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71 pages

English

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On the heels of the success of Edward Albee's The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Overlook brings back-in a stand-alone volume-one of Albee's most cherished plays, a fantastic story of what it means to be alive-winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. On a deserted stretch of beach, a middle-aged couple relaxes after a picnic lunch and converse idly about home, family, and their life together. She sketches; he naps. Then, suddenly, they are joined by two sea creatures, a pair of lizards from the depths of the ocean, with whom they engage in a fascinating dialogue. The emotional and intellectual reverberations of this bizarre conversation will linger in the heart and the mind long after the curtain falls-or the last page is turned.

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	18 décembre 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781468307542
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0622€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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BY EDWARD ALBEE
The Zoo Story
The Death of Bessie Smith
The Sandbox
The American Dream
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Tiny Alice
Malcolm
A Delicate Balance
Everything in the Garden
Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung
All Over
Seascape
Listening
Counting the Ways
The Lady from Dubuque
Lolita
The Man Who Had Three Arms
Finding the Sun
Marriage Play
Three Tall Women
Fragments (A Sit-Around)
The Play About the Baby
The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?
Occupant
At Home at the Zoo
Me, Myself & I
CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that performance of SEASCAPE is subject to payment of a royalty. The Play is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright union (including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention, the Berne Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including without limitation professional/amateur stage rights, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound recording, all other forms of mechanical, electronic and digital reproduction, transmission and distribution, such as CD, DVD, the Internet, private and file-sharing networks, information storage and retrieval systems, photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed upon the matter of readings, permission for which must be secured from the Author’s agent in writing.
The English language amateur stage performance rights in the United States, its territories, possessions and Canada for the Play is controlled exclusively by DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. No nonprofessional performance of the Play or either of its acts may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC., and paying the requisite fee.
The English language stock and regional theatre stage performance rights in the United States, its territories, possessions and Canada and the English language amateur stage performance rights in for the Play in the British Commonwealth of Nations (excluding Canada), Ireland, and South Africa are controlled exclusively by Samuel French, Inc, 45 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10010. No stock or regional performance or nonprofessional performance, in the aforesaid countries, of the Play or either of its acts may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of Samuel French, Inc., and paying the requisite fee.
Inquiries concerning all other rights should be addressed to William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. Attn: Jonathan Lomma.
Copyright
This edition first published in the United States in 2008 by
The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.
New York and London
N EW Y ORK:
141 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
www.overlookpress.com
For bulk and special sales, please contact sales@overlookny.com , or write us at the above address.
L ONDON:
Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
Greenhill House
30 Calvin Street
London E1 6NW
info@duckworth-publishers.co.uk
Copyright © 1975 by Edward Albee
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
ISBN 978-1-46830-754-2
For
Ella Winter
and
Donald Ogden Stewart
with love
The first performance of S EASCAPE was presented by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, and Clinton Wilder on Sunday, January 26, 1975, at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, New York City.
D EBORAH K ERR as NANCY
B ARRY N ELSON as CHARLIE
F RANK L ANGELLA as LESLIE
M AUREEN A NDERMAN as SARAH
Directed by E DWARD A LBEE
Scenery and Lighting by J AMES T ILTON
Costumes by F RED V OELPEL
General Manager , M ICHAEL K ASDAN
Production Stage Manager , M ARK W RIGHT
Lincoln Center production at Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street, New York City 10/28/05 (preview); 11/21/05–12/31/05.
F RANCES S TERNHAGEN as NANCY
G EORGE G RIZZARD as CHARLIE
F REDERICK W ELLER as LESLIE
E LIZABETH as SARAH
Written by E DWARD A LBEE
Directed by M ARK L AMOS
Scenic Design by M ICHAEL Y EARGEN
Lighting Design by P ETER K ACZOROWSKI
Sound Design by A URAL F IXATION
Costumes by F RED V OELPEL
LCT General Manager , A DAM S IEGEL
LCT Production Manager , M ICHAEL M CGOFF
Contents
By Edward Albee

