Our “Hallmark Card” world is dead-set on drilling the joys of the holiday season into our heads. But for many—maybe most of us—Christmastime is often of trifecta of anger, sadness and loneliness. Take those emotional ingredients, drown them in several gallons of booze, and you’ve got the makings of a classic fenian soul-baring exercise. You’ve also got The Seafarer, a play by the young Connor McPherson that garnered rave reviews in London and on Broadway. It’s currently on stage at Steppenwolf.
It’s Christmas Eve and gathered together are a gaggle of down on their luck men, including our hero Sharkey, his newly-blind brother Richard and a couple of their hard-drinking buddies. With them is the mysterious Mr. Lockhart, who just might be the human incarnation of Old Scratch. Here to tell us about the production is Eight Forty-Eight dueling critic Jonathan Abarbanel. And while his better half Kelly Kleiman is away, we are happy to welcome special guest dueler Kerry Reid.