Review: 'The Seafarer'

Robert Cuccioli and David Adkins appear in a scene from "The Seafarer," now being staged at the George Street Playhouse. (Credit: T. Charles Erickson)

There's something about the Christmas spirit that makes art go mushy, even soggy with tame Yuletide cheer. Talented musicians have made dull Christmas albums; good actors have made lame Christmas movies.

However, that may be exactly why something set during the holiday season filled with drama, dark comedy, a feeling of fun and a genuine sense of danger can be a cause for celebration. Such is the case with "The Seafarer," now playing through Dec. 14 at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick.

Penned by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, the Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated play does deal with big issues -- life, death, love, loss and redemption -- but it does so with charm, wit and patience.

In fact, for most of the play's first half, the audience probably can't even tell they're being eased into a story with serious issues on its mind. Rather, the set up feels like an alcohol-soaked riff on Neil Simon's dialogue-fueled comedies.

Set in the Irish coastal town of Baldoyle, the play spends much of its first act following the Christmas Eve activities of three men, each fighting their own personal battles. Richard, played by David Schramm, is a blind man who starts the play by waking up hung over on his living room floor. Sharky, Richard's younger brother played by David Adkins, has a bruised face and an equally damaged spirit. And Ivan, a friend of Richard and Sharky's played by William Hill, just wants to find his lost glasses and get home to his wife and kids.

Throughout the course of the play's first half, these three men talk, drink, argue, reminisce, drink some more and usually keep the audience laughing and interested.

However, just when the audience has gotten comfortable with the characters onstage, McPherson introduces two new players shortly before intermission: Nicky, a local played by Matthew Boston who has fallen out of Sharky's good graces, and Mr. Lockhart, a mysterious figure who has unfinished business with one of the play's characters. Played by Tony Award nominee Robert Cuccioli, Lockhart is a character of real menace and danger who also is not without the audience's sympathy in some of his more revelatory moments.

The second act finds these characters sitting down for a game of poker, and how that game goes and the incredibly high stakes involved make up the rest of the show.

The process of discovery

Sure, there's much more to the plot and those characters than that, but a lot of the fun in "The Seafarer" comes with the process of discovery, and there are a few surprises to be had over the course of the show.

Each member of the five-person cast turns in a stellar performance, even if during a recent show the actors did have a bit of trouble sustaining their Irish accents. However, out of the ensemble the key performance is Schramm's Falstaff-like take on Richard, simply because he is the actor who is allowed the widest range of speeds and emotions during the course of the play.

Set in Richard and Sharky's living room, the play is a comfortable fit for the intimate George Street Playhouse, and the production team, lead by director Anders Cato, keeps things subtle and simple, allowing the actors to rule the stage and deliver this unconventional, but winning, Christmas tale.

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