Alberta Theatre Projects has set sail on its 50th Anniversary Season and the first leg of this voyage is the darkly comic and booze-driven production of The Seafarer by Conor McPherson starring Paul Gross in a triumphant return to the Calgary stage.
The play is partly inspired and named after The Seafarer a 124-line Old English poem told from the point of view of a sailor who is reminiscing on the hardships of life on a wintery sea. The oldest written version of the poem is from the tenth century and it was first translated into modern English by Benjamin Thorpe in 1842. I did go in search of that translation and I’m happy to say I found it lurking among the other dusty archives of the Internet. There are other translations of course including Ezra Pound’s 1911 adaptation and the 1970 translation by Richard Hamer that Conor McPherson references. These are all fascinating examples of how different and similar translations can make us feel since translations are always a product of their author and time.
The play also deals with some supernatural elements and in an interview on Theatre Talk with Susan Haskins and Michael Riedel from the New York Post first broadcast in 2007 McPherson while talking about the play said, “I think that life can be frightening sometimes, and I suppose I’ve always been fascinated by the supernatural because I always think it opens a door for us into a way of exploring our own darkest fears where we feel at our most loneliest and our most alienated. So, for me, people who are haunted or dealing with something which is coming from the unknown is always very powerfully dramatic. And I’ve always found that audiences tend to really tune in and really become intensely absorbed by stories to do with that. Then when you create characters around that who we care about and who are trying to deal with this stuff it can become quite potent because live theatre is a magical place and it can have an extraordinary effect.”
The story takes place in Dublin on Christmas Eve and revolves around James “Sharky” Harkin and his older brother Richard Harkin, a recently blinded, hard-drinking alcoholic played by Christopher Hunt. Determined to make a new start of things Sharky played by Shaun Smyth has returned home to care for his older brother and at the beginning of the play is two days sober and struggling to remain so.
Adding to the Christmas chaos is Richard’s drinking buddy Ivan Curry played by David Trimble. Ivan got hammered the night before and ended up spending the night at Richard’s place too drunk to go home and too scared to face the wrath of his wife Karen.
Joining this ill-fated trio is Nicky Giblin played by Chirag Naik who Sharky resents because Nicky has managed to woo and is now living with Sharky’s ex Eileen. Nicky who refuses the hard stuff but is never without a beer in his hand has spent the day on a pub crawl with a well-dressed mysterious stranger played by Paul Gross by the name of Mr. Lockhart.
Lockhart and Nicky find themselves spending Christmas Eve along with the others doing some heavy drinking and playing poker. But of course, there’s more to the story and more at stake than what at first meets the eye. Who exactly is this Mr. Lockhart and what exactly does he want?
To bring the story to life director Peter Pasyk has assembled a talented cast of actors and a first-rate design team composed of set designer Hanne Loosen, lighting designer Anton deGroot, sound designer Kathryn Smith, and costume designer Ralamy Kneeshaw.
The action of the play takes place in Richard’s rundown basement. The decor is definitely pub-inspired and the room looks like it hasn’t had a coat of paint since Vatican II. There’s a dart board along the back wall and a row of beer coasters decorating the beam that travels nearly the length of the room and a rather steep staircase leading to the basement from the upper floor that proves a challenging and comic obstacle to those who might have had one or two drinks too many.
The lighting and sound are natural feeling but when needed add an extra charge to certain key moments on stage such as when Lockhart reveals to Sharky the reality of his life and the pain he endures in a beautifully written and deeply moving monologue. It’s an entrancing moment and harkens back to the title and poem for which the play is named.
This is a naturalistic play with hints of the supernatural and so the clothing feels well lived in as does the basement and this is the world our ensemble gets to play in. Christopher Hunt is marvellous as the acerbic older brother Richard who is constantly abusing Sharky but when he feels his brother might be in some kind of danger exhibits a sense of concern and brotherly love. Richard’s character drives a lot of the action and speaks a lot of the lines and so you need someone of Hunt’s calibre to carry that weight and drive the action forward.
