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Arts & Entertainment

'Seascape' Paints a Picture of Progress

Langhorne Players presents Albee's intimate examination of moving on.

We all occasionally need someone to poke us in the ribs and make us move. This is what happens to Nancy and Charlie in Edward Albee’s Seascape.  Langhorne Players presents the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, directed by Bernard DiCasimirro and running through June 18 at Spring Garden Mill in Tyler State Park.

Nancy wants to travel from beach to beach, taking in all life has to offer. Charlie wants to do nothing. He thinks he’s earned it. The retired couple have enough baggage to overfill the picnic basket they’ve brought to the seaside, where Nancy sketches and plans the next stage of their life, while Charlie does nothing, actively nothing.

In between moments of tenderness, they battle – covertly and overtly.

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“You’ve had a good life,” Charlie tells Nancy, defensively.

She’s furious. “Had a good life? Not having a good life?”

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He doesn’t understand why a figure of speech would irk her. She’s irked he doesn’t understand.

Nancy and Charlie reveal themselves to each other and the audience. Flashes of humor, moments of comic irony pepper the dialogue.

Seascape is set entirely on an open beach, a design by Ken Junkins that functions beautifully for the story. Carole Mancini’s Nancy expands the scenery with glances in the distance. Joe Mattern’s Charlie turns his face up to the sun. The sound of jets zooming by adds to the expanse. Yet the first act can, at times, feel claustrophobic, as we are sucked into marital muddle.

It is when Sarah and Leslie arrive that the fun begins in earnest. When Leslie peeks out from behind a rock, it opens up.  Sarah arrives just in time.  The younger couple is welcomed, anticipated from the first time Nancy spots them in the distance. They’re also lizards, donned head to tail in intriguing costumes by Barbara Simpson.

The lizards are played with admirable energy by Nigel Rogers and Jen Newby.  They creep along the sand, Leslie protectively climbing over Sarah. They never stand fully upright.  And they scare the inertia out of Charlie.

Suddenly he’s protective of Nancy. Suddenly he wants something – a stick to protect them from the human-sized lizards. Who speak English.

Nancy’s curious. Interested. Enthused. As is Sarah.

She quickly becomes teacher to the new-to-land lizards. They come from under the sea, a place Charlie frequented as a young boy. They’ve spent their lives traveling beach to beach, something Nancy wants to do now.

Yet, the young lizards are forced out of the sea by what they don’t know. Compelled to evolve. Move on.

And Nancy and Charlie are obliged to help them. And themselves.  Just the nudge they needed.

Seascape runs June 9 to 18 at Spring Garden Mill in Tyler State Park, 1440 Newtown-Richboro Road. Curtain times are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Ticket prices are $12-$14. For additional information, visit www.langhorneplayers.org or call 215-860-0818.

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