Robert Sean Leonard "At Home At The Zoo"!
The husband and I saw Robert Sean Leonard in "At Home At The Zoo" at the Signature Theater on Thursday night! The theater was full, with an enthusiastic audience. After The New York Times made it a "Critic's Pick", getting seats was nearly impossible. Our tickets for what was originally near the end of the run. However, was it was first extended to March 18, and now it's been extended to March 25. The theater is small, but steeply raked so every seat has a good view of the stage. We were fairly far back but it didn't matter.
"Zoo Story" was Edward Albee's first produced play, in 1959. At the time, it was shocking. "Home Life" was written as a prequel in 2004. It is by far the weaker play. Albee demanded these plays only be performed together, under the awkward title.
RSL is Peter, a publisher of textbooks. In "Home Life", which is first, Peter and his wife Ann (Kate Finneran) have a long-winded conversation, mostly about her sexual frustration. It wasn't anything that hasn't been done many times, and better. However, both actors do their best. In both plays, RSL is reactive, not active. He conveys a great deal of emotion despite not having any big speeches. During the first play, the delivery of the dialogue seemed stylized, but it got better as it went along. Maybe it didn't seem like much to me because I'm married. Ann announces she's considering an elective mastectomy. Peter thinks his penis is retreating "in sort of a reverse circumcision." Ann wants wildness but Peter doesn't understand it. She bitches about quite rote their sex life is:
“A little madness,” she says. “Wouldn’t that be good?”
Peter, baffled, “How would we go about it?” He wants to help but has no idea how.
"Zoo Story" is a much more dynamic play. Peter is sitting on a park bench, reading. Jerry, a dangerously unhinged man, enters. He demands Peter's attention. Jerry has 90% of the dialogue, but Peter is truly a partner in the play. Jerry becomes more explosive as he tells convoluted stories that become more dangerous. Eventually he physically attacks Peter, forcing the latter into a confrontation. Paul Sparks has the much more showy part, leaping around the stage (I looked at the play in a book that was being sold at intermission; Jerry has pages of solid monologue). But RSL was able to share focus without being upstaged or overshadowed. My husband thought Park Sparks chewed the scenery. I disagreed. It's a HUGE part. But whenever I looked at RSL, he was actively listening and giving shades to Peter's steadily increasing disorientation. One thing that sets it firmly in its time is that Peter doesn't go, "holy shit, this guy is bonkers!" and walk away.
Of course I kept drooling over RSL. Good thing I wasn't closer to the stage or I might have charged it. (I had the same problem with Camelot.) Afterwards I thought of the various stage productions I've seen him in. He often plays the reactive parts rather than the active parts. The intellectual in "Born Yesterday"; the homosexual school teacher in the play "Prodigal Son", King Arthur in "Camelot" and now this. I wish I'd seen him in "To Kill A Mockingbird"!
"Zoo Story" was Edward Albee's first produced play, in 1959. At the time, it was shocking. "Home Life" was written as a prequel in 2004. It is by far the weaker play. Albee demanded these plays only be performed together, under the awkward title.
RSL is Peter, a publisher of textbooks. In "Home Life", which is first, Peter and his wife Ann (Kate Finneran) have a long-winded conversation, mostly about her sexual frustration. It wasn't anything that hasn't been done many times, and better. However, both actors do their best. In both plays, RSL is reactive, not active. He conveys a great deal of emotion despite not having any big speeches. During the first play, the delivery of the dialogue seemed stylized, but it got better as it went along. Maybe it didn't seem like much to me because I'm married. Ann announces she's considering an elective mastectomy. Peter thinks his penis is retreating "in sort of a reverse circumcision." Ann wants wildness but Peter doesn't understand it. She bitches about quite rote their sex life is:
“A little madness,” she says. “Wouldn’t that be good?”
Peter, baffled, “How would we go about it?” He wants to help but has no idea how.
"Zoo Story" is a much more dynamic play. Peter is sitting on a park bench, reading. Jerry, a dangerously unhinged man, enters. He demands Peter's attention. Jerry has 90% of the dialogue, but Peter is truly a partner in the play. Jerry becomes more explosive as he tells convoluted stories that become more dangerous. Eventually he physically attacks Peter, forcing the latter into a confrontation. Paul Sparks has the much more showy part, leaping around the stage (I looked at the play in a book that was being sold at intermission; Jerry has pages of solid monologue). But RSL was able to share focus without being upstaged or overshadowed. My husband thought Park Sparks chewed the scenery. I disagreed. It's a HUGE part. But whenever I looked at RSL, he was actively listening and giving shades to Peter's steadily increasing disorientation. One thing that sets it firmly in its time is that Peter doesn't go, "holy shit, this guy is bonkers!" and walk away.
Of course I kept drooling over RSL. Good thing I wasn't closer to the stage or I might have charged it. (I had the same problem with Camelot.) Afterwards I thought of the various stage productions I've seen him in. He often plays the reactive parts rather than the active parts. The intellectual in "Born Yesterday"; the homosexual school teacher in the play "Prodigal Son", King Arthur in "Camelot" and now this. I wish I'd seen him in "To Kill A Mockingbird"!