Editor’s note: Riverfront Playhouse in Aurora has suspended the production of “At Home at the Zoo” indefinitely.
Gary Puckett, who is directing Edward Albee’s “At Home at the Zoo” for The Riverfront Playhouse in Aurora, has great admiration for the playwright and his work.
“I think Edward Albee’s play speaks volumes about the difficulties and joys of being a human on planet Earth,” Puckett said. “His characters grapple with the essential questions of life, but in a manner that is thoroughly engaging and entertaining. He is a master showman.”
“At Home at the Zoo” will be presented at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays from March 20-Aprill 11 at The Riverfront Playhouse in Aurora. The show is for mature audiences only.
“At Home at the Zoo” is actually a combination of two Edward Albee plays. Albee wrote the one-act “The Zoo Story” in 1958. Years later, he was not satisfied with one of the characters, Peter, in “The Zoo Story,” so Albee wrote a one-act prequel, “Homelife,” in 2004. The prequel was intended to develop the character of Peter by filling in information gaps and exploring his character in greater depth.
“Albee always felt the part of Peter was underwritten,” Puckett said. “He realized there was another play lurking inside and rewrote it into a two-act play and called it ‘At Home at the Zoo.’ He added a character, Ann, the wife of Peter. The entire first act is an examination of Peter and his marriage to Ann. Since this is an Albee play, it is by turns hilarious and horrifying.”
The play begins in a Manhattan apartment with Peter, a successful book publisher, reading, and his wife, Ann, wanting to talk. They seem to have a loving and traditional marriage, but as the act continues, it becomes clear that genuine communication does not come easily to them. Finally, Peter needs to take a break and heads to his favorite bench in Central Park where Act II takes place.
The tone changes in Act II when Peter goes out to the park and meets Jerry, a transient outcast, who is desperately looking to communicate. Jerry begins to tell Peter tale after tale, each more lurid than the next. Peter becomes increasingly agitated as he is taken out of his comfort zone by Jerry’s edgy line of questioning.
“We are advertising the show as a comic drama,” Puckett said. “There are lots of laughs — Albee is a very funny writer — but it is primarily a drama. It is not a play for children, but there is nothing in it that would be objectionable for teenagers.”
Puckett took a different approach when casting the show.
“I didn’t hold auditions,” he said. “I assembled the perfect actors (Aaron Hoge, Connie Rodriguez and J. Jackson-Schultz), read through the show and asked them when they might be available.
“When they said March-April of 2020, I went to the Riverfront Board of Directors and asked for the second slot in the 2020 season, but it was already taken. But the director of that show graciously gave it up and moved her show to the third slot and we were up and running.
“I have been a huge fan of Edward Albee all my life,” Puckett continued. “And when the opportunity arose to do one of his best plays with one of the best casts the Riverfront has ever assembled, I jumped at the chance.”
Puckett believes audiences will respond to the show.
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“This is an absolutely riveting play,” Puckett said. “Funny, as are all good dramas, because without laughter it won’t seem realistic. Albee took a masterpiece (‘The Zoo Story’) and transformed it into an even greater theatrical experience.”
‘At Home at the Zoo’
When: March 20-April 11
Where: The Riverfront Playhouse, 11-13 South Water Street Mall, Aurora
Tickets: $15-$17
Information: 630-897-9496; riverfrontplayhouse.com
Randall G. Mielke is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.