Dark comedy one of brightest works of 2008
Francis Guinan does his job with little fanfare. A Steppenwolf Theatre member for nearly 30 years who has worked steadily in television, doing one-shots on series like "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy," Guinan appears regularly on his home stage, most recently in a series of supporting roles where he revealed a masterful talent for understatement.
He is quite simply one of the best, most consistent actors working in the Chicago area. If you don't know his name, you should. After watching him in Steppenwolf's potent production of Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer," you won't forget it.
Guinan makes up one-fifth of director Randall Arney's powerhouse cast - a sort of Steppenwolf royal flush - that also includes ensemble members John Mahoney, Alan Wilder and Tom Irwin, along with Randall Newsome in his Steppenwolf debut.
Randall Arney's quietly compelling production comes a year after the Broadway debut of this haunting, alcohol-fueled tale of regret, guilt, failure and loneliness by McPherson, the contemporary Irish playwright who has emerged as leading chronicler of isolation and despair par excellence. In what amounts to a double bill, McPherson's similarly themed "Dublin Carol," starring recent ensemble addition William Petersen, continues in Steppenwolf's upstairs theater through Jan. 4.
The action unfolds on Christmas Eve in a unkempt home north of Dublin, where newly unemployed and newly sober Sharky (the expressive Guinan, who plays silence brilliantly and whose fathomless gaze and sagging posture reflects a defeated man), lives in domestic turmoil with his cantankerous older brother Richard (Mahoney, deftly tempering brotherly animosity with grudging affection).
A demanding drunkard with a keen sense of his own mortality, Richard suffered an accident several months earlier that left him blind and dependent, with his fondness for alcohol undiminished.
Joining them for the holiday is Ivan (fine comedic work by Wilder) Richard's fellow rummy, whose drinking has cost him Christmas with his wife and children.
Brothers in booze and united in failure, theirs is a camaraderie underscored by alcohol, where problems that seem to disappear after a few rounds, return twofold once the hangover commences. Tormented by his past and unable to fashion a better future, Sharky, a self-loathing man cursed with self-awareness, is the most tragic of the three.
That much becomes evident with the arrival of Nicky (Newsome), Sharky's erstwhile friend now married to Sharky's ex-wife, who's accompanied by a new acquaintance, the dapper Mr. Lockhart (a nicely Mephistophelean performance by the slick and sinister Irwin). The men settle in for a friendly game of poker where the stakes involve more than money.
To reveal more would spoil the play. Suffice it to say, "The Seafarer" is a skillfully constructed pairing of dark comedy and pathos, with a touch of the supernatural for good measure. The fact that it flirts with an alternate (and in my opinion, equally satisfying ending) testifies to McPherson's talent in the same way the unfussy, entirely credible acting and Arney's flawless direction testifies to Steppenwolf's.
But it's the striking performance by Guinan - who commands our attention without saying a word - that makes this production of "Seafarer" among the best of the year.