Lizard tale comes off well

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34123, 8 April 1976, Page 18

Lizard tale comes off well

“Seascape,” by Edward Albee, directed by Yvette Bromley for the Court Theatre, Christchurch Arts Centre. Running time: 8.15-10.00, The average senile cranium is not. 1 would have thought, normally an arena for epochmaking scenes of human endeavour — especially when it is engaged in an afternoon’s dozing on a sandhill. And yet it is precisely two such crania in Albee’s new play which are invaded first by water-babies’ fantasies and then by some colossal subhumanoid lizards which wriggle up out of the sea to do their own bit of research

into the mysteries of evolution.

It is the same principle that has preoccupied Albee throughout his career: his characters dream their way out of burgeois tedium, the dreams assume flesh, and confrontation and annihilation follow. However, in several ways “Seascape” is far and away his greatest achievement to date: his concerns are split between entertainment and artistry, his confrontation is across a huge evolutionary chasm that defeated Shaw and O’Neill, and. amazingly to those who know Albee, there is an extraordinary atmosphere of

optimism that lies across the whole thing. Eiric Hooper looks with every production more like the greatest asset that the Court has gained for a long time: his professionalism, his versatility, and his resourceful imagination have been heavily in evidence in all three productions this year, and it would be difficult to say whether he distinguishes himself more here as! designer or reptile. Certainly, the conception of the design is excellent: an extra non-structural pillar which actually makes a virtue of the threatre’s obstructions. a heap of hessian bags which makes a sandhill that is difficult to climb down, a two-tone cyclorama for sea and sky, and some magnificent primeval lizard suits with long, thick tails. His exploitation of these costumes is extremely good, too: quick, jerky movements, slithery runs down the sandhills, and some remarkable stances, ilke the rampant lizard posture adopted for the first entrance.

Yvette Bromley, too, has obviously made a highly

creditable contribution to this production: the excellent control of tempo throughout must be her work, the brilliant artistry with which a static set becomes theatrically dynamic is something she has realised along with Hooper and Albee, and, above all, the comedy which she extracts from it is rich and almost continuous.

In the acting, the comedy is firmly established by Elizabeth Moody in a part that might have been written for her and by Peter Tulloch, who puts in easily the best performance I can remember from him. Add to that Eiric Hooper as an easilyembarrassed bigoted lizard with a hen-pecking wife (Maureen Edwards) and the mad lizards’ tea party is complete. Miss Edwards puts in a creditable performance, but will be remembered mostly for the lizard suits she knitted.

“Seascape” is one Pultizer prizewinner that American literature can be proud of; the Court production is something that Christchurch must be proud of. —Howard McNaughton