THE SEAFARER Reviews
THE SEAFARER Reviews
THE SEAFARER Reviews#1
Posted: 12/6/07 at 4:50pm
amNY gives it Three Stars:
"Whether Broadway will bounce back financially following the two-and-a-half week stagehands strike remains to be seen. But in any event, it shot forward like a rocket artistically this week with the opening of four impressive plays: "Cymbeline" at Lincoln Center, Aaron Sorkin's "The Farnsworth Invention," Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County," and now Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer.".......
........McPherson also directed the production, which arrives in mint condition from the National Theatre of Great Britain. In spite of the thin plot, the excellent acting displayed by the small cast makes "The Seafarer" a fairly enlivening experience."
http://www.amny.com/entertainment/stage/am-sea1207,0,4482956.story
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#2
Posted: 12/6/07 at 7:20pm
The AP is Positive:
"There's nothing like a little liquor to unlock a play and its characters.
And the booze flows freely in "The Seafarer," Conor McPherson's haunting yet often hilarious tale of a memorable Christmas Eve poker night in a dingy Dublin suburb.
The play, which opened Thursday at Broadway's Booth Theatre, is filled with talk — colorful, spirited language that's seized with gusto by an excellent five-person cast that includes Jim Norton, Ciaran Hinds, David Morse, Conleth Hill and Sean Mahon.
McPherson is an accomplished Irish dramatist, author of such vivid pieces of storytelling as "The Weir" and "Shining City." And he reaffirms that ability here, creating a remarkably humane play, particularly in the depiction of its main character.......
.......The play takes its time setting up that surprise. Until then, McPherson allows us to revel in an all-male world of alcohol-fueled friendships, relationships that are equal parts bravado and insecurity.
"The Seafarer" was a hit for the National Theatre in London in 2006 and will have its Irish premiere next April — in a different production — at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. One can't imagine it being any better that what McPherson and company have put on stage at the Booth."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJcT5Rux8whzkN2yizIPvFOARxuQD8TC8RJ81
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#2
Posted: 12/6/07 at 7:51pm
The Chicago Tribune is Positive:
"Conor McPherson isn't the first playwright to ponder the nature of hell. He’s not even the first to conjure the Devil himself to the theater (and that’s not a veiled reference to either Broadway producers or their stagehands). Christopher Marlowe did a good job of proffering Beelzebub to paying customers as far back as 1589, even if that Renaissance devil was much less interested in smoked salmon, poker and mince pies than McPherson’s contemporary Irish incarnation.
But what makes McPherson’s latest Broadway play so fresh and stimulating is what he has to say about hell. In "The Seafarer," which arrives in a National Theatre production directed in lively fashion by the playwright and featuring a superb ensemble cast, hell is defined not as the usual toasty furnace for the fallen, but as the eternal destination of the perpetually self-loathing.
McPherson has long known how to send chills down an audience’s collective spine, and he once again proves his mettle with "Seafarer," which opened Thursday night on Broadway. To understand hell, we’re told, you just have to recall when "you see all the people who seem to live in another world all snuggled up together in the warmth of a tavern or a cozy little house, and you just walk and walk and walk and you’re on your own and nobody knows who you are."
Well, hell. Who has not been there?"
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2007/12/theater-revie-1.html
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#3
Posted: 12/6/07 at 7:54pmSadly, he probably will not get a Tony as Rock & Roll probably will.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#4
Posted: 12/6/07 at 7:55pmre: THE SEAFARER Reviews#5
Posted: 12/6/07 at 8:06pm
Talkin Broadway is Positive:
"The National Theatre of Great Britain's production of McPherson's deceptively jolly play, which just arrived at the Booth under the playwright's own direction, packs in more cheer than most productions of A Christmas Carol and more chills than any given blustery, blizzardy night. That McPherson has even hidden a Christmas message or two amid the beats of his study of loners both coltish and occult convening on Christmas Eve is only the rum sprinkled on already delectable fruitcake.........
...... There are some instances when The Seafarer becomes slightly unmoored, as if McPherson is trying too hard to pelt the darkness with comedy or he is too visibly reorganizing his chess pieces, but these are isolated transgressions. Most of the time, he taps into the deepest recesses of loneliness and despair, with piercing - but never depressing - accuracy. You might even wonder how a play so foreboding could also be so funny, but as Tracy Letts also proved in his just-opened August: Osage County, it's possible (perhaps even preferable) to use levity as a bridge to more profound meaning. Here, it's a reminder that friends and love can remain even when hopelessness has apparently obliterated them........
