The Seafarer
Reviewed by David Kashimba
Photo by Al Christenson

 Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer, now playing at Spreckles Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park, is, among other things, a comic study of why the Irish are known for their drinking and literary talents. Or, as one of the characters in this all male drama says: “Drink to where possibility seems endless.” McPherson himself believes that drinking, at least for an Irish writer, is tied to the creative process: “Intoxication takes you on a great journey,” he says. “It has a beginning, middle and an end, like any good story.”

Sharky (Edward McCloud) takes care of his blind brother Richard (Matt Witthaus). Richard describes his brother as having “a recklessness in his heart.” But there’s no doubt that Sharky has a heart. Who else would put up with taking care of Richard who drinks himself to sleep every night and verbally abuses Sharky? Ivan (Neil Thollander) is a friend of the brothers who often sleeps there because he gets too drunk to drive home. Ivan is almost blind without his glasses, which he often misplaces when he gets too drunk. But Ivan isn’t a total loss. He has a great deal of compassion for others, as do Richard and Sharky. It’s this compassion and human warmth that makes the audience care about these characters and all three men have a great sense of humor, which the audience also shares. The fact that they all stumble and fall in the darkness that they sometimes create only makes them more human and endearing. But with the creation of these characters, McPherson seems to indicate that only by stumbling through darkness, can these men eventually find the light.

Their drinking becomes a Faustian journey when someone from their dark past shows up to play a high stakes card game on Christmas that could mean the loss of their very souls. This is a modern Christmas story where the card players realize that if they can just beat the stress of Christmas, they can do anything. The play is full of that Irish humor which can take you to the edge of a great dark abyss, dangle you long enough to experience the shadowy isolating fall into nothingness, and then resurrect you to a light shining through a dark bottle of Guinness.

For tickets or more information call (707) 588-3400 or visit www.narrowwaystage.com.

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