Albee himself said:
“People should be aware of all things at all times. They should experience the extremities of life, fulfil themselves completely. Why does everyone want to go to sleep when the only thing left is to stay awake?”
What he is saying there is that why live life at all if you aren’t going to live it to the full. The aims of an absurd drama are to make the audience realise that, and to hopefully change their lifestyle for the better. He communicates this with the following quote:
“All serious art, not just plays, is an attempt to modify and change people’s perception of themselves, to bring them into larger contact with the fact of being alive… Art is not pacification. It’s disturbance.”
A key point Albee is trying to communicate across to the audience in this particular play is that we are all in cages, isolated from each other and we refuse to communicate. This is also captured in the title: “The Zoo Story” saying, again, that we are all in cages, as if we are in a huge zoo.
The message is put across using the characters; Peter and Jerry.
Peter is a normal man, with a decent job at a publishers with a normal house and a normal wife and two normal daughters who have two, again, normal parakeets. He symbolises everything bland, satisfactory, suitable and conformist – he is accepted in society. He has probably never done anything out of the ordinary in his entire life and as far as he’s concerned he likes the way he lives his live although he lives it “asleep” as Albee would say. To an extent he represents us, the audience, as we identify with him as this crazy man, Jerry starts babbling on about himself and a dog.
Jerry, however, is the extreme opposite; he lives in a “laughably small room” inside a boarding house with other social outcasts, like the fat repulsive landlady who lusts after him, and the coloured queen in a kimono, and a Puerto Rican family. The boarding house is situated in the west side of the park, which he previously said he “didn’t like much”. Jerry symbolises the outsider, obsessed with communication, or the lack of it. Jerry aims to change Peter, to shock him into a new outlook on life. Jerry also symbolises us to a small extent, as he has trouble communicating.
Throughout the play Jerry is trying to provoke Peter into a reaction. Whether he tickles Jerry or forces him into a predicament where he is forced to answer a (possibly rhetorical) question through either being intimidated by Jerry, or humouring him. When the play draws to a close, Peter, after killing Jerry, is much shaken. His view on life and how he should live it, and how he had lived it is challenged and ultimately changed. As he is shaken, we the audience are shaken too as we are represented in the play by Peter.
Staging is also used to get the message across; the use of a large amount of stage directions makes the play run exactly as Albee intended it, as he said:
“The playwright should be able to write a line and notate it in such a way that it’s impossible for the actor to say the line incorrectly. It can be just as precise as musical notation.”
For example Albee states clearly that Peter sits on the bench that is stage-right symbolising correctness, normality and the majority [of people are right handed]. There is also a gap between the two benches, symbolising the social divide between Jerry and Peter.
The play is also set on a Sunday, which is the day that no-one works on, as it is “god’s day”. It is also the afternoon, which sets an effective contrast for a murder to take place.
To summarise the points I covered above:
- Albee believes in making his audience communicate
- Peter symbolises conformity and non-communication (Us)
- Jerry symbolises the playwright, trying to make us communicate more
- Jerry provokes Peter into a reaction in much the same way as the play provokes the audience into a reaction
- Peter is shaken after the murder, and he will change his way of life to communicate more
- Stagecraft is used to add subtle hints to the play such as the gap between the two benches symbolising the social divide
I think that it is challenging to pick out what point Albee is trying to make with the play at first glance, but after studying the play and reading through it several times and cross examining it, you can see very clearly what he is communicating to the audience. The audience would have to be very alert to pick out most of the subtle hints dropped throughout the dialogue and the stagecraft to work it out, but as Albee says:
“I dislike the fact that most of our audiences are lazy.”
So it is fairly unlikely that he would get his views across as effectively as he intended.
I agree entirely with his message, he is challenging something that has always been a problem since humans have lived in very large societies, as there are so many people that could potentially be talked to, it is daunting to even think to talk to someone you don't know. Even with people you do know, it is very common to talk to them, but to actually engage them in serious conversation that would mean something at a later date, is very rare.
Albee’s message is still relevant today, as people still don't live the gift of their life to the full, the western world has become very lazy, it is always waiting to be entertained in some way, if it was a movie that someone else has written, or a computer game, so the same attitude has been taken to communication, we don't engage each other in conversation as it takes too much effort, we merely indulge in idle chit chat, or a passing “Hi” that wont mean anything in a few years time. If everyone were to engage, communicate and be alert in the way that Albee believes to be the only way that life should be lived, then everyone would feel more fulfilled.