.......... But in The Seafarer, McPherson's depiction of ordinary men's struggles against both identifiable evil without and the insidious kind within is rejuvenating enough on its own terms to recall stories about figures from George Bailey to Rudolph, who overcame their personal demons to contribute something vital to the world. If that isn't Christmassy, what is? "
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/Seafarer.html
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#6
Posted: 12/6/07 at 8:30pm
I'm not so sure about R&R willing the Tony for several reasons. One, Tom Stoppard cleaned up last year with Utopia; two, R&R will be closed by Tony time, whereas August and Seafarer may still be open (assuming Seafarer's and August's sales accelerate to the point that decisions are made to extend their runs); three, both McPherson and Letts are well-liked playwrights who have yet to win a Tony; four, we don't know what the reaction to the unopened plays, so far, is (Mamet may have a shot with November and Is He Dead? is still a question mark); five, we don't know what Off-Broadway may produce that may get a transfer by Tony time; six, the fact that a strong play is written by an American may give it an advantage; and seven (my favorite), a lot of people are sick and tired of Stoppard.
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#7
Posted: 12/6/07 at 8:33pm
Variety is Mixed-to-Positive:
"Even if Conor McPherson weren't so forthcoming about his past in interviews, his plays would likely be identifiable as those of a lapsed Catholic and former alcoholic, wrestling with personal demons concerning addiction, solitude, self-doubt and the need for emotional and spiritual connections. Though he's never quite approached those themes in such a rollicking fashion, they nonetheless permeate the Irish playwright's drunken dance with the devil, "The Seafarer." Lighter in tone than "The Weir" or "Shining City," and somewhat less fully realized, this imperfect but beguiling new work is considerably enhanced by McPherson's expert direction and some uncommonly fine acting.
The beauty of McPherson's dialogue lies in its hypnotic marriage of melancholy poetry with salty, booze-fueled pub talk. One might anticipate that the strength as a director of anyone who can write like that would be his ability to conjure the right rhythms from his words, conducting his cast to speak his lines exactly as they were written. That certainly feels like the case in this National Theater import, which includes superlative work from two actors who originated their roles in London (Jim Norton and Conleth Hill).
What's perhaps less expected is the expertise McPherson shows in the physical production, smoothly negotiating Rae Smith's split-level set -- so grimy and dank with age and neglect, it's almost pungent -- to keep the single-setting play lively. He also choreographs seemingly endless variations on inebriation from the actors, whose agile work flirts frequently with slapstick while remaining rooted in realistic behavior."
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935600.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#8
Posted: 12/6/07 at 9:11pm
Theatremania is Mixed-to-Positive:
"Oddly enough for a play that revolves around a life-or-death poker game, Conor McPherson puts his cards on the table awfully early in The Seafarer, revealing the true identity of the mysterious Mr. Lockhart (Ciaran Hinds) about 45 minutes into this 2 ½-hour long work. This meant-to-be-shocking revelation instantly shifts the tone of the work, which has played out as a kind of quasi-Irish sitcom. And it causes McPherson (who also directed) and his extraordinary five-person ensemble to engage in a delicate balancing act between comedy and tragedy.
Unfortunately, the play -- which debuted at London's National Theater -- rambles on a bit too long in act two and doesn't deliver quite enough of a payoff. Nonetheless, The Seafarer is one of the author's most entertaining works -- and without question, his most conventional one. Gone are the practically chapter-long monologues that are the hallmark of previous McPherson plays such as The Weir; in fact, no one here speaks for more than a single paragraph.........
........ McPherson is celebrated for his facility with twist endings, and he's come up with one here that's more comic than his usual modus operandi. Yet, as the curtain descends on The Seafarer, one can't totally shake the feeling that we've watched a lengthy parlor trick -- albeit a superbly performed one ---rather than the kind of profound play the author may have intended."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12219
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#9
Posted: 12/6/07 at 9:15pm
I guess - its safe to assume that these 3 plays are lock in for BEST NEW PLAY- August : Osage County, Rock N Roll & The Seafarer? Unless something comes.....
J*
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#10
Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:19pm
Brantley gives it a Rave:
"Do you know how you behave when you’re drunk, I mean, really drunk? If the answer is yes, then you’ve never been that drunk, since the curse and kindness of vast quantities of alcohol is that they obliterate self-awareness.
