Seascape

The American Century Theater has unearthed another literary gem with Edward Albee's Seascape, the seldom performed 1975 Pulitzer Prize winner, which is receiving a smart showing by director Steven Scott Mazzola & Company at the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington (to 8/22).

Seascape begins as a classic one act, with a mismatched, long-married couple acting out their frustrations, which fully morphs into a theater of the absurd meeting of The Other, a "brave new world that has such people in it" by act two. Perhaps best described as a problem play for older couples - what do we do in retirement, who have I hitched my wagon to after all these years, and how can I get across to him or her what I really want - the play examines the strangeness of others, the failure of words in communication, and commonality of experience, with a decidedly atavistic twist.

You enter this imaginary sea world courtesy of set designer HannaH J. Crowell who has you passing over a curved wooden gangplank - before which you may half-expect someone to offer to take your picture - to your seats to confront a light blue-screened sky, pilings, dune fencing, driftwood, sand-tanned tiles, and the soothing waves and sounds of sea gulls, by sound designer Matt Otto. Superb lighting by Andrew Griffin plays over the tri-toned set and essential and familiar properties, by Suzanne Maloney in the form of comfortable beach chairs and cooler, beckon. So convincing is the mood you might want to reach for a Corona.

The play, on one level about the philosophy of language, goes to the root of things by questioning any and all of our verbal assumptions. What is implied by the use of words, how can we get at meanings, how do we truly know people and concepts? One character's hyperbole is another's fact; with a shifting landscape, communication becomes a minefield that you enter at peril (Nancy: "Words are lies; they can be, and you use them." So much of what we take for granted in meaning can't stand up to the smallest scrutiny when we examine our terms.

When we first meet Nancy (Annie Houston) and Charlie (Craig Miller) she is longing for a change in life, to commit to this special vacation spot or use it as a springboard to other beaches, while he just wants to stay put. For her, this stage of her life is the start of her journey, for him it's the end of the road. Ms. Houston gives a stellar, clearly enunciated characterization to Nancy, consistently conveying her emotions, especially her sense of wonder and enthusiasm for life, always in the moment. It is nothing short of heartbreaking to see her hopes for the future consistently thwarted by a melancholic spouse who would rather live in the past. Mr. Miller plays Charlie with a body language that says it all: face down, shoulders hunched, back turned, and swatting flies like so many of Nancy's verbal sallies, he is an arm-chair traveler with his National Geographic. The unfulfilled desires of possibility versus permanency are reminiscent of Agnes and Tobias in A Delicate Balance and sound a little stereotypical with the faithful wife and good provider husband toting up their respective balance sheets. They're monogamous to a fault, but more from inertia than imagination or lack of it. During lovemaking, Charlie can go no further than pretending it was his wife at another time. The real and virtual Nancy seems trapped in time.

Before you can shout Leaping Lizards a real or imaginary pair of creatures slithers out from the wings. The new kids on the block are younger and different - it turns out they wanted to move - but they are every bit as apprehensive as the older pair. Played by with stylized vocalization and a repertoire of movements - darting tongues and flicking tails - they are a wonder to behold. If you can't appreciate the actors' true appearances through the marvelous costuming of Melanie Clark, well, it must have been immensely freeing for them during the performance and a definite delight for the audience to see what the playwright has envisioned. Mundy Spears plays Sarah in an arch manner - this Sarah's edgy! - curved body and cocked head, while Brian Crane gives Leslie territorial range, physically and, for purposes of the play, verbally. I was informed by a TACT director that both actors studied animal behavior and visited the zoo to authenticate the roles and it certainly showed.

The situations of the second act have a natural humor and tension with the disparity in biology, certain anthropomorphizing of relationships, and reciprocal projections of prejudice, but Mr. Mazzola has skillfully probed the text to wring out the comic and dramatic possibilities. The unfolding of the "fatal sandwich" sequence is both funny and sad while the scientific theories Charlie and Nancy spin about evolution sound like so many creation myths coming out of their mouths. The many misunderstandings between each other and their new-found friends will get you to laugh and give you pause the next time you explain yourself.

Whether the creatures are real or were conjured up out Charlie's and Nancy's need to find a common language or move beyond the one they inhabit - somewhat similar to Martha and George's imaginary child in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - their appearance is necessary for completion. They both need something, anything to shake up their marriage and if it comes from The Far Side, so much the better. Nancy, particularly senses this when in a scene reminiscent of Tobias's pleading with Harry and Edna at the end of A Delicate Balance, she begs Leslie and Sarah to stay. As their evolutionary counterparts they are the bridge that will see Nancy and Charlie to the future.

The legendary control Mr. Albee exerts over productions of his plays doesn't leave much room for tinkering, but the conventional roles assigned to the husband and wife sound a little dated today and might yield some richer interpretations if they were switched. It also might be fun to play the creatures as Charlie and Nancy and vice versa in a Pixar or anime adaptation, modifying the language suitably, with the ironies returned three-fold. Finally this four-person play, it seems to me, cries out for some of Robertson Davies' Fifth Business - inclusion of an odd man out who makes the plot work. Now I've gone on record saying I'm tired of imaginary characters, but since it is my thought experiment, I'd give it a go, mining Mr. Albee's earlier work, just like the movies, to develop a suitable narrator or foil or maybe just an observer for the most revealing of moments, those of silence.

Sound check: Excellent, just like the beach, including the planes!

Program notes: Excellent, with artistic director's notes and head shots for the actors; a podcast is with an interview of the actors is available online for download (www.americancentury.org ). An informative Audience Guide (23 pages) is sold for the nominal price of 3 dollars and contains four articles and the listing of the playwright's works. The script is available for purchase, as are other plays for the season, at 10 dollars. Display cases in the lobby nicely interpret Mr. Albee's work as well as TACT

Applause meter: Highly recommended, 3 ½ hands

Runtime: A little under 2 hours with an intermission

Photo credits: Micah Hutz