Theatre of the Absurd
Edward Albee worked in a style often called Theater of the Absurd, which sees humanity as… well, absurd. Folks go to the zoo, they sit on a bench, they get stabbed to death. And why? In order to find some meaning that isn't there and/or to look at some zoo animals.
A person has to have some way of dealing with SOMETHING. If not with people…if not with people…SOMETHING. With a bed, with a cockroach, with a mirror…not, that's too hard, that's one of the last steps. With a cockroach, with a a...with a…with a carpet, a roll of toilet paper…no, not that, either… (163)
If The Zoo Story seems to go nowhere for no reason, that's because Albee is telling you there's nowhere to go and no reason to go there.
What we're saying is basically that Theater of the Absurd is not a very cheery theater. This is no Annie or The Sound of Music. It's a theater of bottomless despair and angst up the wazoo, which is a painful place to put your angst. It's also a theater of benches. (For more on absurdity and the uses thereof, see "Themes.")