| | Issue #19.27 :: 01/30/2008 - 02/05/2008 | Cat vs. goat
Despite the controversial nature of manyof their productions, Augusta audiences
continue to lap up Le Chat Noir’s offerings.
| BY ANNA GRACE CARTER
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AUGUSTA, GA - Le Chat Noir is known for plays that deal with serious issues, from abortion to religion to homosexuality.They’ve tackled nearly every taboo. And now the black cat offers something to really get our goats: Edward Albee’s famously controversial award-winning play, “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?”
Martin, played by Mark Swanson, is a prize-winning architect who has recently celebrated his 50th birthday and finds his previously perfect-as-can-be life turned upside down when he reveals to his best friend that he is having an affair. But this is no ordinary affair. He speaks of meeting his love, Sylvia, 60 miles from the city “Just looking at me… with those eyes of hers…”
It’s not giving too much away to say that the object of his affection is a goat. Martin speaks with distressing and believable conviction of his love for Sylvia, a love that causes a rift between him and everyone he loves: his doting wife, his 17-year-old gay son and his best friend and former confidant, who reveals Martin’s secret to the world.
Albee forces his audience to take Martin’s pain seriously and to feel his deep despair in the tragedy of choosing between his family and his absurdly honest love for Sylvia.
Director Doug Joiner insists that Albee’s award-winning play is a love story of the most perverse and tragically romantic kind. Joiner points out that the word tragedy comes from the Greek “goat song,” where the oldest form of drama — the chorus — was chanted while dancing around the altar of a sacrificed goat to the gods of the pantheon. The absurdity of the ancients hits home in this modern tale of love, betrayal and the societal pressure to be “normal.”
Le Chat Noir is in its second season of production and it has already made its mark on Augusta’s arts community. The small venue fosters an intimacy between actor and audience that cannot be found in other venues in town. And it is known as “Augusta’s only Off-Broadway theater.”
Run by three mainstays of Augusta theater — Krys Bailey, Doug Joiner and Richard Justice — Le Chat Noir is “an example of what happens when three gay men get together,” they often joke. (It is a joke)
The mission of the black cat, according to its Web site, is to bring the community award-winning shows and premieres which otherwise have been unexplored by local theater groups. Joiner complains, “Even colleges don’t do that kind of intelligent theater anymore. We offer academic theater — plays that extract and reveal, plays that make you think.”
The outcome: Seven premieres so far.
And the audiences keep coming back for more. The last show, “Nuncrackers,” was such a hit that they added an additional matinee. It sold out as well.
Their success has been largely due to word of mouth and volunteers. Le Chat Noir offers actors something unique as well. Mark Swanson explains, “We are lucky to have what they provide: The ability to express oneself in ways that were previously unavailable.”
Swanson has been involved in four Le Chat Noir productions. He and his co-star, Ashley Poteet, hope that they never have to draw from the experiences of their characters, but they both agree that the heart of the play is the expression of love and turmoil with strong dialogue and absurd, but fascinating, twists.
“All the characters are attempting to grasp something real, and yet inconceivable.”
Poteet reveals that her character, Stevie, maintains a sense of control almost to the end, even when faced with the devastating news of her husband’s infidelity. And her reaction is not unlike any woman’s reaction would be when faced with news of unfaithfulness. Joiner describes Stevie as “a modern Martha” from Albee’s most renowned work, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?”
“The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?” runs for three weekends in February, with a Valentine’s Day special on Feb. 14. Bring your lover, but leave the children at home. This is no family show, though it does address the ideals of the American family.
Le Chat Noir’s edgy, provocative theater may get the goat of the more conservative audiences, but the black cat will prove it is no one’s scapegoat and boasts that it will continue to provide its off-Broadway experience to the theater lovers in our town.
And, Joiner points out, “No goats were harmed in the making of this play.”
“The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?”
Le Chat Noir
Feb. 8-9, 15-16, 21-23
8 p.m.
$20
Cupid’s Cabaret w/ performance, dessert plate and choice of wine
Thursday, Feb. 14
8 p.m.
$75 per couple
706-722-3322
lcnaugusta.com
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