The Seafarer: Brilliant Moments Adrift

The Seafarer, staged by the Alberta Theatre Projects, will conclude its run on November 10th. The play has earned several Tony Award nominations, as well as a Laurence Oliver Award nomination, celebrating its mordant humor and metaphysical themes that have riveted audiences worldwide. It is a play that is brim with compelling dramatic and characterological themes; personal loss, spiritual angst, familial bitterness and alcoholism. The play is set in Ireland on Christmas eve and follows a motley crew of men gathered in a basement to drink and play poker, creating the conditions for a set of events that bring to the surface hidden fears, regrets and supernatural tensions that eventuate in a high-stakes confrontation with someone, or something, akin to the Devil. The play follows the redemption arc of the main character Sharky, who at some point in history, forged a Faustian pact with Mr. Lockhart, an enigmatic character, with a dark and preternatural aura, who has shown up on Christmas eve claiming what is owed to him (Sharky's soul). Sharky’s brother, Richard, a cantankerous and blind drunk, is tended to by Sharky, deeply dependent on him as a caregiver. The relationship between the two is held in state of oscillating and high-pitched tension, swinging wildly between moments of abrasive rivalry and deep-seated loyalty. In the mix between this familial dynamic is Ivan, the quintessential comic relief of the play, a lost and hapless soul preferring the escapism of alcohol to the hard realities of his personal failures. Adding to the tension is Nicky, boyfriend to Sharky’s ex-wife whose obstreperousness only adds to intensify Sharky’s feelings of profound resentment. The play is a subtle commentary on the cultural changes that have freed Ireland from Catholic dogmatism but have also left it in search of a new contemporary identity. Ireland, once called the Celtic Tiger during the IT boom in the early 2000's, now grapples with social anxieties attendant to cultural materialism, urbanization and financialized economic modes. The Sea farer in subtle ways emblematizes the communal fractures experienced in Ireland as traditional bonds are replaced by shifting economic forces. Sure, it can be argued that Conor McPherson echoes many of the same themes explored by the Irish stalwart James Joyce, but Mcpherson captures Irish angst with a return to the metaphysical. Unlike James Joyce, who’s poignant style was marked by psychological naturalism and impressionism, McPherson channels the dramatic angst of the play through a metaphysical lens, replacing existential naturalism with quasi-theological exploration. The play is replete with allusions to sight and seeing, all the more ironic as Richard is blind and everyone is congregated in a dark and grimy basement. In this world, the characters are looking for their sight, looking for some sort of vision or epiphany to extricate themselves from their personal squalor and hardship. The basement here becomes a shadow realm of sorts, removed from the outside world and is a pregnant metaphor for spiritual and moral isolation. It is here though, in this middle of this decrepit environment that the germinal conditions exist for personal redemption. The play, like any well written play, is not didactic and will not tell us whether any of these characters will go on to fulfill their moral potential, but what it does tell us is that no matter how seemingly irreparable one’s life is, there always exists the possibility of immanentizing the absolute, bringing transcendental awareness into the immediate and shattered world that we inhabit. Sharky in confronting his personal realities, engages in anamnesis (recollection), a re-remembering and conjuring of historical trauma and failure, it is here he recognizes his capacity to change and immanentizes the possibility of grace within the confines of his lived experience. In engaging head-on the truth of his own condition and the ruthlessness of Mr. Lockhart, Sharky experiences a Felix Culpa (a fortunate fall), his purgative journey becomes the basis of his personal liberation and moral renewal. Even in this dilapidated basement, every character yearns for some sort of lux aeterna (eternal light), some remote chance to transcend the hellishness of their lives towards something more ennobling and redeeming. The light design in the play captured these psychological themes brilliantly, through the ambience of the lighting we shift between the dark and personal hell experienced by these characters and luminescent moments of self-reflection and partial liberation. At the end of the play, the morning light of Christmas was especially beautiful, softly flooding the stage with quiet hope and gently illuminating the worn faces of these broken characters. The set was excellent, containing all sorts of little details that turned the dramatic environment into an immersive space that felt alive. From the strewn beer cans and alcohol bottles to the faded and rancid furniture, each element revealed something of that world to us.

