The Zoo Story

For the book about Lowry Park Zoo, seeZoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives.

The Zoo Story;photograph from a Luxembourgish production

The Zoo Storyis a one-act play by AmericanplaywrightEdward Albee.His first play, it was written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks.The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity and dehumanization in a materialistic world. Today, professional theatre companies can produceThe Zoo Storyeither as a part ofEdward Albee's at Home at the Zoo(originally titledPeter and Jerry), or as a standalone play. Its prequel,Homelife,written in 2007, however, can only be produced as a part ofEdward Albee's at Home at the Zoo.

Productions

Rejected byNew Yorkproducers, the play premiered inWest Berlinat theSchiller TheaterWerkstatton September 28, 1959, in a double bill with the German premiere ofSamuel Beckett'sKrapp's Last Tape.

The play premiered in the United StatesOff-Broadwayin a production by Theatre 1960 at theProvincetown Playhouseon January 14, 1960, and closed on May 21, 1961. The play was paired withKrapp's Last Tape.Directed byMilton Katselas,the cast wasWilliam Daniels(Peter) andGeorge Maharis(Jerry).Maharis left the production on March 6, 1960, to filmExodus.Peter Mark Richman(then known as Mark Richman) took over the role of Jerry on March 8, 1960.Daniels and Richman performed to rave reviews for more than nine months. Richman left the production in January 1961.The play won the 1960Obie Awardfor Distinguished Play and Distinguished Performance, William Daniels.(Michael Karlan replaced Mark Richman for six weeks when Richman left the show to shoot a film.)

Plot summary

This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench inNew York City'sCentral Park.Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man, desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter's peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories about his life and the reason behind his visit to thezoo.The action is linear, unfolding in front of the audience in “real time”. The elements of ironic humor and unrelenting dramatic suspense are brought to a climax when Jerry brings his victim down to his own savage level.

Eventually, Peter has had enough of his strange companion and tries to leave. Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench and challenges him to fight for his territory. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls a knife on Peter, and then drops it as initiative for Peter to grab. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry charges him and impales himself on the knife. Bleeding on the park bench, Jerry finishes hiszoo storyby bringing it into the immediate present: "Could I have planned all this. No... no, I couldn't have. But I think I did." Horrified, Peter runs away from Jerry, whose dying words, "Oh...my...God", are a combination of scornful mimicry and supplication.

Revised version

Albee wrote a prequel toThe Zoo Story,titledHomelife.Homelifeis written as the first act, withThe Zoo Storyas the second act, in a new play calledEdward Albee's At Home at the Zoo(initially titledPeter & Jerry).Homelifewas first read publicly at theLast Frontier Theatre Conference.

Christopher Wallenberg wrote ofThe Zoo Story:"Over the years, he'd [Albee] always had a nagging feeling that something was missing from the piece’s unsettling encounter between two very different men on a Central Park bench..." Albee said: "The Zoo Storyis a good play. It's a play that I'm very happy I wrote. But it's a play with one and a half characters. Jerry is a fully developed, three-dimensional character. But Peter is a backboard. He’s not fully developed. Peter had to be more fleshed out. "

In addition to discussions about his adding an act and a character nearly 50 years after writing the original play, the theater community was taken aback by Albee's announcement that he would no longer permitThe Zoo Storyto be produced by professional theater companies. He would only allow the two-act play. The move has raised controversy within the theater community. Only non-professional and college theaters may produceThe Zoo Storyin its original version. Albee defended the change and the addition of a female character, Peter's wife. Albee noted the play was his to do with as he wanted.

Production history

The two-act playPeter and Jerryhad its world premiere at the Hartford Stage in 2004, with Pam MacKinnon directing andFrank Woodas Peter,Johanna Dayas Ann, andFred Welleras Jerry.

The play was produced Off-Broadway at theSecond Stage Theatrein 2007, and starredBill Pullman,Dallas Roberts andJohanna Day.It was titledPeter and Jerry.

The play, titledEdward Albee's At Home at the Zooplayed atAmerican Conservatory Theaterin San Francisco in June 2009, withAnthony Fuscoas Peter, René Augesen as his wife Ann, and Manoel Felciano as Jerry.

At Home at the Zoohad itsPittsburgh-area premiere as the inaugural show of the Ghostlight Theatre Troupe inGibsonia, Pennsylvaniain July 2010. It starred Rich Kenzie as Peter, Mary Romeo as Ann and Ned Johnstone as Jerry and was directed by Gabe Herlinger.

At Home at the Zooopened on February 23, 2018, at New York's Signature Theatre, starring Katie Finneran,Robert Sean Leonardand Paul Sparks.

In popular culture

The Zoo Storyis referenced in the 1993 filmGrumpy Old Men.

The Zoo Storyis a central element in the 2008 novelQiṣṣat hadīqat al-ḥayawān(English:The Zoo Story), by Moroccan playwright and novelist Yūsuf Fāḍil, set in the milieu of actors and playwrights in 1970s Morocco and Moroccans in Paris. The two main characters of the novel, Al-Sīmū and Rašīd, want to perform a Moroccan version of the play, but their copy of Albee's work is missing essential pages.

The Zoo Storyis referenced inJay McInerney's 1988 novelStory of My Life,Michel Tremblay’s 1992 memoirDouze Coups de Théâtre(English:Twelve Opening Acts), andBill Hader's TV seriesBarry(2018).