Word: humority
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...story even more by fleshing out the back-ground of Sidney and J.J. In his thoroughly enjoyable book, John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation) has captured the sort of razor-sharp stylistic dialogue that is appropriate for the piece. The show never bogs down with exposition, and the humor is both biting and plentiful...
...friends and I used to do comedic improv, it was understood when a scene was over—it was when we descended into discussions of sex with animals. The introduction of bestiality symbolized an exhaustion of creativity. It’s just too easy: juxtaposition and titillation equal humor. Yet when the subject is tackled not as a plot twist, but as a main topic, for a new play with no less an author than Edward Albee, attention must be paid. Could Albee, the master of exploring the absurd to gain insight into the mundane, have found a path...
...first hour of the ninety-minute, intermissionless play derives virtually all of its humor from the shock value of the existence of man-goat love. Martin, played by the affable film actor Bill Pullman is a successful architect who enjoys a still passionate marriage to Stevie, portrayed by the Tony and Academy Award-recipient Mercedes Ruehl. They have a lovely modern apartment, a lovely gay son and a lovely well-financed lifestyle. The applecart is violently upset, however, when it is revealed Martin is having an affair. With Sylvia. Who is a goat...
...most serious strike facing the show, though, is not its lack of insightfulness or originality—it is its lack of humor. Sex with animals is funny because it shocks or, more to the point, because it’s meant to shock. But it’s tough to wring shock value from material that’s no longer shocking. Jerry Springer has covered this material with regularity. Albee’s own envelope-pushing theater of the absurd has helped bring us to the point of no trumping taboos...
...also doesn’t much help the cause of humor that the play spends far too much time posing as a comedy of manners, forcing Martin’s family to crack defensive jokes about his inexplicably bad-mannered actions. If the point is that no matter how hard you try to understand or explain love, you just can’t do it, there’s got to be a better way than having Stevie beg for an explanation then cut him off every few seconds to smash furniture. Her defensive humor never seems sufficiently defensive...