Fernando Tejero stars in ‘Camino al zoo’ at the Bretón Theater

Edward Albee, one of the last great geniuses of North American dramatic literature, is a relatively common reference in the Breton Theater. ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ and ‘The goat or who is Sylvia?’ These are just two of his titles that have passed through Logroño, always performed by great performers who have wanted to face the challenge, such as Carmen Machi, Pere Arquillué or José María Pou. On this occasion it is Fernando Tejero, Mabel del Pozo and Dani Muriel who stage ‘Camino al zoo’ (this Saturday at 8:00 p.m.), in a version by Bernabé Rico and Juan Carlos Rubio directed by the latter.

Originally titled ‘Peter & Jerry’, ‘Road to the Zoo’ combines Albee’s classic short play ‘The Zoo Story’ (from 1959) with its much later prequel, ‘Homelife’ (from 2004). Together, they form a complete story of Peter, a publishing executive, Ana, his wife, and Jerry, a stranger Peter meets in the park.

The play begins with ‘Homelife’ and offers a revealing look at Peter and Ann’s unstable marriage, their brutal attempts to communicate, and the loneliness within their shared life. The tension increases in the next act, ‘The zoo story’. While reading on a Central Park bench, a stranger approaches Peter and declares that he has been to the zoo. The man, Jerry, begins to tell story after story, delving into Peter’s life and attempting, no doubt, to usurp his own place on that bench, in that park.

“A lot of pain, anger, violence and lack of communication,” Rubio warns, “in a sophisticated tone of theater of the absurd that irremediably connects with the times we live in.”