newcritics

I almost hesitate to recommend readers to make an effort to see The Seafarer, since it’s booked for a limited run at Broadway’s Booth Theatre. Sort of a cruel joke, like the Devil coming to collect the soul of a sinner who has just made his best effort yet to turn his life around. There you have the central premise of this play, which came to New York from London and has captivated audiences in both places. If that sounds like a dark, dour night to sit through, let me just describe what has been upholstered around this hard, brittle premise: just one of the best portrayals of drunken Irishmen on Christmas Eve I’ve seen since, maybe, 1981 in my house.

And the central actor in this wonderfully colorful, intricate piece by Conor McPherson is, of all things, an American. David Morse does more than hold his own in this powerful cast of Irishmen. He carries the most demanding, least comical, painfully physical role in the play, and we are the beneficiaries of his suffering. Minutes into the production, I stopped listening for distinctions in his accent, and watched him carry the weight for the rest of the evening. A theatre-goer behind me remarked that he was better than the actor she’d seen in the role in London. Without knowing who that actor was, or casting shadows on his performance, I’m willing to believe it.

But let’s look at the rest of the production. A wonderfully spare, intimate set evokes the Irish home, with a formal upstairs entrance. By contrast, much happens at the downstairs door, or outside it in the alley, where “winos” offend the house full of drunks who look down upon their lessers in this pecking order. Let me turn to the rest of the characters in this house. Morse’s character, Sharky, has a brother who was recently blinded; much flows from his brother and a friend’s efforts to assist him, and actor Jim Norton takes full advantage of the implications of loss of sight to develop his character. His rich array of comments, tics, idiosyncracies and pronouncements evoked no less than three larger than life Irishmen I’ve known. His good friend Ivan (Conleth Hill) stumbles and drinks and makes futile efforts to get home, as does their friend Nicky (Sean Mahon) who has a complex relationship with Sharky.

But how could the most complicated character in the play be anyone but the Devil himself? Indeed, just as Sharky is trying to give up the drink and get his life in order, patiently caring for his now dependent, difficult older brother, than “Mr. Lockhart” shows up to collect a long-standing debt and take Sharky’s soul with him through the “Hole in the Wall.” The actor Ciaran Hinds is powerfully dark and yet…I found myself picturing Jason Robards, Jr. in the role, bringing a bit more tempting charm, more ambiguity to the role. You know, you’ve seen Al Pacino do it.

I won’t give away what happens. There are too many rich, wonderfully comedic moments that are what this play is all about. Even as you dread the worst, you revel in the beautifully portrayed relationships, the humor and pathos in the same instant as these men pass a momentous holiday in the company of liquor. If you get the chance to join them, don’t pass it up. It’s a hell of a night.