Traverse Theatre Company stages the Scottish Premiere of Edward Albee’s rarely performed masterpiece, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? The production is directed by Traverse Artistic Director Dominic Hill and features a distinguished cast including the award-winning actress Sian Thomas.
A taboo-busting comedy, Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? was a massive hit when it had its World Premiere on Broadway in 2002, earning Albee the Tony Award for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Happily married, middle-aged couple Stevie and Martin reflect on their perfect life together. Martin is a highly respected architect and a model husband and father, who has a secret that is about to blow everything apart.
The full cast includes Sian Thomas (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix); John Ramm (who played alongside Anna Friel as Doc Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Shakespeare in Love); Kyle McPhail (Mother Courage and Her Children, National Theatre) and Paul Birchard (Inherit the Wind, Old Vic).
Sian Thomas who plays Stevie, was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance in Up For Grabs at the Wyndham’s Theatre. Sian played the character Amelia Bones in two of the Harry Potter films and appeared in the feature film Perfume. In the late 1970s Sian joined the company at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, under the artistic directorship of Giles Havergal, Robert David Macdonald and Philip Prowse, where she starred in a number of classic revivals such as Don Juan, Threepenny Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Semi Monde and Loot. This is her first role for the Traverse Theatre Company.
Edward Albee is one of the great modern American playwrights. In 2005 he was awarded the special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. His plays include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Zoo Story and Three Tall Women. The Goat or Who is Sylvia ? is the first play by Albee to be staged at the Traverse since a production of Zoo Story at the Theatre in 1965.
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? is the first play of the Theatre’s spring season to be directed by Artistic Director Dominic Hill, who will also direct Linda McLean’s new Traverse commission, Any Given Day, in June. The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? is designed by Jonathan Fensom, who was nominated for a Tony Award for Journeys End in 2007. Lighting design is by Katharine Williams.
Showing @Traverse Theatre: 21 April – 8 May, With Previews from 17 April