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Edward Albee’s provocative Pulitzer Prize winner splashes onto the stage at Theatre West where director Charlie Mount deftly moves a cast of four through an extraordinary and superb production of one of Albee’s more absurd and whimsical offerings. As a master of the Theatre of the Absurd, Albee brings us one of the more absurd premises of his plays; human sized lizards seeking a life style change and finding humans with whom they can discuss their plight. As presented by the Chestnuts company at TW, this production combines humor, satire and cynicism into a powerhouse of theatre, earning a well deserved standing ovation for the cast on opening night.
In a beach somewhere, Charlie and Nancy are relaxing as they have firmly entered the portals of middle age and are experiencing a definite “now what?” feeling. With the children grown and retirement at hand, she wants to travel the world bouncing from one beach to another and spending their lives in the sand, the wind and the waves. He wants to do nothing; he wants to be left alone and just sit and contemplate. This infuriates Nancy and she tries in vain to badger him to do some of the things he liked as a youth – like going underwater and staying a long time. He’ll have none of it, and so begins a series of arguments that volley back and forth which sometimes become heated and borderline ugly (a little like his other play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?”).	Arden Teresa Lewis - Alan Schack
They bring up sensitive issues – things that couples often want to say to each other but hold back to avoid confrontation. Here they don’t care about confronting the issues and at times the badgering gets very tedious. Arden Teresa Lewis and Alan Schack have the knack for playing a couple that still loves each other but are tired of the everyday tedium of putting up with their little whims and quirks . . . so they argue instead. Just when you’re about to say – “enough already!” up pops a green face in the background almost stopping the show.
When Paul Gunning first shows up as Leslie, the Lizard, the audience holds its collective breath for an instant and when Kristin Wiegand waddles in as his mate Sarah you just know something special is coming up. The costuming for the lizards by Paul Gunning is inspired and should be a shoo-in for honors at Ovation time. This is an absolutely remarkable set designed by Jeff G. Rack, with big boulders and rocks, a wide view of an ocean and sky in the back and a beach in the front where the actors have an excellent space to maneuver and build their characters. And build they do! Albee wrote some great dialogue between the lizards and the humans and Charlie Mount has his actors develop the tension and apprehension like little sand blocks which are delicate and fragile but could become solid keystones with the right mix.	Paul Gunning - Kristin Wiegand
The lizards are fascinated by the humans and their ideas – the humans are at first terrified of the lizards but slowly barriers break and trust starts to find its way into both species as they discover that deep down they may have the same concerns. Concepts of emotion (Descartes) and of evolution (Loren Eisley) are brought up by Charlie in an effort to teach the lizards who are curious and uniformed on the ways of humans.
There is a high level of frustration from both groups because basic concepts that are ingrained in humans are completely foreign to the lizards. When Charlie asks Sarah what she would do if Leslie went away forever she breaks down and cries inconsolably. Charlie wanted to show Sarah about emotions and also take a dig at Leslie for often contradicting him but his question prompted Leslie to attack him for making her cry. It is a brute response to a question that had a double edge a concept not known to the lizards. The two females seem to empathize more readily – the two males spar constantly. The lizards who were so curious about humans soon decide that perhaps they’re better off going back since they see no advantage to changing their life, but Charlie offers to help them arguing that “we are what you will eventually become”.	Kristin Wiegand-Paul Gunning - Alan Schack-Arden Teresa Lewis
While this may not be the best thing that can happen to lizards, it does show a glimmer of hope that each group can find a new reason to exist rather than settling for the fatalistic existence of just going from day to day. Whether lizard or human the story clearly shows that no one is fully satisfied with what they have and always seeks something new – but if they ever succeed in getting it they soon tire of that and want something else. The lizards don’t quite understand why this is so – they just know that it is. The humans make up reasons why they need to change, but seldom have good reasons for it. You don’t need to rationalize why you should see this play. It will make you laugh, it may frustrate you and it may make you think. To paraphrase a French philosopher – It Is! Therefore you Go! Recommended! Plays through October 16, 2011 Comments? Write to us at: Letters@ReviewPlays.Com Theatre West - 3333 Cahuenga Blvd West, Los Angeles CA 90068. (323) 851-7977 www.theatrewest.org Photo Credit: Thomas Mikusz