"Seafarer" at TheaterWorks poetic and visual

HARTFORD - Irish men behaving badly are featured in "Seafarer" at TheaterWorks. Set in a dingy Dublin tenement on Christmas Eve, four men and a stranger play poker for significantly high stakes, in Conor McPherson’s comedy "The Seafarer."

The men are in various degrees of slovenly alcoholism, drinking stout, whiskey, and some sort of rock-gut liquor. There are two brothers, Richard and James "Sharkey" Harkin, played by Edmond Genest and Dean Nolan, a friend named Ivan Curry, played by John Ahlin, and Nicky Giblin, played by Chris Geneback, who is living with one of the Sharkey’s ex-wife or girlfriend.

They all have working class Irish brogues, and swear words are clearly the adjective of choice, making a regular appearance every third word or so, along with the colloquialisms, such as "bonnet" for "hood" of a car and "spot on" for "dead-on."
The language can be poetic and visual at times, such as went Curry complains that when his wife yells at him, "the force of her voice pins you up against the wall."

Or when Richard says that Sharkey has a "recklessness in his heart" which he says is his undoing.

The household is a domestic nightmare, with cringe-worthy plumbing problems, gross hygiene, questionable crockery, and occasionally even the air seemed to smell rank.
Outdoors it isn’t much better, and the men run outside in intervals to chase away the local winos from the neighborhood, leaving Sharkey to be confronted by Mr. Lockhart, who knows way more about his life than any total stranger should.

Nicky brings the notably well dressed stranger, Lockhart, played by Allen McCullough, who turns out to be bad indeed - he can’t tolerate the sound of music, but has no difficulty sitting on top of the burning coal stove.

McCullough was convincingly menacing, but his Irish accent was unstable. Somehow that doesn’t matter though, because of his other-worldliness, it makes him stand apart more.

The play drags some in the first act, but picks up momentum during the second, during the card game. The dialog is rough, and the discussions are graphic. Although it is labeled a comedy, it isn’t always funny, despite some amusing lines, mostly delivered by Genest’s Richard, as when Richard says to Nicky that he can tell he is thinking: "because I can hear your brain crunching."

As the play develops these seemingly loser men become surprisingly lovable and even somewhat heroic, almost imperceptibly - which is the real gift of this play.

Three Stars
Theater: TheaterWorks
Location: 233 Pearl St. Hartford.
Production: Written by Conor McPherson. Directed by Henry Wishcamper. Set design by Adrian W. Jones. Costumes designed by Anne Kenney. Lighting design by Matthew Richards. Sound designed by Bart Fasbender. Dialect coach Stephen Gabis. Fight choreography by Mark Olsen.
Running time: 2 hour, 30 minutes, plus a 15-minute intermission
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Extra Sunday evening shows at 7:30 p.m. The show will run through Dec. 21.
Tickets: Unassigned seating is $37; $47 on Friday and Saturday nights. Center reserved seats $11 more. $10 student rush tickets at showtime with valid ID (subject to availability). For tickets call 527-7838 or visit their Web site at www.theaterworks.org.
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Edmond Genest ... Richard Harkin
Dean Nolan ... James "Sharkey" Harkin
John Ahlin ... Ivan Curry
Chris Genebach ... Nicky Giblin
Allen McCullough ... Mr. Lockhart
By Kory Loucks
Journal Inquirer