The war of what’s said and unsaid

In William Nicholson’s sad but absorbing “The Retreat From Moscow,” an English husband spends a half-hour almost every day doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.

His wife of 33 years, Alice, calculates that he has puzzled over crosswords for more than an entire year of their married life -- an observation that adds bite to her own swelling stream of cross words.

Too bad Edward didn’t look at the paper’s advice columns. If such columns in England are anything like those in the United States, he would have repeatedly read the admonition to seek professional counseling.

Edward needs it -- and so does Alice. He’s emotionally vacant; she’s emotionally demanding. He wants to retreat; she wants to talk.

It sounds like a set-up for a comic’s routine about the differences between men and women. There are indeed a few moments of sharp, sardonic humor in “The Retreat From Moscow.” But generally the play is a sobering analysis of the collapse of a marriage, written with a splash of lyricism but without any sense of hope that the rift will ever heal.

Martin Benson directs South Coast Repertory’s production with such alert attention to nuance that the familiar subject matter doesn’t feel tired. We keep investing our sympathies with these people until the end.

There is another woman waiting for Edward in the wings, but she stays there, discussed briefly but never seen. Instead, Nicholson focuses solely on the fission of the nuclear family: Edward, Alice and their 32-year-old son, Jamie, who is thrust into the role of messenger between his parents.

Jamie is the author’s surrogate. Although set in the present day, the play was inspired by the breakup of Nicholson’s parents some 30 years earlier. Not surprisingly, the play strays from its central couple just long enough to speculate grimly on what effect the split might have on Jamie’s ability to form a lasting relationship. John Sloan plays Jamie with a carefully modulated sense of concern.

But most of our attention is on Edward and Alice. Alice is desperate for any kind of attention from Edward. She slaps him at one point. Most of the time, she uses words.

She loves poetry, inserting memorized verse into her conversations without much prompting. She met Edward on a train when she comforted him -- a total stranger at the time -- with a poem.

Although she’s currently editing an anthology of poetry, it isn’t clear if she is doing it with some professional purpose, which would indicate that she’s part of a wider world beyond their home, or whether it’s just a hobby. We suspect the latter.

Sometimes the play’s dollops of poetry elevate the dialogue to a higher level. At other times they play a more ambiguous, diversionary role. Edward notes that it’s difficult for him to compete with poetry.

Linda Gehringer’s Alice is a formidable presence throughout, heartbreakingly eloquent in her physical vocabulary as well as her spoken words. There is nothing wispy about this woman. Her tart retorts sting.

Nicholas Hormann’s Edward is a model of English restraint, even as he makes his first major lunge across the boundaries of restraint.

Edward, too, introduces a literary analogy into the dialogue. A history teacher, he is reading a graphic account of the retreat from Moscow by Napoleon’s forces -- particularly those passages that describe how the stronger soldiers had to make tough decisions about their weaker colleagues. Edward and Alice pick up on the correspondence between these decisions and Edward’s choice about his marriage. It’s a metaphor that could sound strained -- but not here.

South Coast’s Argyros Stage has often been called a jewel box. The description is especially apt for this production. Designer Angela Balogh Calin further encases the stage with foreboding gray walls, skewed at uneven angles and covered with stray fragments of penmanship, evoking the marriage’s sense of claustrophobia and Alice’s attempts to find a way out with words.

The back wall occasionally withdraws to show characters coming and going through the woods, indicating the isolation of this home, more than an hour outside London.

Yet scenes set in Jamie’s city flat use the same furniture as those in the country home. People can retreat from each other in the city too.

*

‘The Retreat From Moscow’

Where: South Coast Repertory, Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Ends: Oct. 17

Price: $27 to $56

Contact: (714) 708-5555

Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Nicholas Hormann...Edward

Linda Gehringer...Alice

John Sloan...Jamie

By William Nicholson. Directed by Martin Benson. Set and costumes by Angela Balogh Calin. Lighting by York Kennedy. Sound by Karl Fredrik Lundeberg. Stage manager Jamie A. Tucker.