BEACH PEOPLE


A quartet of sunbathers philosophize on the sand in Charles A. Duncombe’s absurdist existential comedy Beach People, a City Garage World Premiere impressively acted by a skin-revealing cast of four.

The sky is an azure blue, the sounds of nearby waves waft through the air, and basking in it all are Anna (Angela Beyer) and Paul (Henry Thompson), absorbing the day’s rays in side-by-side lounge chairs.

It doesn’t take long to realize that these two Beach People won’t be conversing like you or I or anyone we know.

“Not like there’s something weird about liking heat. Extreme heat,” Anna tells Paul. “Like cook-your-eyeballs heat. Fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk heat. Like eye-blinding, sun-stroking, making-the-city-white-walking-in-your-sandals-on-the-baking-pavement, parched and head-pounding like you were crossing some desert … and need unguents and salves and creams and cures to get around, to even function, to just get across the carpet to the hotel room or skip to the bathroom or dance down the outside steps to try to get to the little kidney-shaped palm-potted swimming pool in one piece before your feet drop off, into the blue, the green, the jello-licious chlorine-stingy, sweety, cooling cool that makes you go ah.”

If it’s not already obvious, playwright Duncombe loves language, and among Beach People’s assorted pleasures is anticipating the next next tongue-twisting turn of phrase its characters will deliver.

Duncombe’s latest opus is also quite funny, as when a sexy, bikini-clad surf bunny strolls by (Marissa Ruiz as Diana) and Paul keeps insisting to Anna that he didn’t even notice her. “I was resting,” he lies. “I had my eyes closed. Behind my sunglasses. They were closed. I might have heard footsteps. You know. Just footsteps. Like feet. Bare feet. Would you like to order a drink?” I chuckle now even just typing the words.

I marvel in particular at Beyer’s prodigious memory skills, as when she enumerates the various fruits Paul could, according to Anna, spread on “the undiscovered continent of [Diana’s] body: pale persimmons, pineapple, guava, Mandarin oranges, kiwi, cantaloupe, dewy melons, runny pomegranates, bleeding seed after seed on the fragrant flesh, soft raspberries smeared on nipple tips, chilled watermelon torn in chunks and crushed into a juicy bath, tangerines, chinaberry, kumquats, quince, ripe peach and damson plum!” All of this seemingly without taking a breath.

Over the course of Beach People’s brisk eighty-or-so minutes, Anna, Paul, Diana, and the latter’s male counterpoint (Kasey Esser as Rex, a tall, tanned, muscular hunk wearing only the briefest and tightest of red speedos) wax poetic on such varied topics as infinity, happiness, fame, ocean pollution, the super-rich, and the nature of true love, to name just a few.

Oh, and hottie Rex coaches Anna on how best to seduce a seemingly uninterested Paul.

All of this adds up to a play whose avant-garde-ness puts it right up City Garage’s alley, and though under ordinary circumstances it wouldn’t be up mine, I quite enjoyed my evening at the beach, not the least because director Frédérique Michel has elicited four delicious acting turns.

British import Thompson (a young Jeremy Irons) delivers a performance every bit as crisp and captivating as his elegant London accent, and Ruiz and Esser give Diana and Rex sass and smarts to match their swimsuit-model bods.

Most amazing of all is Beyer’s Anna, and not just because the City Garage regular has mastered some of the most challenging monologues (and snappy patter) I’ve heard on stage. Beyer also manages to make Anna a real person with doubts and insecurities, and her attempts to play dumb in order to seduce Paul are a hoot.

Ducombe’s surfside set (and the drifting clouds that back it) is a Technicolor treat, and his lighting design is equally inviting.

Costume designer Josephine Poinsat has come up with swimwear that suits each character to a T, and Paul Rubenstein’s sound design not only conjures up beach breezes but features Brigitte Bardot in chanteuse mode.

Beach People is produced by Duncombe. Trace Taylor is assistant director. Naomi Helen Weissberg shares the role of Diana with Ruiz.

 I generally pass on anything avant-garde, but I’m glad I made an exception where Beach People is concerned. I may not have “gotten” everything Anna and Paul and Diana and Rex had to say, but I quite enjoyed hearing (and watching) them say it.

City Garage, 2525 Michigan Ave. Building T1, Santa Monica.
www.citygarage.org

–Steven Stanley
August 13, 2022
Photos: Paul Rubenstein

 

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