Tehran – One Act play “The Zoo Story” by American playwright Edward Albee will be performing at Kashkai Hall, the City Theater Complex in Tehran from July 9th.
The play, directed by Khosrow Khorshidi, has Masoud Sakhaei and Masoud Mirhosseini on the cast, Honaronline reported.
Written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks, Zoo Story explores the themes of isolation, loneliness, misunderstanding, social disparities and dehumanization in a materialistic world.
The play is about two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench in Central Park, New York City. Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with his wife, two daughters, two cats and two parrots. Jerry is an isolated, discouraged man and is eager to have meaningful conversations with other people. He invades Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and telling him about his life and the reasons behind his visit to the zoo.
The elements of ironic humor and relentless dramatic suspense come to the climax as Jerry lowers his victim to his own savage levels.
Eventually, Peter has enough of his strange companions and tries to leave. Jerry begins to push Peter off the bench and challenges him to fight for his territory. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls the knife at Peter and then drops it as if he were to invite Peter to grab it. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry accuss him and surrenders himself to the knife.
Albee uses the character of a spokesman to relay the importance of communication. This relays the importance of communication as Jerry tries to establish contact with Peter by telling the story. If Jerry can make the story “real” to Peter and the audience members, Jerry can escape feelings of loneliness and isolation. Alby ultimately uses the shock of violence in the play’s conclusions to “instill in his audience the ability to change the world for the better in order to ideally inspire American action.”
Edward Alby (1928-2016) presents novel insights and resourceful dialogue in his play, “Who is Fearing Virginia Woolf?” (1962), in his play, “Who is Fearing Virginia Woolf?” (1962), a terrifying portrayal of marriage.
Among Alby’s early one acts, “Zoo Story” (1959), “The Sandbox” (1959), and “The American Dream” (1961) were the most successful, establishing him as a keen critic of American values. But it was his first full-length play, “Who is afraid of Virginia Wolf?”, and that remains his most important work. In this play, a middle-aged professor, his wife, and a young couple get engaged one night in an unlimited drinking match filled with malicious games, humiliation, humiliation, betrayal, savage wit and painful self-development conflicts. The play was quickly praised, establishing Alby as a leading American playwright.
In addition to writing, Albee produced many theatres and spoke at schools around the country. He was awarded the National Medal of Art in 1996. Edited in 2005 for his essay and personal anecdote, “Stretning My Mind.”
“Zoo Story” will remain at the intersection of Valiasr and Enghelab streets at the City Theater in Daneshjoo Park until August 6th.
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