This physiological fact of life makes the gorgeous, vitally intelligent performances in “The Seafarer,” the new play by Conor McPherson that opened last night at the Booth Theater, all the more remarkable. Everyone in this dark and enthralling Christmas fable of despair and redemption descends at some point to oceanic depths of drunkenness, including a sinister fellow who is, shall we say, not of this world.
Yet as written and directed, the five carefully shaped characters of “The Seafarer” are blessedly free of the blurry, slurry clichés of acting intoxicated that can drive a sensitive theatergoer to, well, drink. Directed by Mr. McPherson, one of the finest ensembles to grace a Broadway stage in years uncovers the soul-defining clarity within the drunkard’s haze. Alcohol may be a great leveler, but as these men confirm with spectacular style, it is also a great individualizer.
Five poker-playing Irish drunks, bumping into the furniture of an ill-kept house in Dublin on Christmas Eve, may not sound like your ideal people to spend the holidays with. But as unlikely as it sounds, “The Seafarer” may just be the pick-me-up play of the season.
Structured as a long night’s journey into day, with truly frightening glimpses of a darkness that stretches into eternity, “The Seafarer” turns out to be a thinking-person’s alternative to “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a flagon of Christmas cheer. It’s heavier on the stinging sauce than that film, Frank Capra’s best loved, and lighter on the syrup. And it tingles with its author’s acute and authentic sense of what is knowable and unknowable in life. Of course it could be argued that it’s hard to know anything if you’re looking at the world through a glass of whiskey. But don’t think for a second that the prodigiously gifted Mr. McPherson, who has spoken publicly of his own battles with alcohol, has written a theatrical variation on “The Lost Weekend"............
............ Most McPherson plays leave you feeling shaken and somber. This one concludes on a chord of sentimental uplift that may cause some audience members to feel cheated; in classic dramatic terms it’s as unwarranted as the happy endings of Shakespeare’s lesser romances.
But playwrights are the gods of their own universes. And in a season when many of the best new movies, like “No Country for Old Men” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” are bare of any sense of salvation, Mr. McPherson’s allowance of a provisional, redeeming grace has its warming charm. You don’t have to believe in it to be moved by it. Besides, transporting acting like this has an amazing grace all its own."
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/theater/reviews/07seaf.html?ref=theater
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#11
Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:26pm
"Sadly, he probably will not get a Tony as Rock & Roll probably will."
Um, it'll probably go to August: Osage County based on the unanimous raves it got.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#12
Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:33pm
Yeah, it's all but a foregone conclusion that AUGUST will be taking the Tony (if not the Pulitzer and Drama Desk as well).
And it looks like after these reviews so far that SEAFARER has locked up the third Best Play slot for the Tonys, after AUGUST and ROCK 'N ROLL. It'll probably be battle between Mamet's NOVEMBER, FARNSWORTH INVENTION and THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES for the last slot (I doubt that MAURITIUS, IS HE DEAD?, THE 39 STEPS or THURGOOD will seriously be in the running with this competition).
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#13
Posted: 12/6/07 at 10:37pm
And the winner is... Mark Twain? He is dead!
I'll take your word (re: three locked noms) for it, Margo.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/17/06
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#14
Posted: 12/6/07 at 11:30pmI already had a pair of tickets for Seafarer for a couple of weeks from now, but found myself unexpectedly in NYC yesterday...so I stopped by the Booth and couldn't resist getting myself a third-row $26.50 seat for last night! I figured that if I wasn't crazy about it, I'd sell the other tickets, but now that I've seen it, I think I'll go again and make the second seat a Christmas gift for someone else. Yes, the first act was a bit slow, but the acting was wonderful. I had figured I'd see Doris/Darlene since I'm a Playwrights subscriber, but after asking people here about that one, their responses--especially Margo's--helped convince me that I could wait on that one, and that life was too short not to see something REALLY good first!
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#15
Posted: 12/6/07 at 11:37pm
Reuters is Positive:
" It has long been demonstrated in nearly every artistic genre that it's foolhardy to make bets with the devil.
But gifted playwright Conor McPherson ("The Weir," "Shining City") brings freshness to an overworked conceit in "The Seafarer," his simultaneously rollicking and haunting new play now receiving its Broadway premiere after an acclaimed run at London's National Theatre........
...........McPherson elevates his deceptively simple premise via the richness of his dialogue, which resonates with memorable pungency. The broad humor of the interactions among the profanely irreverent characters is well contrasted with the icy menace of Mr. Lockhart, who, while patiently waiting to claim his prize, delivers memorable speeches including a chilling description of hell to his would-be victim.
