Albee wrote a prequel to The Zoo Story, titled Homelife. Homelife is written as the first act, with The Zoo Story as the second act, in a new play called Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo (initially titled Peter & Jerry). Homelife was first read publicly at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference.
Christopher Wallenberg wrote of The Zoo Story: "Over the years, he'd [Albee] always had a nagging feeling that something was missing from the piece’s unsettling encounter between two very different men on a Central Park bench ..." Albee said: "The Zoo Story is a good play. It's a play that I'm very happy I wrote. But it's a play with one and a half characters. Jerry is a fully developed, three-dimensional character. But Peter is a backboard. He’s not fully developed. Peter had to be more fleshed out."[9]
In addition to discussions about his adding an act and a character nearly 50 years after writing the original play, the theater community was taken aback by Albee's announcement that he would no longer permit The Zoo Story to be produced by professional theater companies. He would only allow the two-act play. The move has raised controversy within the theater community. Only non-professional and college theaters may produce The Zoo Story in its original version. Albee defended the change and the addition of a female character, Peter's wife. Albee noted the play was his to do with as he wanted.
Production history
The two-act play Peter and Jerry had its world premiere at the Hartford Stage in 2004, with Pam MacKinnon directing and Frank Wood as Peter, Johanna Day as Ann, and Fred Weller as Jerry.[10]
The play was produced Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in 2007, and starred Bill Pullman, Dallas Roberts and Johanna Day. It was titled Peter and Jerry.[11]
The play, titled Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo played at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in June 2009, with Anthony Fusco as Peter, René Augesen as his wife Ann, and Manoel Felciano as Jerry.[12]
At Home at the Zoo had its Pittsburgh-area premiere as the inaugural show of the Ghostlight Theatre Troupe in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania in July 2010. It starred Rich Kenzie as Peter, Mary Romeo as Ann and Ned Johnstone as Jerry and was directed by Gabe Herlinger.[13]
At Home at the Zoo opened on February 23, 2018, at New York's Signature Theatre, starring Katie Finneran, Robert Sean Leonard and Paul Sparks.[14]
