But you have to sympathize with modern writers, faced with an increasingly open-minded audience. Fifty years ago, interracial relationships were the stuff of discord. Twenty years ago, it was homosexuality. What's left? Edward Albee provides one answer in his fantastic "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" playing at ACT until July 10. The caprine coitus that occurs before the play is the equivalent of the the man-on-man action that might have shocked us in the 1980's, though Albee manages to offer a wrinkle on even that theme that appalled some of our gay friends.

Photo by Melissa Schneider