Copyright
Dedication

Act One
Act Two
ACT ONE

The curtain rises. NANCY and CHARLIE on a sand dune. Bright sun. They are dressed informally. There is a blanket and a picnic basket. Lunch is done; NANCY is finishing putting things away. There is a pause and then a jet plane is heard from stage right to stage left—growing, becoming deafeningly loud, diminishing.
NANCY
Such noise they make.
CHARLIE
They’ll crash into the dunes one day. I don’t know what good they do.
NANCY
(Looks toward the ocean; sighs)
Still … Oh, Charlie, it’s so nice! Can’t we stay here forever? Please!
CHARLIE
Unh-unh.
NANCY
That is not why. That is merely no.
CHARLIE
Because.
NANCY
Nor is that.
CHARLIE
Because … because you don’t really mean it.
NANCY
I do!
CHARLIE
Here?
NANCY (Expansive)
Yes!
CHARLIE
Right here on the beach. Build a … a tent, or a lean-to.
NANCY (Laughs gaily)
No, silly, not this very spot! But here , by the shore.
CHARLIE
You wouldn’t like it.
NANCY
I would! I’d love it here! I’d love it right where we are, for that matter.
CHARLIE
Not after a while you wouldn’t.
NANCY
Yes, I would. I love the water, and I love the air, and the sand and the dunes and the beach grass, and the sunshine on all of it and the white clouds way off, and the sunsets and the noise the shells make in the waves and, oh, I love every bit of it, Charlie.
CHARLIE
You wouldn’t. Not after a while.
NANCY
Why wouldn’t I? I don’t even mind the flies and the little … sand fleas, I guess they are.
CHARLIE
It gets cold.
NANCY
When?
CHARLIE
In the winter. In the fall even. In spring.
NANCY (Laughs)
Well, I don’t mean this one, literally … not all the time. I mean go from beach to beach … live by the water. Seaside nomads, that’s what we’d be.
CHARLIE (Curiously hurt feelings)
For Christ’s sake, Nancy!
NANCY
I mean it! Lord above! There’s nothing binding us; you hate the city …
CHARLIE
No.
NANCY (Undaunted)
It would be so lovely. Think of all the beaches we could see.
CHARLIE
No, now …
NANCY
Southern California, and the Gulf, and Florida … and up to Maine, and what’s-her-name’s—Martha’s—Vineyard, and all those places that the fancy people go: the Riviera and that beach in Rio de Janeiro, what is that?
CHARLIE
The Copacabana.
NANCY
Yes, and Pago Pago, and … Hawaii! Think, Charlie! We could go around the world and never leave the beach, just move from one hot sand strip to another: all the birds and fish and seaside flowers, and all the wondrous people that we’d meet. Oh, say you’d like to do it, Charlie.
CHARLIE
No.
NANCY
Just say you’d like to.
CHARLIE
If I did you’d say I meant it; you’d hold me to it.
NANCY (Transparent)
No I wouldn’t. Besides, you have to be pushed into everything.
CHARLIE
Um-hum. But I’m not going to be pushed into … into this —this new business.
NANCY (Private rapture)
One great seashore after another; pounding waves and quiet coves; white sand, and red—and black, somewhere, I remember reading; palms, and pine trees, cliffs and reefs, and miles of jungle, sand dunes …
CHARLIE
No.
NANCY
… and all the people! Every … language … every … race.
CHARLIE
Unh-unh.
NANCY
Of course, I’d never push you.
CHARLIE
You? Never!
NANCY (Gay)
Well, maybe a hint here; hint there.
CHARLIE
Don’t even do that, hunh?
NANCY
That’s all it takes: figure out what you’d really like—what you want without knowing it, what would secretly please you, put it in your mind, then make all the plans. You do it; you like it.
CHARLIE (Final)
Nancy, I don’t want to travel from beach to beach, cliff to sand dune, see the races, count the flies. Anything. I don’t want to do … anything.
NANCY (Testy)
I see. Well.
CHARLIE
I’m happy … doing … nothing.
NANCY
(Makes to gather some of their things)
Well then, we’d best get started. Up! Let’s get back!
CHARLIE (Not moving)
I just … want … to … do … nothing.
NANCY (Gathering)
Well, you’re certainly not going to do that.
(Takes something from him, a pillow, perhaps)
Hurry now; let’s get things together.
CHARLIE (Aware)
What … Nancy, what on earth are you …
NANCY (Busy)
We are not going to be around forever, Charlie, and you may not do nothing. If you don’t want to do what I want to do—which doesn’t matter—then we will do what you want to do, but we will not do nothing. We will do something. So, tell me what it is you want to do and …
CHARLIE
I said. Now give me back my …
NANCY
You said, “I just want to do nothing; I’m happy doing nothing.” Yes? But is that what we’ve … come all this way for?
(Some wonder and chiding)
Had the children? Spent all this time together? All the sharing? For nothing? To lie back down in the crib again? The same at the end as at the beginning? Sleep? Pacifier? Milk? Incomprehensible once more?
(Pause)
Sleep?
(Pause)
Sleep, Charlie? Back to sleep?
CHARLIE
Well, we’ve earned a little …
NANCY