The Seafarer
The Seafarer
By Conor McPherson
Directed by Frank Hilgenberg
Starring James Zelley and Pete Penuel
Theatre Downtown, Orlando, FL
</strong>
It’s not often you get a scary Christmas story, but this alcohol soaked holiday tale mixes a solid ghost story with the doddering hopelessness of a holiday not designed for lonely people. I won’t say “The Seafarer” upholds stereotypes, but it’s hard to think of an Irish man on stage sipping seltzer water and holding both a professional career and a stable family life. Sharkey (Zelley) has taken a small step, swearing off the Tullamore Dew for two whole days, no small feat when the entire village is buying one another their Holiday Pint. Sharkey cares for his father Richard (Paul Luby) who recently went blind while dumpster diving, and stumbles across their brother Ivan (Tim Bass) who lost his glasses and crashed under their living room carpet. Richard invites Sharkey’s nemesis Nicky (Daniel Cooksley) over for a drink, and he shows up with mysterious Mr. Lockhart (Penuel). Since Nicky got Sharkey’s ex and his car, he’s not thrilled, but he’s even more upset when he discovers an old and very significant debt he owes to Lockhart.
The story doesn’t get rolling until near the end of the first act, but when it gets going, it’s almost worth the hour of physical comedy and fart jokes McPherson uses to pad act one. The cast is well chosen, Zelley looks like done some professional drinking and even if Luby’s blindness feels forced, he does slam in to more than few walls. Tim Bass is a big friendly bear of a drunk, broke on his ass and in fear of his woman, yet we assume he will find a welcoming bed out in the shed if he ever finds his way home. Cooksley plays a likely lad – he may actually find legal and profitable employment in a cheese shop. The real pillar of creep comes from Penuel. He slimes and laughs and drinks his poteen and sharpens his knife in preparation of skinning Sharkey alive. His description of hell is more potent than any I’ve ever heard from Dante or the Lutheran Church, and he delivers the description with the venom of a man who knows of what he speaks. While the bones of the story are ripped from a Bergman movie, there’s a happy enough ending to give you that first flush of holiday good cheer. Candy and ribbons are nice, but these Celts show if you want to make a guy appreciate the holiday, make sure you give him his cheer in a bottle. You can give him the same thing year after year, and he’ll never complain.
For more information, please visit http://www.theatredowntown.net
