The Seafarer
By Conor McPherson
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenburg
November 14 - December 13, 2009
Previews - Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday at 8pm, Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 8pm
Opening Night: Friday, November 20 at 8pm
Click here for seating map of this production.
The Story
A one-of-a-kind comic-drama that has become a holiday hit on American stages from New York to Seattle since its dazzling Broadway debut in 2007.
In a forgotten corner of Northern Dublin on Christmas Eve, four old friends have gathered in a well-worn bungalow to face the holidays the only way they know how: with a bottle of whiskey and a deck of cards. A crusty old sot, recently blinded by dumpster diving on Halloween, is wielding a walking stick like a club while ferociously bellowing Christmas carols. His brother is on day two without a drink and his hair-trigger temper is barely in check. Neighborhood buddies join the fray, bringing a mysterious, natty stranger who wants a piece of the action. With eyebrows curling up diabolically, the newcomer’s sinister behavior raises the stakes to the highest level.
One of Ireland’s most celebrated young playwrights, Conor McPherson has a peculiar genius for writing gritty, rollicking, suspenseful, very funny and strangely seductive stories set on the foggy coast of northeastern Ireland, a magical part of the world where the natural and the supernatural, ghosts and ghost stories live side by side with the hard-living working man.
McPherson makes suspending skepticism about the supernatural easy and is not afraid to ask what is knowable and what is unknowable in life. His “reality” astonishes. When ghosts crash into the lives of ordinary people in The Seafarer, it’s the Prince of Darkness himself who knocks on the door. As McPherson says, “If God arrives at the door, the game is over, and it’s already a happy ending, isn’t it? But when you play with the devil, there’s more at stake. Besides, if you have the devil in the story, you automatically have God there, because you can’t have one without the other.”