The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? starts off conventionally and even realistically, set in a smart, geometric living room. The family housed there is headed by Martin, an architect who has won the prestigious Pritzker Prize, has obtained the contract to design a mammoth living community in the nation’s heartland, and is celebrating his fiftieth birthday. “The sense that everything’s going right,” his wife Stevie tells him, “is a sure sense that everything’s going wrong.”

She couldn’t be more right, actually. Despite his many accomplishments, Martin is faced with two problems of great significance to him. First, his 18 year-old son Billy has recently come out of the closet, and it has been very difficult for Martin to accept, but perhaps more significantly, for the last six months, Martin has been having an affair with Sylvia. And yes, Sylvia is a goat.