THE LAST TABOO

Show business folks love the shock value of shattering a taboo, but they have almost reached the end of the line. Homosexuality has long been old hat. Same with incest. Monica Lewinsky cracked the taboo against public discussion of specific body parts; “The Vagina Monologues” finished it off.

Now comes the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee with a new play intended to smash what he seems to consider the ultimate taboo. “The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia” has been in previews on Broadway for several weeks, but you’d never guess from the advance blurbs what it’s really about. Reviewers have been persuaded to hold off until after the opening, March 10. The preview audiences have been urged to keep the secret. Internet blurbs, in identical language, say only that the play is about a man who “has to confess to his wife and son that he’s involved in a relationship which will probably destroy his marriage, his career and his life.”

Well, you can learn here for the first time that this supposedly last taboo is bestiality. The man is in love with a goat. He goes on and on about “Sylvia’s” lovely eyes and silky hair. His wife, understandably, is outraged. The goat never appears on stage. In the final scene, the animal does finally show up – dead, in a bloody gunny sack. The wife has killed it. There has been talk of dropping that last bit before opening night. Some think that omitting the dead goat might lend subtlety by making the drama end in a mystery as to whether a goat actually was involved. But Mr. Albee is said to be adamant against any change in his work.

Now, bestiality may seem to Broadway folks like the last of the great taboos. But here in Maine, bestiality already is yesterday’s news. In fact, older than that – it’s been more than a year since we learned more than we wanted to know about a local man who considered himself to be married to his dog, Lady. His elderly father, disgusted, hit the man over the head with a crowbar and went to jail.

So much for the supposed last taboo. Sorry, Broadway. Sorry, Albee. We already know all about bestiality and have gone on to more seemly matters.