Other notable themes in the play are the descriptions of hell not as a place of eternal fire but barren emptiness, a vacant nothingness that strips away identity and connection. In such a place, the absence of love becomes the cruelest torment. In a particularly compelling monologue by Mr. Lockhart in the second half of the play, we see that the most egregious form of suffering is a form of suffering that is devoid of love or purpose. Victor Frankl (Austrian Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor) famously stated that "if we can find some meaning to put at the center of our lives, even the worst kind of suffering becomes bearable." Besides vindictiveness, Mr. Lochner has nothing centralize his life around, hence he is doomed to an eternal series of behavioral repetitions that lock him into an irredeemable state. The real tragedy, as the play shows us, are not the fragmented lives of alcoholics or the dissolute but people who are unable to allow meaning or connection into their lives, trapped in fatalistic cycles of emptiness and isolation. For all of the alcoholism and vices of everyone (besides Mr. Lochner) in that house, they have each other, and it is precisely because they have human relationships (no matter how imperfect) that they always remain within reach of prevenient grace (circumstances that draw people toward goodness and redemption before they are even aware of it), a form of grace that creates inexplicable paths to redemption. Paths that remain open to them, no matter how despondent things get. The script is truly compelling, and it is clear that this production did their best to try to dramatize those themes effectively. Unfortunately, the play constantly remained at the edge of great potential but could not find the collective expression to successfully demonstrate it on stage. The first half of the play was excellent, but the second half of the play lost a great deal of momentum, brilliant individual performances were not enough to heighten the difficult human drama of all of these characters. The second half of the play is where the real meat is, and in this production, it is served in thin portions.

David Trimble as Ivan was truly brilliant, right from his bumbling entrance in the first scene to his final stumbling exit. It is rare to see an actor this immersed in a character. The temptation with these characters is to be funny for the sake of being funny and focusing only on eliciting laughs from the audience. Though there are standard tropes and affectations integrated into the character, David allowed Ivan’s humor to arise from his imperfect and endearing humanity, bringing a marvelous depth to the character that transcended mere comical presentation. It was a powerhouse of a performance. Shaun Smyth as Sharky had some very good moments, the first act especially was performatively rich with rawness and visceral promise, the second act for this character fell flat. The lack of performative sharpness left Sharky’s role without the distinct emotional transformations that the role demands, this diminished the impact of the character’s ultimate redemption. That being said, his character provided much needed infusions of energy into a drooping second act, and his final scene on stage holding a letter under the lights was beautiful. Christopher Hunt played Richard with skillful calibration, exhibiting the right amount of neurotic and senile energy, acting to augment the script and not the other way around. He was a vital lynchpin, holding down the play in moments where it started plateauing, keeping the dramatic energy on the set alive and brilliantly exhibiting the complex tapestry of emotions that constitute the inner life of Richard. It was a very solid performance and one that never bordered close to being unidimensional. Chirag Naik as Nicky gives us some interesting moments on stage, but unfortunately it is a performance that has no distinct charm or indelibility, the representation is an unalloyed exhibition of pre-determined gestures and surface level traits, lacking the complexity that might have made Nicki’s character resonate. Paul Gross as Mr. Lockhart delivered a powerful monologue in the second half of the play, but this was more to do with the quality of the lines than the performance given to us. It can be difficult to play these types of characters, it requires a steady balance of ruthlessness, stoicism, vulnerability, playing all of these ranges in a context with vibrant characters like Ivan and Richard will always be challenging. The character of Mr. Lockhart remained at the level of the text in this play and did not rise above the conceptual outlines in the script or whatever theoretical discussions were generated by the creative team. The character's interactions felt more like thematic exercises and never took real human shape and form, it never truly inhabited the worlds of the other characters in this play. This is why the stakes never seem high enough, and those pivotal scenes lack the urgent energy needed to make the second act anywhere near consequential.

This is why the play frustratingly remains at the level of pure potential instead of manifesting into a collective work of dramatic brilliance. It had much promise and was almost there, but unfortunately is unlikely to be meaningfully remembered (apart from brilliant individual performances) as compelling and thought-provoking theatre. It is good enough for a good night out.     

That being said, the passionate preface to the play by the artistic director was lovely and inspiring, it is evident that Alberta Theatre Projects are looking to create great work, driven by a singular purpose to produce great theatre. This must be applauded and appreciated.

Rating: 6/10