More Theatre: "The Zoo Story"

25.05.2009 - Hank Shizzoe returns to the theatre: This summer he plays and sings in Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story". The play premiers at Bern's Kocherpark on June 6th 2009.

The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albee's first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks.The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, social disparity and dehumanization in a commercial world. This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Klaus-Dieter. Peter is a middle-class publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets who lives in ignorance of the world outside his settled life. Klaus-Dieter is an isolated and disheartened man who lives in a boarding house and is very troubled. These men meet on a park bench. Klaus-Dieter 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 from his life, including "THE STORY OF KLAUS-DIETER 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 Klaus-Dieter brings his victim down to his own savage level.

Actors: Jan Zierold, Markus Maria Enggist, Hank Shizzoe.
Music: Hank Shizzoe.
Adapted and directed by: Livia Anne Richard.
A lart-Theatreproduction.

Further information:

Jan Zierold (left) and Markus Maria Enggist (right).