The older people in the audience laughed the loudest.

But anyone who has reached an age he didn't used to be can find interest and amusement in Modern Muse's skillful production of Edward Albee's Seascape.

Albee's 1974 play wasn't a commercial success, but it has grown to be one of his most respected, earning a Pulitzer Prize. In this strange, often absurd tale, two married couples tackle mortality, how to delay death and, perhaps most importantly, why one should want to delay it at all.

Dissatisfied couples are a hallmark of Albee's work, but Albee took a sharp turn in Seascape. As the older couple, Charlie and Nancy, relax by the shore, a younger one comes out of the water - quite literally. The differences between these two couples could be out of a Saturday-morning cartoon, but under the direction of Stephen Lavezza and Gabriella Cavallero, the play is pinned with an emotional realism and an honest source of comedy.

As Charlie and Nancy, John Ashton and Billie McBride convey an intimacy developed through decades of marriage. Bickering siblings one minute, they are locked in passionate embrace the next. Throughout their encounter with Leslie and Sarah, Ashton and McBride are fascinating to contemplate, as they alternately berate and defend one another.

Geoffrey Kent and Anne Penner have the less-transparent roles as Leslie and Sarah, and without giving away this play's surprise, they both employ a physical precision in expressing their characters' unusual backgrounds. They carry a sense of wonder and a bond of their own.

Kent and Penner are aided by the extraordinary costumes of Kevin Copenhaver, who manages to make the fantastic seem real, and the realistic dunes of Michael Morgan (although the many-creased backdrop is a bit of a distraction).

It's the four actors who hold our attention, though, and who find dozens of shadings to Albee's middle-aged marrieds.

Seascape

• Grade: A-

• When and where: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through April 15, Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St.

• Cost: $20

• Information: 303-780-7836