We are in a stylish modern family home: lofty ceilings; exposed beams, an interesting library – and a feeling that something is not quite right.

There isn’t a throw rug out of place, but as Perry Como croons Papa Loves Mambo, a maple is dying outside.

Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? and its 2002 Tony Award- winning reputation brings us to this suburban dwelling with a certain amount of … trepidation. A strategically-placed family photograph with two adults and one kid (just the one) is all the harbinger we need to suspect that the pillars of this family abode are not as structurally sound as the aesthetics suggests.

Nathan Page and Claudia Karvan in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Photo © Matt Byrne

We are off to a pedestrian start when Stevie (Claudia Karvan) and Martin (Nathan Page) engage in effervescent semantics about pluralising flower names, with banter that feels a little forced for their relationship of 22 years. Martin lacks the egotism of a Pritzker Prize-winning architect celebrating his golden birthday year and the reason soon becomes apparent.

Page accomplishes the Herculean task of convincingly portraying a husband, father,...