| Audiences
Talk About Pullman, Play Wed Mar 20, 1:20 PM ET By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Writer |
NEW YORK - When Bill Pullman first read "The
Goat," he wasn't sure if the play by Edward Albee would work in front of an audience.
One thing was certain, though: It couldn't be ignored. "Possibly (the) most provocative play from
the chronically provocative Edward Albee," said Variety. "It makes no
sense," fumed New York magazine under the headline "Baa, humbug," while The
Associated Press called it "as startling as it is satisfying. In fact, it is one of
the most satisfying productions of the Broadway season." But then, when the plot concerns a 50-year-old man
who confesses to his wife and teen-age son that he is in love with a four-legged creature
named Sylvia (the play's full title is "The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?") discussion
is bound to be, well, spirited. Not a bad way to return to the theater for Pullman,
who in the past 15 years or so has concentrated on films — "Independence
Day" and "Lost Highway" among them — and television rather than the
stage. And his gamble has paid off. His performances have been uniformly praised as one of
the production's strongest assets. In person, Pullman is a modest, laconic and, at 48,
still boyish actor, who wouldn't seem out of place riding the range out West, although he
grew up in a small town in upstate New York where his father was a doctor. "It is formidable," he says, trying to
describe "The Goat" over an omelet breakfast in an Upper West Side restaurant.
"The play asks a lot of the whole cast, but it felt to me exactly like the kind of
theater I would want to see on Broadway if I was going to see a play. "`The Goat' is about Martin, an architect,
quite successful really and very happily married to a wife (played by Ruehl) with whom he
has had a full life," Pullman explains. "And yet he has another relationship he
is passionate about. And it's about his attempt to maintain two passionate relationships
— to test what the limits of love are." Whatever this husband and wife are, they are not
George and Martha, the combative twosome who are center stage in Albee's most famous play,
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" The two people in "The Goat" are
"bright, intelligent people; they are not a dysfunctional couple, which is kind of
wonderful in the theater," Pullman says. "There is an incredible thrill in
portraying people being that intimate with each other, particularly by the arguments they
present to each other and as they try to maintain their relationship. "Throw into the mix a gay son (played by
newcomer Jeffrey Carlson) whom they love dearly and you have quite a story," Pullman
says. "In the end, the play is about the chaotic nature of passion: how mysterious
passion can be and how society can be at war with those needs and drives." Albee has subtitled the play "Notes Toward a
Definition of Tragedy," which it is, Pullman says, but it also is very funny. Working with director David Esbjornson and Albee
has been a learning experience. "I am an actor who listens to what the
playwright says, but I give my list of questions to the director," Pullman says.
"I am not used to having a playwright around in the middle of the rehearsal process,
but Edward has been supportive. He is sometimes cagey about what things mean, but often he
is very direct. I don't find him disguising a lot." "The Goat" is Pullman's first time back
on a New York stage since a memorable production of Sam Shepard's "Curse of the
Starving Class" off-Broadway in the mid-1980s. What took him so long to return? "I don't know," he says with a laugh
because he was always a stage actor first. Pullman moved to California not to do movies or
television, but rather to work in theater. He went to join the Los Angeles Theater Center,
a quirky, offbeat company, that the actor says was like "the Public Theater here in
New York, doing plays that were socially driven as well as revisiting classics." The Theater Center died six years later, but by
then Pullman had established himself in films, appearing in such diverse fare as
"Spaceballs" for Mel Brooks, "The Accidental Tourist," "Sleepless
in Seattle" and "Casper." These days, Pullman lives with his wife, Tamara,
and three children in both California and Montana, which is where he worked during summers
doing Shakespeare outdoors. He moved there after graduating with a master's degree in
directing from the University of Massachusetts. "I wanted to go out West AND do
theater," he says, so he started teaching theater at Montana State University in
Bozeman. But Pullman knew he wanted to do more and came to
New York in the early '80s. He got his break in "Curse of the Starving Class,"
appearing in the well-received revival with Kathy Bates. In one of the scenes, Pullman had
to enter totally naked carrying a sheep. Don't worry. There's no such scene in "The
Goat." "I guess Broadway means you don't have to have
a live animal itself on stage," Pullman says.
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