The Wallis and Deaf West Theatre, the companies behind the hit revival of Spring Awakening in Los Angeles and New York, bring their sign language take to Albee’s classic short play The Zoo Story (1959) and its acclaimed prequel, Homelife (2004). Together these short plays form At Home at the Zoo, the complete story of publishing executive Peter, his wife Ann and Jerry, the volatile stranger Peter meets in the park. The Wallis’ Coy Middlebrook directs this new production featuring both deaf and hearing actors.
At Home at the Zoo
Critics
LemonMeter
Reviews: 5
Reviews
The Zoo Story ends in quickly rising contention over possession of the park bench, like wild animals defending their turf. Peter's sense of entitlement is brought under question, as though his whole world of existential privilege is being challenged. It may have been Albee's original intention to make this statement about society in 1959—our territorialism, our possessions, our bourgeois comforts, our neat little families providing convenient outlets for sexual expression, our rewarding work—and how these benefits of the smug, self-satisfied life are patently not available to all. It now seems so inevitable that Homelife precedes the drama in Central Park, as if it had always been there. The two-act play may become the standard format.
Tennessee Williams could never, just, walk away from 'Orpheus Descending', and Albee it seems, towards the end of his life, felt that 'Zoo Story' was, in some fashion, incomplete. Hence the Deaf West Theatre production of 'At Home at the Zoo', which just enjoyed a staging at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; one of the newer and most delightful venues of L.A.
IT HAPPENED AT THE ZOO
REVIEW: AT HOME AT THE ZOO
BY RYAN LUÉVANO
Just last September the world lost the great American playwright Edward Albee who had bestowed upon us so many wonderful plays most notably: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Now the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts has teamed up with Deaf West Theatre to present a work that launched his career as a playwright when it was presented in Germany in 1960: The Zoo Story, later turned incorporated to At Home at the Zoo.
"While the source material missed the mark, this is a fine staging of it, although not one that is able to make up for its shortcomings."
Though I'd likely pass on a traditional staging of Edward Albee's (Perplexing) At Home At The Zoo, no one who loves theater should miss seeing it Deaf West style. Whether hearing or deaf or somewhere on the spectrum, ASL proficient or not at all, playgoers are in for an electrifying evening at The Wallis.
The Zoo Story ends in quickly rising contention over possession of the park bench, like wild animals defending their turf. Peter's sense of entitlement is brought under question, as though his whole world of existential privilege is being challenged. It may have been Albee's original intention to make this statement about society in 1959—our territorialism, our possessions, our bourgeois comforts, our neat little families providing convenient outlets for sexual expression, our rewarding work—and how these benefits of the smug, self-satisfied life are patently not available to all. It now seems so inevitable that Homelife precedes the drama in Central Park, as if it had always been there. The two-act play may become the standard format.
Tennessee Williams could never, just, walk away from 'Orpheus Descending', and Albee it seems, towards the end of his life, felt that 'Zoo Story' was, in some fashion, incomplete. Hence the Deaf West Theatre production of 'At Home at the Zoo', which just enjoyed a staging at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; one of the newer and most delightful venues of L.A.
IT HAPPENED AT THE ZOO
REVIEW: AT HOME AT THE ZOO
BY RYAN LUÉVANO
Just last September the world lost the great American playwright Edward Albee who had bestowed upon us so many wonderful plays most notably: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Now the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts has teamed up with Deaf West Theatre to present a work that launched his career as a playwright when it was presented in Germany in 1960: The Zoo Story, later turned incorporated to At Home at the Zoo.
"While the source material missed the mark, this is a fine staging of it, although not one that is able to make up for its shortcomings."
Though I'd likely pass on a traditional staging of Edward Albee's (Perplexing) At Home At The Zoo, no one who loves theater should miss seeing it Deaf West style. Whether hearing or deaf or somewhere on the spectrum, ASL proficient or not at all, playgoers are in for an electrifying evening at The Wallis.