‘Zoo Story’ can’t maintain excitement of promising start

Edward Albee’s one-act dramatizes the clashing of two worlds: Jerry (played by Dave Surratt), a young, soul-searching and perhaps dangerous outsider existing in a New York single-occupancy hotel; and Peter (Drew Yonemori), a proper, educated, middle-aged man who has comfortably encrusted himself in the bourgeoisie. The disappointments in their lives result in a climax that reveals Jerry’s surprising manipulation of the encounter.

It’s a great script for those who love language. Visually, it features little more than two men and a park bench. Yet, it makes for one of the most poignant modern tales of loneliness and isolation.

Director Sean Critchfield gets our hopes up when the two characters first appear. The team milks a lot of legitimate (and often ignored) laughs out of the opening moments. Better yet, the actors seem to really be listening to one another. Surratt looks disheveled enough to put you on guard, and yet is so boyishly likable you understand why Peter would listen to his rants. Yonemori comes across good-natured, well-bred and naive. The two actors create characters of such different types that you’re eager to see them interact.

But Surratt’s initially pleasing casual tone becomes monotonous. He comes across as an actor trying hard to be off-the-cuff. I thought he was doing this so he could play a contrast in the big final scene, but his bland line-readings never let up. There’s no anger in him, no reason this Jerry should do what he does.

Yonemori is too boyish to have us accept him as an established man whose life is built on routines. The actor has an expressive face, but here he signals too much. He doesn’t seem to trust how easily he’s capable of communicating thought.

There’s not enough mania in the soft, cerebral final confrontation to justify Peter’s losing so much control.

Because this production of “The Zoo Story” has a competent director and two colorful actors, you wish the team would give it another try. But now, it’s so slow, repetitive and misguided, that you’re tempted to tune out the play and entertain your mind with other things.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.