Slated to design ‘the billon-dollar city of the future”, Martin has what seems like a ‘normal’ marriage in the beginning with Stevie, a result of which is their gay teenage son Billy. [break]
The two make a loving, fun and rather accepting couple who have found a way around each other and the world.
But their life comes to a stop when Ross, Martin’s best friend since prep school reveals a secret Martin had confided in him in a letter he writes to Stevie.
Martin, while looking for a farm house for his family comes across a goat he calls Sylvia and falls in love with her.
This makes up the plot of Edward Albee’s 2002 play The Goat or Who is Sylvia.
On March 29, the Experimental Wing of One World Theater had a stage reading of the play at Baggi Khana in Yala Maya Kendra.
Probably the first of its kind in Nepal, stage reading is a concept in which actors read and act out the play with script in hand.
With the absence of all the trimming a regular production would have, stage reading thus focuses on the dramatic text and acting.
“This is a good method to explore new plays, playwrights and plays under consideration for production, which is very popular in the United States,” said the director of the reading Deborah Merola, before the beginning of the play.
Punched with sarcastic humor that had the audience giggling and laughing out loud in some instances, Albee’s mastery over language brilliantly raised questions on the institution of marriage and relationship through overtly sexual connotations and crude language making the dialogues seem, in a way, very natural.
Mital Hosali, who played Stevie, looked relatively shaken after the intense final act and deserves a special mention or her acting skills and articulation.
Sameer Dixit’s Martin, Manoj (Manny) Basnet’s Ross and Prakesh Sindhuliya’s Billy though not memorable did manage to entertain the audience through the 100 minute long play.
“We are amaze by how receptive the audience was considering the language and subject matter,” said Merola who believes that stage reading is a good way in bring about new talent in Nepal too considering the current flourishing arts and cultural scene here.
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