Delivered in a stylishly ominous and beautifully acted production directed by the playwright, "Seafarer" does tend to feel like a one-act drama that has been stretched out with detrimental effect to an overlong 2 1/2-hour running time. As the irascible Richard puts it at one point, "There's too much 'Auld Lang Syne' going on around here."
But there is no denying the deeply humanistic nature of its characterizations or the elemental power of its classically Faustian theme. "Seafarer" might be a new play, but it already has the feel of a timeless classic."
http://www.reuters.com/article/stageNews/idUSN0625114820071207
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#16
Posted: 12/7/07 at 12:22am
The Wall Street Journal reviews FARNSWORTH, AUGUST and THE SEAFARER in one column, selecting SEAFARER as the best of the three. His rave:
"Lastly and Bestly, Conor McPherson has given us a Christmas show for the suicidally depressed. "The Seafarer" is one of those capital-I Irish plays whose characters, one of whom (Ciarán Hinds) turns out to be the Divvil Himself, get falling-down drunk, hint broadly that there's more to life than death, and spout four- and seven-letter words starting with "f" in rich, peaty brogues. It is also -- no fooling -- worthy of comparison with the finest work of the young Brian Friel.
Strong words, I know, but the 36-year-old Mr. McPherson has earned them. Like Mr. Letts, he's written a midnight-black comedy, one that wrenches laughter out of the despair of frustrated men whose lives have come to naught. That it takes place in the hours between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning serves only to deepen the hue of the colors in which their suffering is painted: "You absolutely stink again, do you know that?" "Yeah, happy Christmas to you as well!" Yet in the midst of this world of hurt, Mr. McPherson dares to point to the possibility of hope, even transcendence, and it is this daring that gives his play the stuff of greatness. I don't want to tell you too much about what happens in "The Seafarer," which ends with a head-twisting surprise, but I'll say this much: No matter what you're expecting at the halfway mark, you won't feel cheated when the curtain falls.
Mr. McPherson, who doubles as director, has a knack for pointed physical comedy that he exploits to the fullest, and his five-man cast is stunningly and uniformly good. Rae Smith's set, whose centerpiece is a pitiful Christmas tree at which Charlie Brown would have turned up his nose, is the quintessence of working-class squalor.
Do not miss this play -- especially if you're feeling the seasonal blues. It'll tie a knot at the end of your rope."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119698099212916362.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#17
Posted: 12/7/07 at 12:40am
Bloomberg is Mixed-to-Positive:
"Deftly written and rousingly performed, Conor McPherson's ``The Seafarer,' which opened last night on Broadway, almost had me convinced it isn't one long, boozy Irish cliche. But cliche `Seafarer' is, albeit gift- wrapped in an abundance of yuletide humor and poignance.
McPherson, 35, heralded as the most important writer of his generation after ``The Weir' and ``The Shining City,' is a literary bartender, mixing hard spirits with the distant kind rooted in memory, fate and the past.......
...... Like many a country-and-western ballad, ``The Seafarer' is engaging. The payoff may lack transcendence, but the journey has been entertaining nonetheless. Cliches, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde on sentimental music, have their power."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=arqtaWMoGsLI&refer=muse
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#18
Posted: 12/7/07 at 12:47am
NY Sun is Mixed-to-Positive:
"Conor McPherson splits the difference between these two stylistic extremes — scouring existentialism and goofball humor — in his fitfully profound "The Seafarer." He juxtaposes a trio of buffoonish Dublin louts with a decidedly mirthless game of higherthan-high-stakes poker. These two approaches may not always mesh, but the Christmas Eve showdown between James "Sharky" Harkin (David Morse), a hollowed-out alcoholic, and the nattily attired, wonderfully named Mr. Lockhart (Ciarán Hinds) holds its own with the other, more internalized struggles that have made Mr. McPherson such an engaging playwright......
.........Mr. McPherson, whose earlier works consisted entirely of monologues, settles in as a director whenever he allows himself a chance to hand off a few pages of dialogue to one of his five talented performers. Nowhere is this more effective than in the marvelous Act II scene in which Lockhart conveys to Sharky the chasmlike, claustrophobic loneliness and self-loathing that awaits him on the other side, where "time is bigger and blacker and so much more boundless than you could ever have thought possible with your puny broken mind."
The interactions among the five actors, however, are considerably less fluid and sometimes even selfish. Mr. McPherson sees to it that each actor gets his laughs and/or shudders, but often at the expense of cohesion.........
