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NY Theater: “Seascape” by Albee a charming, edgy play about couples

An old married pair teach some lizards about love and life

By Lucy Komisar

How do you explain love, marriage, relations between the sexes? Edward Albee, in a brilliant apeçu, decided that you do it from a tabula rasa, telling it all to a couple of overgrown lizards just come up out of the sea. Call this Albee’s commentary on evolution. It makes for a charming, subtle, fascinating play, with a hint of “Our Town,” a “this is the way the world is” described by a long-married man and woman.

Frances Sternhagen and George Grizzard seem born for the roles of Nancy and Charlie. They are the sort who finish each other’s sentences. Not that they are always on the same page. And audience members choose up sides.

They are in their 70s. She wants excitement and adventure, to investigate the world’s beaches -- in Southern California, in -- “what’s her name? Martha’s Vineyard,” in Copacabana, Pango Pango.” Yea! I thought. He feels old and wants none of it. He’s happy doing nothing; he wants to sleep. The fellow next to me cheered silently.

This is a great couple’s play. She reminds him of the time he turned away from her; she saw his back in bed. She thought of divorcing him. He talks about their love life, thinks of nice sex.

All this takes place on Michael Yeargan’s simple yet perfect set, a beach dune with small hills, tall grass, rocks, blue sky. And with direction by Mark Lamos that is naturalistic at the same time the plot is surrealistic.

Well, this all might be “Our Town” treacle except for the huge green lizards (in stunning costumes by Catherine Zuber) that suddenly appear over the sand hill. Sarah (Elizabeth Marvel) and Leslie (Frederick Weller) seem younger more uncertain versions of Nancy and Charlie. Sarah moves straight into the pattern of telling her man what to do. The play is written by a man, of course.

So, is this how it all started? A bit of intelligent design under the water, and then some slimy creatures came out of the muck and decided to stay? The irony is that the lizards are not so sure they want to stay: “It’s rather dangerous up here.”

Marvel and Weller are appropriately edgy and anxious as the preening young lizards. The charming Sternhagen and Grizzard expertly show how that edge is softened but never disappears as the decades pass.

Kudos to Lincoln Center for reviving this play, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

“Seascape.” Written by Edward Albee. Directed by Mark Lamos. Starring Frances Sternhagen, George Grizzard, Elizabeth Marvel, Frederick Weller.

Lincoln Center Theater at the Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th St. Tue-Sat 8pm; Wed, Sat 2pm, Sun 3pm. Running time: 1:45. Through Jan. 8, 2006. $61.25-$86.25. 212-239-6200. http://www.lct.org.

by Joan Marcus

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