About the Play:

Seascape has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes (particularly suitable for those over 40 years old).

Seascape is a full-length satirical comedy by Edward Albee. A newly retired couple picnic and squabble on a beach about their life together when they are interrupted by two human-sized, English-speaking lizards. Are they an evolutionary miracle, or a threat? And which couple is the greater risk to the other? As the two pairs begin to communicate, they come uneasily together, discovering how transitions in life can spark terror and restlessness in any creature of habit. A major work by one of American theatre's most famous and important writers.

Seascape takes place on a deserted stretch of beach with a retirement aged couple relaxing and conversing idly after a picnic lunch about home, family and their life together. She stretches; he naps. Then suddenly, they are joined by two human-sized sea creatures – a pair of lizards who have decided to leave the ocean depths and come ashore. Initial fear, and then suspicion of each other, are soon replaced by curiosity and, before long, the humans and the lizards (who speak admirable English) are engaged in a fascinating dialogue. The lizards, who are at a very advanced stage of evolution, are contemplating the terrifying, yet exciting, possibility of embarking on life out of the water; and the couple, for whom existence has grown flat and routine, holds the answers to their most urgent questions. These answers are given with warmth, humour and poetic eloquence, and with emotional and intellectual reverberations that will linger in the heart and mind long after the play has ended. Critically hailed in its successful Broadway production, Seascape brings true eloquence, wit and warmth to its compelling yet subtle examination of the very meaning and significance of life itself.

Seascape premiered in 1975 at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre on Broadway in New York City. The play was nominated for the Tony Award and won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

What people say:

"Hats off, and up in the air! A major dramatic event." — The New York Times

"Not only does this brilliantly original play stimulate you, it also entertains you." — New York Newsday

"Of all Mr. Albee's plays, Seascape is the most exquisitely written." — The New Yorker

About the Playwright:

Edward Albee (1928-2016) was an American playwright. Widely considered the foremost American dramatist of his generation, he wrote and directed some of the best plays in contemporary American theatre. Three of his plays have received Pulitzer Prizes, and two won a Tony Award for best play. He was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980, and in 1996 he received both the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005 he was awarded the special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.