“SEASCAPE” IS A RICH MINDSCAPE OF IDEAS

There’s food for thought in Beowulf Alley Theatre Company’s production of “Seascape” by Edward Albee. The play questions whether or not evolution is actually improving anything.

In directing this production, Michael Finlayson has emphasized the difference between the two couples – one human, one amphibian – in both appearance and action. Yet, both couples also have similarities in their dogged determination to bicker with each other and fear the unknown.

So we are left to ask if life on land would really be any better than life under the sea? Since there is three times more water than land, we can assume it wouldn’t be as crowded in the ocean.

“Seascape” was written during the chaotic cultural changes of the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1975. During that time, society definitely seemed to be making major changes, but to what? Breaking all the old rules and having new experiences that weren’t even possible before was very exciting for some. Frightening for others.

Was all that noisy conflict making society any better? Were we improving, or convulsing?

Now more than 30 years later our culture is shedding another skin, raising fresh questions about whether we as a people are getting better or worse.

Albee’s advice is to mull over the question thoughtfully and be careful what you wish for. The recorded sound of a jet place roars through the play now and then. In the 1970s it was a reminder of the Vietnam War, but now with new wars we are reminded how unexpected violence is always a threat.

The playwright begins with the human couple, Charlie (Roger Owen) and Nancy (Roxanne Harley), having a picnic together on an isolated beach. They have been married a long time, are anticipating the life of retirees and find themselves at odds with each other. He wants to just relax. She is ready to finally have some adventures.

Just before intermission, two green amphibian-like creatures with long, fat tails come uncertainly out of the water. They are Leslie (Todd Fitzpatrick) and Sarah (Ericka Quintero). They frighten the humans, then that jet flies over again and frightens the sea creatures.

Act Two resumes the action at that moment, as both couples representing their respective races, begin wary conversations and get to know each other a little.

As director, Fenlason has Owen and Harley become the consummate middle-class couple representing all of us. Fitzpatrick and Quintero in their full-body sea suits with green faces are definitely from another world. Their costumes designed by Kristen Wheeler are brilliant, giving the two actors an aura of total believability. Their body language is carefully nuanced, as well, so their movement always has a kind of slithery quality.

Placing all the action on a stage also designed for realism by Jared Strickland, such an absurdist theatrical concept doesn’t seem absurd at all. When one of the first subjects they discuss is sex, well, we are also reminded the more things change the more they stay the same.

Performances of “Seascape” by Edward Albee continue Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 4, at 1:30 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 8-10, and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave. All tickets are $20 at the door, $18 on line. For details and reservations, 882-0555, or visit www.beowulfalley.org