Zoo Story (1971)

Zoo Story by Edward Albee is a one act play concerning two men sitting on a park bench. Peter is spending a quiet afternoon reading in the park when he is drawn, somewhat unwillingly, into conversation with Jerry. Two productions, staged by two different teams and with different casts, were staged at 2030 and 2130 on Sunday 23 May 1971. This information was taken from the SLT Newsletter (April 1971) and it was intended that the two performances would be followed by a discussion. The article does not state names of the casts and crew.

The same article states that one of the two productions was suitable for performance 'almost anywhere' and could be arranged by appointment. This is therefore the likely reason for an open air performance by SLT at 146 Church Road Upper Norwood at 8.30pm on Friday 18 June 1971. The performance was promoted by Crystal Palace Triangle Community Association.

146 Church Road is a large Victorian house which was being used as a language school at the time and was the venue for many CPTCA events; it has since been converted into flats. As the poster advertising the event describes the performance as 'open air', it presumably took place in the garden. The poster also stated that tickets were 10p to members and 20p to non members although it is not clear whether this was referring to members of SLT or the CPTCA.

A poster advertising the performance appears in the book The Amazing Technicolour Triangle by Audrey Hammond (Crystal Palace Community Association, 2019, page 36). Audrey Hammond designed the poster. Although it was previously known that SLT had performed this play in 1971, no further details were available until this book was published.

A week earlier, on Friday 11 June, the play was performed as a non-competitive entry for the NATHDA festival at St Phillips Hall in Norbury. SLT had won the competition the previous year but were unable to defend their title as there was no suitable current play available (information from SLT Newsletter, May 1971)