DAN'S PAPERS, January 18, 2008 Page 42 www.danshamptons.com
Entertainment In Town review: the seafarer...by gordin & christiano north of Dublin. All the action takes place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a rundown two story house that two brothers share. Sharky (David Morse) is caring for his older brother Richard (Jim Norton), who was recently blinded in a freak accident by falling into a dumpster on Halloween. Their good friend Ivan (Conleth Hill), who it seems is a constant presence, has stayed the night. When the play begins we are introduced to the three in the disheveled surroundings, where they are trying to make sense out of the previous night. Sharky is on the wagon, but Richard and Ivan are badly hung over and in need of a bit of the hair of the dog that bit them.On Christmas night they will be visited by another friend, the smugly arrogant Nicky (Sean Mahon), who will bring along an ominous stranger, the devil in the guise of the well dressed Mr. Lockhart (Ciaran Hinds). Before the evening is over, the five of them will play poker for the highest of stakes, Sharky’s soul. Apparently Sharkey in a drunken stupor many years earlier killed a man, but won his freedom by beating Mr. Lockhart in a game of cards. Now Mr. Lockhart has come to play the game that Sharky promised him 25 years ago on that fateful Photo by Joan Marcus
The fascinating Irish playwright Conor McPherson weaves an engrossing tale in his newest play The Seafarer, arriving on our shores direct from its world premiere at London’s National Theater. The haunting story of redemption superbly acted by an ensemble of five immensely gifted actors is magnificently directed by the award winning playwright himself, an astonishing achievement. McPherson, whose ghost story Shining City was a highlight of the 2006 season, has also given us the Olivier Award winner, “The Weir.” As in those previous efforts, the author tackles a similar theme, the human struggle to conquer personal demons and make emotional and spiritual connections in the face of overwhelming isolation. With many comic moments The Seafarer, although lighter than his other plays, is nonetheless a highly charged dramatic evening that you will not easily forget. The playwright’s absorbing language is laced with the salty, booze infected talk of Irish blokes intimately familiar with one another. The characters and their relationships are beautifully delineated, lending the confrontations an authenticity that is often spellbinding. McPherson manages to combine seedy qualities with otherworldliness to often unnerving effect. His dialogue is both poetically lyrical and realistic at once, displaying a keen ear for the rhythms of the area. The story is set in Baldoyle, a small seaside hamlet just
night. Mr. Lockhart is intent on claiming his reward and taking Sharky through “the hole in the wall” to hell, chillingly described as a coffin at the bottom of the sea. McPherson’s skillful direction explodes in many beautifully realized gripping moments, and he further enhances the evening with an extraordinary command over the physical production as well. He seamlessly creates unexpected variations on drunken behavior that the agile actors execute perfectly. The entire ensemble is mesmerizing and they fully inhabit their roles with a lived-in truth that is rarely seen. Their chemistry is so rich that it is impossible to single out a single actor. Having said that, however, I must say Jim Norton may be the front-runner for this year’s Tony Award. His affecting nuanced performance in the vastly entertaining Seafarer will be difficult to beat. The Seafarer opened at the Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, on December 6, 2007. Tickets are available at www.telecharge.com 212-239-6200, or at the box office. Barry Gordin & Patrick Christiano are theater critics. Mr. Gordin is an internationally renowned photographer. They can be reached at bg6@verizon.net or visit their website at www.theaterlife.com.
Entertainment In The Hamptons review: glengarry glen ross The fact that this is a play where desperate real estate salesmen fight and claw for their very existence, and that of their families in some cases, is almost incidental. It could be transposed to so many different life settings and still succeed. David Mamet is a master storyteller and playwright whose characters, if at times slightly caricatured, are undeniably believable. Whether you want to minutely analyze the play and the words for hidden meanings and statements on the social politics of the modern world or whether you just want to sit back and let the play invade your senses so that you forget the world outside the theater is really up to you. (I prefer the latter because I still firmly believe that Shakespeare just wrote his plays to enthrall and delight the masses at the Globe Theater and not so that they could be verbally dissected by millions of schoolchildren over the centuries after his death.) Glengarry Glen Ross is widely regarded as one of the best plays of the modern era and one that even today, almost 25 years after its first production, can still merit a place in London’s West End and entice stars such as Jonathan Pryce. Many people have seen the award-winning film made back in 1992 with one of the best casts ever for any production – Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin and Alan Arkin. The play, though, is quite different from the film with more moments of offbeat, if still black, humor. The members of the Hampton Theatre Company are renowned for never refusing a challenge, as a look back at their production list shows. So this was a play that had to be on their “to do” list. It is also a play where casting is exceptionally important because of the strengths and weaknesses of each character and the interplay as they fight for survival. In this pro-
duction, every member of the cast shone and the direction by Bob Kaplan was excellent. The actors combined verbal and body language with crisp timing that made the totality very fluid and realistic. The play opens in a nondescript Chinese restaurant as members of the sales force bemoan their lot and the inequities of the system of giving them sales leads, because they now have to really fight for survival because the two poorest performers in the next sales drive will be terminated. The product they are selling is some dubious quality land in Glengarry Glen Ross, a development in Florida. So selling these on a cold call basis is unbelievably stressful even for some of the most hard-nosed closers you will ever meet. In the restaurant scene, three vignettes play out and introduce the characters. Shelley Levene (Phil Eberhardt), a star salesman of the past is now in the throes of a very dry spell of productivity. John Williamson, the office manager (Robert Sean Miller) is not a salesman, doesn’t like them and it shows. Dave Moss (Andrew Botsford) has such deeply entrenched anger it is almost visible and he sets up a scheme with the weakest and oldest member of the team, George Aaronow (George Loizides) to break into the office and steal the prized super leads that everyone covets, for they may hold the path to success, a new car and above all, continued employment. The last is played out between an unsuspecting man, James Lingk (Paul Marino), who is simply enjoying his meal until the larger than life and twice as nasty, super smooth salesman Richard Roma (Edward Kassar) sits down next to him, emotes into an astounding monologue that seems initially to have no relevance but which adroitly segues into a sales pitch, that leaves James bemused, poorer and the owner of a piece of Florida – just like that.
After some smooth set changing at the interval, the office has been robbed and a mess is left. The various protagonists work their individual evil ways to try and best each other, the inept cop (Billy Paterson) handling the burglary and James, who is now attempting to get his money back after his wife found out what he had done. The plot unfolds with some subtle twists and at the end you are left a little drained and feeling a mixture of revulsion and sympathy for these characters who are left to continue their apparently never ending purgatory of an existence. Set designer, Peter Marbury, technical director James Ewing, lighting designer Sebastian Paczynski, costume designer Teresa Lebrun and stage manager John Zaleski combine their talents in a production where everything looks and sounds professional. Overall production is by Sarah Hunnewell and Diana Marbury. But now a word of warning. Glengarry Glen Ross probably holds the record for the number of four-letter swear words in a play. David Mamet uses the vernacular of a stressful all male environment to great effect. Currently a TV beer commercial is based on how the word “dude” can be inflected and stressed in many ways to totally alter its perceived meaning – well Mamet got there first, only he uses primarily some different four-letter words, so don’t go if you are likely to find these words so offensive that it will spoil your evening. If you do go though, I believe you will leave feeling that you have experienced great theater performed by a cast of very talented actors. Glengarry Glen Ross continues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 2.30 p.m. until January 27. For tickets call (631) 6538955. – Roy Bradbrook