Card-playing men at awhiskey-besotted Christmas Eve celebration are visited by “Mr. Lockhart,”Lucifer himself, brilliantly portrayed by Jonathan Smoots. He has come to claim“Sharky” (the talented Lee Ernst), who has forgotten his 25-year-old pact withMr. Lockhart. It appears he bartered his soul to get out of prison for adrunken, accidental homicide. Sharky is visiting his blind brother, Richard(expertly played by James Pickering), who requires much tending. They arejoined by Ivan (Christopher Tarjan) and Nicky (Jonathan Gillard Daly), who addmore humor to the proceedings with each refill, giving much-needed humandimension to what is about to happen.
Pacts with the devil arenothing new since Faust, but the moral dilemma here is played with a lightertouch, equating eternal damnation with an eternal gamble. This particularparanormal visitor is a gamy sort who enjoys boozy Irish fun and is willing tochallenge the gods of irony by letting Sharky’s final damnation rest on theoutcome of a card gamemuch to everyone’s delight except Sharky’s.
The first act is theweakest, taking too much time to establish characters without addressing acentral theme until Mr. Lockhart’s much-belated appearance late in the act.Delaying the main action throughout the first hour seems pointless. Lee Ernst’skindhearted interpretation wins empathy for Sharky, but then he is the onlycharacter on the wagon, seemingly atoning for his supposed sins by taking careof his brother.
The card game is wiselypoised as a series of moves constantly disrupted by outbursts from thethoroughly inebriated characters freely laying out their personal hostilitiestoward each other, creating a break in the central conflict between Mr.Lockhart and Sharky while increasing the suspense surrounding their finalconfrontation. Mr. Lockhart remains deadly calm throughout.
Many will find the mostinteresting section of dialogue to be Lockhart’s contrast between hell and theheaven to which he is forbidden to enter. Lockhart implies a curious similaritybetween the two domains, but McPherson wisely does not linger on the profound.This remains a difficult play to absorb emotionally, presenting a curiousbalance between cynicism, compassion and the wings of fate. In lesser hands,and without this excellent cast, it might not work. But Ben Barnes’ outstandingstage direction is a huge plus, and, while ambiguous at times, Seafarer never feels oppressive and isoften delightful.
Milwaukee Rep’s The Seafarer continues through March 7at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater.
Soulstice Theatre’s Engaging ‘LoveLetters’
By Russ Bickerstaff
In the wrong hands, A.R.Gurney’s epistolary play Love Letterscan come across as inadvertently comical. As actor and actress sit onstagereading a lifetime of hopes and dreams, decades play out in minutes and we, theaudience, are supposed to connect with characters we never see in a naturalsetting. It can often feel forced, with a sterile stage as the setting for twopeople’s most intimate emotions. But Soulstice Theatre managed a cleversolution to some of the forced dramatics in its production of Gurney’s classicat Sheridan’s in Cudahy over the Valentine’s weekend.
Reprising their rolesfrom a previous production, Char Manny and Mark Flagg played distant loversMelissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. The play was staged over dinnerat Sheridan’s.Manny and Flagg took their seats in a central location, and Valentine’sconversations mixed with the voices of the actors to create a very naturalfeel. The generational mix of people attending dinner at Sheridan’s created an organic context for theromance between Melissa and Andrew. Flagg’s voice has a broadcast-qualityrichness that carries well in a crowded room, and Manny’s expressive energyguided the emotion of the piece exceedingly well.
Soulstice’s staging of Love Letters leads into the company’stwo-weekend reader’s theater production of Pursuitof Love.Debra Babich directs aseries of romantic shorts, including a couple written by Doubt author John Patrick Shanley. Soulstice’s Pursuit of Love runs Feb. 18-27 at the Marian Centerfor Nonprofits.
