers to the song "Who is Silvia" from Shakespeare's play The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Proteus sings this song, hoping to woo Silvia. Franz Schubert's setting of the song contributed to its popularity outside Shakespeare's play.
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