Shaun Smyth’s Sharky is a deeply haunted man fighting to stay sober and suppress his quick-to-violence temper. Sharky is on edge, and you sense from Smyth’s performance that this is a battle Sharky has fought and lost many times before. There’s a good portion of the second act where Sharky is silent, and his plight can only be conveyed through nonverbal means. The stakes are high and his resolve to stay sober is under siege and you feel the tension and fear in the way Sharky moves about the stage like a trapped animal not yet willing to accept his fate.
David Trimble’s Ivan is adrift and hasn’t been sober a day in the last twenty years, I’m guessing. What makes Trimble’s portrayal so enchanting is a sense that if it wasn’t for the booze this guy would probably be doing okay. He’s not a mean drunk. And I like that. Often in plays the drink brings out the demons but there are those who in real life simply become happier versions of themselves. Unfortunately, the tragedy in Ivan’s case is that he drinks to excess and has become trapped by the bottle.
Chirag Naik as Nicky feels like the one who still hasn’t quite fallen as deep into the darkness and maybe even has a chance of escaping the hell these others find themselves in. Naik portrays Nicky with a sense of faint optimism and hope that seems somewhat absent from the others but when he should be home with Eileen, he is instead spending the night playing poker and gambling away all his money and so he too slides further down the slippery slope of addiction and risks turning his entire life into ruins.
Rounding out the cast and headlining the show is the multi-talented actor, director, and producer Paul Gross who last appeared on the Calgary stage forty-two years ago in Theatre Calgary’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession and John Murrell’s Farther West. Tall, lean, and commanding with a mane of long white hair Gross is able to embed his portrayal of Mr. Lockhart with a sense of mystery, danger, and sorrow. Is he the villain and someone we should fear and despise or is he the tragic hero whose fate is undeserved? Or is it that simple? Could he possibly be both? This is clearly a tortured soul, and Gross is able to convey Lockhart’s broken-hearted existence in a rich and compelling performance.
And yet despite the play dealing with dark topics and deeply flawed characters, there’s a great deal of laughter and fun. That’s because director Peter Pasyk has crafted a production where the cast feels so natural in their performances that it really does feel like we’ve simply dropped in and are watching the antics of a group of real-life drinking buddies stumbling through life and celebrating the Christmas season.
Life as a stormy sea is certainly a relatable concept. We often find ourselves facing difficult times at various points in our lives. The loss of a job. A change in a relationship. And of course, we hurt others and are in return hurt by them. Misunderstandings. Words said in anger. Things done that can’t be taken back. Sometimes when trying to smooth these stormy seas some of us turn to drink. And we use that numbing influence to help us cope with the loneliness and pain of living and our inability to admit that we are often the cause of our own misery and broken lives.
Yeah, sure you can meditate and do yoga to deal with life. That’s a healthy choice, I’ll admit. You can do a detox and take a course on maximizing your life and setting goals and achieving your dreams, but I don’t think that would be of much interest on the stage. I’ll leave the toxic positivity to the self-help gurus and charlatans hawking their supplements and head to the theatre where the entire experience of humanity is laid bare not a false philosophy of only seeing the positive.
The theatre doesn’t just look at the good and the hopeful. It looks at the sinister and at our feelings of despair. Because there are two sides to humanity. Two sides to existence. There is joy and there is sadness. And whether or not we’re spending the evening with estranged brothers Austin and Lee in Sam Shepard’s True West or spending the night with the acerbic Martha and George in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or staying up all night with Richard and Sharky and their drinking buddies in Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer there is something deeply satisfying about the experience. These may not be the lives we’re living but as human beings, we see something of ourselves within these tragic figures and must acknowledge that there but for the grace of God go I.
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Alberta Theatre Projects has come through its own rough seas over the last few years and now Artistic Director Haysam Kadri and Executive Director Peita Luti along with their team are at the helm helping to make sure that there is smooth sailing ahead. This Fiftieth Anniversary Season has begun with a deeply satisfying and memorable production of The Seafarer by Conor McPherson that audiences can rest assured indicates a return to quality drama, laugh-out-loud comedies, and a range of plays to satisfy Alberta Theatre Projects patrons and friends.
