Design. Composition. Balance. Light. Harmony. No, you haven't come to the wrong show review, but these elements that guide neo-impressionist painter Georges Seurat in "Sunday in the Park with George" can also be applied to the play currently inhabiting the Old Globe's temporary space at the San Diego Museum of Art. Like the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Donald Margulies's 1991 play "Sight Unseen" centers on an artist who has lost his way. In the hands of Esther Emery, making her Old Globe directorial debut, it emerges as a wonderful confluence of these various elements, bringing, in the words of Sondheim and Lapine, "order to the whole" of its chronologically disconnected parts.

Kelly McAndrew and Anthony Crane

Copyright©2008 Craig Schwartz

At the center of Margulies's play is an American artist by the name of Jonathan Waxman. He's wealthy and successful -- his works-in-progress get snatched up by collectors "sight unseen" -- with a wife at home and baby on the way. We first encounter him in England in the cold Norfolk farmhouse belonging to his ex-girlfriend, Patricia, and Nick, the taciturn archaeologist she "settled for." Why he is there is anyone's guess -- Patricia's, Nick's, ours -- though he justifies his visit by explaining that his first London show, a high-profile retrospective, is set to open in a few days. It's a meeting full of hesitation, made even more awkward by the comings and goings of Nick, as Jonathan seeks Patricia's forgiveness for dumping their relationship rather unceremoniously some years before. He's also after something else, though, something that he hopes will help him recapture the inspiration of his youth.

Margulies's eight scenes meander through present and past and future in no immediately obvious order, with flashbacks that take us back sometimes only an hour, sometimes years ago to Jonathan and Patricia's art school youth. Then there's the pair of scenes -- one in each act -- that takes us to a London gallery a few days later, where Jonathan is interviewed by Grete, a German art critic who attacks the various parts of his identity as an artist, an American, and a Jew.

There's a lot going on here, and a large part of Margulies's composition deals with those sometimes conflicting identities. It's the triangle of Jonathan, Patricia, and Nick, though, that ultimately proves the most compelling. While the artist remains the central figure, a delicate balance must be maintained among the three for Margulies's many unanswered questions -- and our sympathies -- to resonate.

This proved a problem when "Sight Unseen" finally premiered on Broadway four years ago. Though Liev Schreiber and Laura Linney were announced for the roles of Jonathan and Patricia, only Ms. Linney ended up appearing. By most accounts, her performance greatly overshadowed that of Mr. Schreiber's replacement, tilting the play's fragile balance squarely in Patricia's favor.

Ron Choularton, Kelly McAndrew and Anthony Crane

Copyright©2008 Craig Schwartz

Such is not the case here, for making their debuts at the Globe are two well-matched actors. Anthony Crane, who understudied the role in that Broadway production, here takes on Jonathan with all of his ambiguities -- devoted son or heartless boyfriend? visionary artist or first-rate sellout? -- intact. That he is able to leave Nick and Patricia's with the thing he came for -- the tangible one, at least -- without arousing an audience's scorn speaks volumes about Margulies's elegant construction, not to mention Mr. Crane's ability to evoke sympathy without overdoing it.

It is in the same moment that Kelly McAndrew's eyes tell all there is to know about who Patricia is, as she literally lets go of the secret hope she has been harboring for years.

In the flashbacks that end each act, we see the bookends of Jonathan and Patricia's relationship as young lovers. Few things are more painful to watch than finally seeing Ms. McAndrew as the carefree young woman Patricia once was after scene upon scene of the actress as her worn, emotionally deflated older self.

Completing the love triangle, yet very much the odd man out, is Ron Choularton as the jealous Nick, in a performance that finds the natural comedy in the brusque English archaeologist while remaining nicely understated.

Emery stages the men's game of cat and mouse on the creaking floorboards of the sparsely furnished farmhouse, the centerpiece of Nick Fouch's scenic design. Chris Rynne's subdued lighting gives the main Norfolk scenes a cold, blue feel that at last opens up nicely in the final scene's brightly lit art studio. It's in these flashback scenes that Laurie Churba's appropriately somber costumes give way to slightly more festive ones, especially in Patricia's transformation from dowdy farm wife in baggy sweaters to the plaid skirt and camel-colored boots of her stylish younger self.

The Globe's in-the-round setup of the Museum's Copley Auditorium recreates the feel of the recently retired Cassius Carter Stage. With the slightly larger dimensions in the Copley, though, the two scenes in the London art gallery can seem remote -- partially hidden, even -- behind the larger farmhouse set, especially if you happen to be sitting, like I was, on the west side of the auditorium. Though Mr. Rynne includes a nice lighting effect with a series of the artist's signature logos surrounding the entire stage (including the farmhouse part of it), the gallery's designated space is less than ideal.

Katie Fabel and Anthony Crane

Copyright©2008 Craig Schwartz

Thankfully, the casting of Katie Fabel as the fourth player more than makes up for her unfortunate banishment to one small sliver of the stage. As Grete, she commands both Jonathan and each of her two interview scenes with a calculated slyness and imposingly accurate Teutonic accent.

Ms. McAndrew similarly displays Patricia's longtime expat status in her ordinary American speech peppered with distinctly British words like "rubbish," and a "leisure" that rhymes with "pleasure."

For a multilayered study in relationships, identity, art, and self-worth (for starters), it doesn't get much better than this fine production of "Sight Unseen." It would seem to have it all: design, composition, balance, light...

Even a sad sort of harmony in its bittersweet resolution.

VIEW PROGRAM HERE (PDF)