The Seafarer
At
Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company
(Steppenwolf Website)
1650 North Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614
312.335.1650

By
Conor McPherson

December 4, 2008 – February 8, 2009

Martha Lavey: Artistic Director
David Hawkanson: Executive Director

Featuring:
Francis Guinan, Tom Irwin, John Mahoney,
Randall Newsome, AlanWilder

Director: Randall Arney
Scenic Design: Takeshi Kata
Costume Design: Janice Pytel
Lighting Design: Daniel Ionazzi
Original Music and Sound Design: Richard Woodbury
State Manager: Christine D. Freeburg
Assistant Stage Manager: Rose Marie Packer
Fight Choreographer: Nick Sandys
Dialect Coach: Cecilie O’Reilly
Communications Director: David Rosenberg

Susan Weinrebe
December 13, 2008

Anyone who thinks the Devil stinks of fire and brimstone and can be recognized by his forked tail and cloven feet will reconsider that image, when they meet him in playwright Conor McPherson’s tale, The Seafarer.

As personified by the silken-toned Tom Irwin, the Devil is a dapper example of excellent tailoring, aloof countenance and wry smile, not to mention seductive bedroom eyes. He is altogether a beguiling gent, the sort who is a good drinking buddy and amiable card hand until, that is, it comes time to pay him his due.

Act I of the new Steppenwolf play, The Seafarer, (appearing downstairs from the simultaneously running other McPherson play, Dublin Carol), is placed in the drab parlor of two bachelor brothers, Richard and Sharky. Lighting by Daniel Ionazzi and Takeshi Kata’s set design for the rat’s nest mess of a men-only house show us the grimy paint and worn furniture that even a Christmas tree can’t cheer. It is a room as full of spiritual gloom as Sharky, whose options have run out. He is without a wife or girlfriend, unemployable, newly dry, and at the beck and whim of the blind Richard, who unceasingly demands attention. There is so much that is grim, that when the candle in the window and the Jesus shrine won’t light, it’s actually funny.

But, this being Christmas Eve day, hope is in the air. In typical Irish fashion, the harsh edges of reality are softened with many a draught of humor and a drink or ten. John Mahoney as Richard uses his elfin countenance, unshaven as it may be, his crinkly eyes and darlin’ smile to wheedle and charm and steal the show. His unwashed self, costumed in a realistically stained and sleep-rumpled suit are somehow endearing. From his throne-like seat on the only comfortable piece of furniture in the room, he is the interlocutor for his brother and the energy source that compels others to action. Whether it’s rousting the winos out back by grabbing his cane and leading the charge, or making sure no glass is ever less than half empty, Richard, for all that he thinks this could be his last Christmas, has plenty of life and irascibility left in him.

A gathering of cronies assembles to pass the night with cards and drink, as much enjoying the company of men as afraid to go home to their wives. They are a motley crew who share the gift of gab and humorous jibes well as a common lack of success and love of drink. Ivan, played by Alan Wilder, who’s stayed overnight, sleeping off a drunk, has lost his glasses, car and one wonders why not his wife. Wilder makes him a loveable and laughable schnook of a guy, a living cartoon of that certain type who never gets things right but is too cute to truly be minded by anyone. Randall Newsome as Nicky, married to Sharky’s ex, is a bit better off, at least holding a job and solidly married, as the redundant “Eileen” tattoos on his arm and belly testify. He has brought his acquaintance, Mr. Lockhart, actually the Devil, into the house where the card stakes that night will be Sharky’s soul.

Unfortunately, the role of Sharky is the most weakly developed part of the play. The hulking figure of the down and almost out man, is nearly as dumb as an ox. Amid the constant blather coming from his brother, Sharky is close to speechless, complying with Richard’s demands and registering a mute hopelessness. Francis Guinan, a presence to fill a stage when a part calls for it, as most recently playing Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders in Kafka On The Shore, cries on cue, but is more a silhouette than a fully-realized character. Rather than showing Sharky’s contrarian nature, the “recklessness in his heart that’s the undoing and ruination of his whole life,” the audience is told this by Sharky’s brother and the Devil. There is little apparent motivation for the guy’s mess of a life or the shell of a man Guinan finds himself inhabiting.

The most disturbing moment of The Seafarer comes in the Devil’s description of what awaits Sharky in Hell, should he lose the hand he’ll play. Irwin adjusts his rich voice to make the timbre of his words, as well as their meaning, convey terror, as he lays out eternity for Sharky. A projection of oily, cold ocean chop frames the stage like a damnable shadow box and the sense is of endless and freezing cold. “Hell truly is no one to love you, not even Him. He lets you go. He’s sick of you.”

The most moving part of Guinan’s performance was his silent rereading of the note his employer’s wife had enclosed with her holiday gift. All the hurt and yearning within him glimmered for a moment. And so, thankfully, the art and actual time being Christmas, the audience was left with the hope of redemption.

Seafarer-1 - (l to r) John Mahoney (Richard), Alan Wilder (Ivan),
Francis Guinan (Sharky), Randall Newsome (Nicky), Tom Irwin (Lockhart)
in "The Seafarer"
Courtesy of Michael Brosilow

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David Rosenberg and Kate Finkbeiner
in the Steppenwolf Lobby Store
Courtesy of Susan Weinrebe

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Tim McCarthy Pours Irish Whiskey at the Steppenwolf Bar
Courtesy of Susan Weinrebe

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For more information, contact Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower at zlokower@bestweb.net