Philadelphia Weekly

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When Edward Albee’s one-act play The Zoo Story debuted in 1959, it established Albee as one of America’s most exciting new dramatists. A riveting and disturbing two-character work, the play concerns a battle over a park bench between mild-mannered publisher Peter and a volatile passerby named Jerry. Although The Zoo Story has become one of the most produced one-acts in American theater, Albee considered the play incomplete. In 2003 he penned Homelife, a prequel to The Zoo Story that takes place at the home belonging to Peter and his wife, Ann. The two one-acts now form the full-evening work At Home at the Zoo, which is making its local premiere in a new production from the Philadelphia Theatre Company. We spoke to Albee by phone from New York where the production was in rehearsal.

How long did you have the idea for Homelife ?

“Probably a long time. Shortly after I wrote The Zoo Story, I realized it isn’t a bad play. I just felt that it was not a fully two-character play. It was a one-and-a-half-character play with Jerry fully developed and Peter just a backboard for Jerry’s ideas. About four or five years ago I decided to write the first act; Peter at home with his wife before he goes to the park. I wrote that very quickly in a week and a half. I’ve seen several productions and it makes the whole evening a better play.”

Does the audience react differently to The Zoo Story now that Homelife precedes it?

“They do indeed. They understand a good deal more what’s going on and why the ending happens.”

Have you ever revisited any of your other characters as you do with Peter in Homelife ?

“No. And I’ll tell you what I don’t do. I don’t believe in rewriting my plays long after I’ve written them because basically I’m not the same person anymore. I didn’t do anything to The Zoo Story. I merely complemented it, so to speak.”

If you had originally written Homelife with The Zoo Story in 1959, is it fair to assume it would be different?

“I don’t know how different it would have been. I think maybe thinking about it from time to time made me understand what Homelife had to accomplish.”

Do you attend rehearsals of your plays?

“I do.”

Do you talk to the actors?

“I don’t try to intrude but I answer questions they might have about the characters. I’m also a director, so I can talk to an actor in terms that they can use. I don’t tell actors what the play means or what the metaphors are because you can’t act that stuff.”

You can only act the action.

“That’s right. So we talk in those terms.”

How do you hope directors will stage your plays?

“As I wrote them. I’m about to have this play opening in Philadelphia and what I’m experiencing is first-rate actors and a first-rate director who are interested in putting on the play that I wrote rather than their interpretation of the play I wrote.”

You don’t agree with directors who put their vision on a play?

“I don’t know why they are permitted to do that. There is a thing called copyright. I would rather stand or fall on what I do rather than what someone else does.”

I notice you have changed the title from the original Peter and Jerry .

“I decided Peter and Jerry was too close to Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company. At Home at the Zoo is a much better title.”

Would you object if a theater wanted to stage The Zoo Story now as a stand-alone one-act?

“Yes. I’ll allow college students to do it but not a professional production.”

Are you working on anything new?

“There are two new plays I’ve got in my head. I haven’t put either down on paper yet.”

Do you have a favorite among your plays?

“Yes. The two I haven’t put down on paper yet because I haven’t made any mistakes yet.”