Park Bench

Fifty years ago, The Zoo Story premiered in West Germany. As per Theater of the Absurd, the action involved two characters sitting on a bench. One man is Peter, a publisher and bland, bourgeois type. Reading peaceably in Central Park, he's accosted by a random bum, Jerry, who has just returned from the zoo. Jerry is eager to talk about the trip - and he might have a homicidal/suicidal urge or two. This was Edward Albee's first play. (He later became a household name with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) Fifty years later, Albee attached another act to The Zoo Story as a sort of prequel. He renamed the new work At Home at the Zoo, and banned any further productions of the original. After a few off-Broadway runs, At Home at the Zoo has found the perfect staging ground in Palm Beach Dramaworks. The sometimes-stolid theater has lately been on an existentialist bender. This production stars Todd Allen Durkin, whose brilliant stint as a disintegrating modern man in Thom Pain makes him the perfect fit. Albee's retouched masterpiece is in able hands.

At Home at the Zoo shows Wednesdays through Sundays till June 24 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, located at 322 Banyan Blvd. in West Palm Beach. Tickets cost $42 or less. For showtimes, call 561-514-4042, or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: April 24. Continues through June 24, 2009