Photo credit Eamonn McGoldrick"I hope your eye is in. I hope your game is up. Because, to tell you the truth, I'd love a run for my money just once..." Read more …
By the light of a flickering candle, five men play cards. Each has his own reason to take part in this Christmas Eve poker game, but for one, the stakes couldn’t be higher...
The Seafarer tells the tale of James ‘Sharky’ Harkin; erstwhile fisherman/van driver/chauffeur and recovering alcoholic. He has escaped to his family home in Dublin to look after his blind older brother Richard, who rules the chaotic, booze-fuelled roost.
Soon old buddies Ivan and Nicky are round for a festive tipple or ten and bring with them a mysterious stranger. The cards come out, but as the game goes on it becomes clear to Sharky that drink will not be the only demon he has to face tonight.
Magnificently atmospheric, this darkly funny Faustian tale was nominated for Evening Standard, Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Play. It receives its Scottish and Northern Irish premiere in this joint Perth Theatre and Lyric Theatre, Belfast production.
Engrossing and entertaining.
McPherson’s script is convincing and is safe in the hands of this quintet.
Played on Gary McCann’s outrageously detailed set (the perfect visualisation of male degeneration), the production is beautifully performed, with the ever-brilliant Ciaran McIntyre a monstrously hilarious stand-out as Richard.
What emerges from behind the play’s ribald banter is a reflection on lives wasted, mistakes made and memories lost in a haze of alcohol. Performed with ferocity by the five-strong ensemble, it is compulsively watchable.
Powerful...well worth savouring.
Interview: Conor McPherson, writer of The Seafarer
Perth Theatre, Perth from Friday February 8, 2013, until Saturday February 23, 2013. More info: www.horsecross.co.uk
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