Looking at life through the eyes of one who see’s death as the extreme surrender of love for oneself. Distinguishing the difference between the haves “Peter” portrayed by Chris Klay and have not’s “Jerry” portrayed by Eli Cunningham. The disparity over owning a dog but not controlling it, relating to the life that was dealt to Jerry in the play “The Zoo Story” by Edward Albee.
The theater is situated in the back of Big Momma’s Coffee and Espresso Bar on Commercial Street in Springfield, Missouri. You share the close proximity of the actors and stage, allowing the dance to be an integral part of what was to take place on stage.
The setting was extremely realistic; the lighting was adequate given the setting. The audience was a mixed bag of nuts itself; there were those in their first year of college, folks like me rounding the half century mark and the ones that had lived through the meaning of life. Jerry show’s great energy, yet when the struggles that beset a person cause them to take the long way around only to find the mundane world’s insatiable hunger too much to endure.
What a triumph for Maxine Whittaker, the accomplished director that we are privileged to have in our little part of the world. Some of her attributes include founder of LuMaxx Productions, directing over two dozen plays and performing in about a dozen plays.
The play is the product of Edward Albee, Author. Considered America’s greatest living playwright, Mr. Albee has written over 34 plays, beginning with The Zoo Story in 1958. His bio reads like a Who’s Who of legendary plays, Mr. Albee lives in New York, NY.
The play opens with Peter coming on stage and sitting down on a park bench to read a book. Jerry arrives on stage in a flurry of haphazardness and commands the attention of the audience with his tacit language and facial lexis. From that point the energy between actors and audience had been established and carried throughout the remainder of the play.
The movement of the actors was sufficient, anymore and it would have been to busy. Any less and it would not have offered the raw emotions. At this point in the play Peter sort of wanes into the background while Jerry takes center stage talking about different aspects of his life. How his father and mother both died, then his Mom’s sister and even his grandmother who raised him to the age of seventeen. At one point speaking to the landlady and her dog and trying to co-exist in their world.
Jerry through a series of feigned concern and nonsensical repartee draws Peter into a one sided conversation about life. Jerry tells Peter that he has just been to the zoo and something happened while he was there, and eventually he will tell him what happened. They discuss Jerry’s life compared to the life that Peter’s and they find that Peter is living in his own little zoo controlled by the world to which he has surrounded himself. Jerry then brilliantly plays on Peter’s sense of guilt about being one of the haves to further set up Peter.
The one essential piece of the puzzle in Jerry’s plan was to gain Peter’s favor then to turn on him and imposing on Peter the guilt and rage essential to end Jerry’s suffering. At this point Peter as if on cue, finally provoked to take a stand, comes vividly to life out of the shadows created by Jerry.
In the end Peter is unsuspectingly transformed from one wanting to know tomorrows headline, to one who is creating tomorrows headline today. Turns out that they were not so different, Peter then understood taking the long way around to find the shortest route home.
One response I received from a middle aged woman was that the play made her uncomfortable in the sense that there could be crazy people in her park. The other responses were “loved the play” to” loved the acting” and “such powerful uncomplicatedness.”
I loved the play all of the elements that kneaded together transported me from downtown Springfield to Central Park New York, NY. I would highly recommend this production to anyone who might want to escape from one reality into another for a fleeting moment in time.