........ Part of the kick of "The Seafarer," too, comes as the threads finally dovetail; two contests are taking place simultaneously, one for a fistful of euros and one for eternal damnation, with the larger group of players entirely ignorant of this second battle being waged.
Or maybe not entirely ignorant. One of Sharky's fellow players had a similar bit of luck a few years back, and by the time "The Seafarer" winds down to its satisfying if slightly gimmicky conclusion, the day of recompense may be drawing near. The devil, it appears, is due at least one more sodden Dubliner. He might consider bringing his chessboard next time."
http://www.nysun.com/article/67698
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#19
Posted: 12/7/07 at 1:07am
I just returned from a swell Opening Night.
Generally, very nice nice night in theatre. Broadway is a beautiful place when four phenomenal and potentially nominated plays are within yards of each other on the same street! "The Seafarer" is keeping some wonderful company (or should that be the other way around)
David Morse and Jim Norton present far-excellent performances. A supporting role Tony nod has to be headed to one of them. Just superb work from Norton.
McPherson really takes his time presenting the "problem" with an almost action-less Act 1, Scene 1, serving more as an introduction to the warm and visceral men. Things pick up in the second scene, when we're introduced to The Devil himself.
No such thing as "Act 2 trouble" here. Act 2 could stand alone as a work of art! Ciarian Hinds' monologue about the circumstances of hell is so stirring. (Anyone looking for a good audition piece?) McPherson's language is so sweet and sour, like a shot of whiskey!
Personally, I couldn't take my eyes off of Sean Mahon as Nicky, who moves about so fluidly amongst the other men. And I really hope you're familiar with the rules of poker... the final card-playing scene is remarkable. I had my hands covering my mouth through most of it.
And there's a lot of alcohol. I've come to expect that in theatre today. You want to get down to the nitty gritty of troubled characters (of whom Broadway profits ten-fold), lube them up with some liquor! It flows in "The Seafarer." And there's an ever present "Is this really it?" feeling in the air whenever you remind yourself it's Christmas Eve for these guys!
If your patient through the initial exposition, you're in for a smooth ride. No shocks or punches to the gut. Just a peaceful play that follows a mixed-up ball of joy, masculinity, despair and high-stakes.
As most of the reviews have stated (and to settle with popular opinion) "The Seafarer" will happily fit into the "tied for second" category if we're considering Awards-season.
Updated On: 12/7/07 at 01:07 AM
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#20
Posted: 12/7/07 at 1:32am
NY Post gives it Two-And-A-Half stars:
"The writing is standard issue Irish-playwright whiskey-sodden banter - very good of its quick interweaving, miasmic kind - and the characters are odd enough to be diverting company for a couple of hours.
But Synge, O'Casey and others had a kind of mad poetry in them, seemingly not yet touched by their present-day successors.
Even when McPherson describes hell itself - in a long soliloquy by Lockhart - there is more convention there than the Miltonic majesty of total, irredeemable darkness.
Although the very modest production looks as if it was meant to occupy a larger space, McPherson's staging goes at a nicely galloping pace, and the acting throughout is excellent.
In the showy role of a blind drunk, Jim Norton suggests he'd make a splendid Joxer in O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock," while I loved the saturnine, steely menace, draped in affected bonhomie, that Ciaran Hinds brings to the sinister Mr. Lockhart. Of the others, the ever-amazing Conleth Hill (seen on Broadway previously in "Stones in His Pockets" and "Democracy") is as amazing as ever.
But the play never lives up to the expectation of its premise. It doesn't, in the end, even surprise."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12072007/entertainment/theater/devil_may_care_irish_play_for_the_hell_o_171914.htm
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#21
Posted: 12/7/07 at 1:36am
Jim Norton deserves a Tony nom for his acting in this. I saw it tonight, too.
I liked Seafarer MUCH BETTER than Osage County which was a brittle soap opera. Hope Seafarer gets a Tony nom. A stranger beside me in the theatre had also just seen Osage County and she hated it, but she really liked Seafarer. While I liked the acting in Osage County very much, none of them were a match for Jim Norton who was understated, hilarious, and charismatic as can be, tripping his way merrily all over the stage. And what wonderful unexpected deliveries on plummy lines from McPherson.
I'm all for a Tony nom for Seafarer.
