Seascape
Signal Theatre
Signal Theatre
Jeff Nominated
"Signal Ensemble Theatre production of Edward Albee's 1975 Pulizter winner, which features an interspecies double date on a beach,
1/2/2006 - 2/19/06
Thurs-Sat 8p, Sun 3p
"The one with the lizards" is inevitably how Seascape will be described whenever three-time Pulitzer winner Albee's oeuvre of work is discussed. And in all fairness, no trait distinguishes this meditation on interspecies similarities more than the reptiles (played by humans) who interact with an elderly vacationing couple. Likewise, Signal's treatment doesn't really come alive until the massive green creatures take the stage. (Costume designer Laura A. Dana's festooned lime bodysuits are all aces.) But since this moment doesn't arrive until 30 minutes into the first act, the whole thing becomes top-heavy when the lizards, as it were, tip the scales. Patrician retirees Nancy (O'Dowd) and Charlie (pancake-madeup Bender, miscast here as an elderly curmudgeon) lie on the beach and wax philosophic about where their once-vital marriage has gone. In what sounds like two intertwining Beckett monologues (Charlie growls and groans as if rerecording Krapp's Last Tape; Nancy chirps away like Winnie in Happy Days), the first half of Act I is meant to capture uselessly civilized WASP life. When they then encounter two married lizards?deftly played by Charuhas and the hissing, scampering Snook?they come to learn that evolution is a slippery slope. But since O'Dowd and Bender are so mannered, acting with a capital A in an intimate theater with a lowercase t, the lizards often seem more human than they do, and the notion that other species might be gaining on us gets lost in the mix" - Chris Piatt, TimeOut Chicago 1/26/06