Animal rights activists get the goat over Silo Theatre play

If you are a fan of theatre and know anything about the work of American playwright Edward Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Albee, you'll have an inkling that a new drama by Albee called The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? might have a sticky ending ... for someone.

And if you're going to tonight's finale of The Goat at Auckland's Silo Theatre and you want the climax of Albee's play to remain a surprise, warning - this story may contain a spoiler.

Let's just say The Goat involves a successful New York couple, a female goat called Sylvia and a triangle of green-eyed jealousy. Real-life partners Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand play the couple, and Sylvia is played by a real goat - dead, stuffed, bought as a prop from a taxidermist.

But Sylvia's presence has offended some animal rights activists, notably members of Auckland Animal Action, the group that this week protested against the use of possum fur in a Fashion Week show. When AAA member Jasmine Gray, of Waitakere City, attended a performance of The Goat, she fled in tears and demanded a refund.

AAA considered mounting a protest outside the Silo, then decided they did not want to give the play more publicity.

"They should have had some kind of warning," says Gray. "Had it been excessive violence or sex, they would have put some sort of warning. I know it would have taken away from their big punchline but. . . I kind of thought the play might be going that way but my main problem is that I don't think it's fair to assume that people would know."

Gray rang the Silo the next day to protest. She says she was told, "Everyone knows about it and everyone knows what happens, so it was my fault for going."

Gray also wanted to know where the goat had come from, and how many goats was the production culling? The Silo, at that stage, did not want to elaborate. Then a lawyer who acts for AAA (whom they won't name) rang the theatre. The reality, it seems, is one dead stuffed goat, many performances.

"We ran through all sorts of scenarios ... and we were quite happy to find out it was just one goat, and they didn't solicit a hunter to go and find it," says Gray.

Silo Theatre director Shane Bosher, who confirms Gray was given a refund, says the extended season of The Goat had been attended by more than 3500 people and none "have had any issue with either the goat or the production".

Although the Auckland season ends tonight, there is no rest for poor Sylvia. She is off to Christchurch to act The Goat at the Court Theatre.