The Zoo Story

Not to be confused with Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives the book about Lowry Park Zoo

Zoo Story, Photograph from a Luxembourg production

The Zoo Story, originally titled Peter and Jerry, is a one-act play by American playwright Edward 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 commercial world.

Initially the play was rejected by New York producers. Albee first had it staged in Europe, premiering in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959. In its first American staging, it was performed by the Provincetown Playhouse in 1960 and paired with Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. In this first American production, Peter and Jerry were played by William Daniels and George Maharis, respectively.

Plot summary

This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry. Peter is a middle-class publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man. These men meet on a park bench in New York City's Central Park. Jerry is 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 like "THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG", and the reason behind his visit to the zoo. 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.

The catalyst for the shocking ending transpires when Peter announces, "I really must be going home;..." At the same time Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench. Peter decides to fight for his territory on the bench and becomes angry. 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 his zoo story by 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.

Additional act

Albee wrote a prequel called Homelife, which he has staged as the first act, with The Zoo Story as the second act, in a new play called Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo (initially titled Peter & Jerry). Homelife was first read publicly at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference.

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 permit The Zoo Story to 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 produce The Zoo Story in 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 wants.

The two-act play Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo played at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in June 2009, with Anthony Fusco as Peter, René Augesen as his wife Ann, and Manoel Felciano as Jerry. It also played Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre and starred Bill Pullman, Dallas Roberts and Johanna Day. As of December 2009 it currently is playing in its Seattle premiere at Theater Schmeater.

At Home at the Zoo had its premiere Pittsburgh production and was the inaugural show for the Ghostlight Theatre Troupe in Gibsonia, PA in July 2010. It starred Rich Kenzie as Peter, Mary Romeo as Ann and Ned Johnstone as Jerry and was directed by Gabe Herlinger.

In popular culture

The Zoo Story is referenced in the film Grumpy Old Men.

The Zoo Story is a central element in the novel "Qiṣṣat hadīqat al-ḥayawān" (The zoo story), by Moroccan playwright and novelist Yūsuf Fāḍil, published Dār al-Fanak, Casablanca, 2008, which deals with 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 Story was adapted by film legend John Loose. However, the film never saw theatrical release, due to Albee refusing Loose film rights to the play. Albee did not feel "comfortable" giving up the rights to the play. John Loose has not been available for comment for forty years. There are currently no known copies of the film in circulation, barring the one owned by Loose.^{[citation needed]}