Updated On: 12/7/07 at 01:36 AM
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#22
Posted: 12/7/07 at 1:36am
The Newark Star-Ledger is Positive:
"Naturally staged by the author with ease and skill, "The Seafarer" is McPherson's most traditionally shaped work to date. Earlier plays like "The Good Thief" and "The Weir" rely almost exclusively on monologues to render their narratives, while "Shining City" features several verbal arias. But this seriocomic drama is constructed with spontaneous give-and-take talk, save for the minutes devoted to Lockhart's darkly musical description of Hell, which is positively chilling.
A well-meshed ensemble acts like blue blazes to ignite the storyline's long fuse.........
........ A tale of souls adrift during the holidays, "The Seafarer" may not totally spook viewers, but it packs more than a few chills."
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1197006397271180.xml&coll=1
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#23
Posted: 12/7/07 at 10:45am
Daily News is Mixed-to-Positive:
"McPherson's modern fable is laced with liquor and men battling personal demons. The script shows deep understanding of those who desperately long for connection and need redemption - themes that appear in the author's plays "Shining City" and "Dublin Carol."
"Seafarer" has its faults. The first half is slow and mostly exposition. McPherson, who also directs, uses a contrived device, twice, so Sharky and Lockhart can talk one-on-one.
But the superlative acting balances things out. Together, the five actors form a winning hand."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2007/12/07/2007-12-07_in_conor_mcphersons_seafarer_drink__the_.html
The Journal News is A Rave:
""The Seafarer," which opened last night at Broadway's pleasantly intimate Booth Theatre, is a play that counts the devil himself as a flesh-and-blood character.
Yet this brilliant Irish drama, written and directed by Conor McPherson, positively glows with the warmth of the Christmas spirit.
How can this be?
It is a magic peculiar to McPherson, who already has given us the haunting "St. Nicholas," "The Weir" and "Shining City," to take an essentially dark story and make it both hilarious and moving.
The Seafarer" is full of subtle sight gags, which enrich the text of the play. But the play's opening was delayed by the stagehands strike, and the actors were not allowed to rehearse during the work stoppage.
So it is doubly amazing to find -as the cast opens without many rehearsals under its belt - constant and intricate stage movements, all choreographed by McPherson, which are crisply in place from start to finish..........
............But if you see one play during the holiday season, rush to the Booth to enjoy "The Seafarer."
It's a true Christmas treat.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071207/ENTERTAINMENT/712070333
The Hartford Courant is Positive:
"In one of the dark high points of "The Seafarer," the comical but unnerving new play by Conor McPherson, the diabolical Mr. Lockhart describes hell for his intended victim as a coffin-like space "under a bed of a vast, icy, pitch-black sea." He tells James Sharky Harkin, his prey, "I know you see me in this man's clothes, but that's where I really am ... out on that sea."
In The National Theatre of Great Britain production, staged with alcohol-fueled humor and knockabout energy by the playwright, Irish actor Ciarán Hinds pitches forth a suave but explosive devil figure as Lockhart, in a surprisingly fearsome performance. American David Morse, in an occasionally impenetrable Irish accent, shifts from edgy but easygoing to silently tense as Sharky. Their acting, and the playing of the other three cast members, make a haunting but somehow hilarious evening of a play that consists largely of a game of poker with increasingly high stakes."
http://www.courant.com/entertainment/stage/reviews/hc-seafarerrev.artdec07,0,5429634.story
Newsday is Mixed:
"Ah, it's Christmas Eve at the Harkins, which means the scruffy but impish rural Irishmen are talking when they drink, and drinking as they talk, and drinking and talking while they're playing poker and falling over. And, every so often, a few of them pop outside to chase winos away with sticks - you know, just for frolic.
In other words, "The Seafarer" - the latest Conor McPherson import in another finely wrought production from the National Theatre of Great Britain - takes its own leisurely time to marinate, finally, into a creepy tale of repentance versus the real live devil.
The last third of the evening does build to one of the prolific playwright's most haunting otherworldly solos, this one for the well-dressed stranger, Mr. Lockhart, who arrives to collect on a very big-time gambling debt.
The lead-up, however, is dominated by the kind of showy acting, often about the Irish and iconically sloshed in alcohol, which either cracks you up or does not. The production, meticulously directed by McPherson, offers many varieties of this funny/sad, cuddly/ tragic style in virtuosic abundance. Everyone seated around me at a recent preview appeared to be enchanted and amused by it. Wish I were there."
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/partii/ny-etsecw5489313dec07,0,3805606.story
re: THE SEAFARER Reviews#24
Posted: 12/7/07 at 11:32amI'm pretty pleased with the reviews (particularly Brantley's). It was a fantastic play.
joey
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