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The Seafarer & The New Century

The Seafarer

Conor McPherson’s play, The Seafarer, is a delectable and eerie Christmas yarn, and the New Phoenix Theatre production, arriving just in time for the holidays, is a delight all round.

The New Century, pictured are Arianna Boykins, Jimmy Janowski. and Loraine O'Donnell

Set in a low-rent area of Dublin, the story involves a pair of down and out brothers. The younger, James “Sharky” Harkin, played by Richard Lambert, has returned home to care for his recently blinded brother Richard Harkin, played by Tom Makar. It is Christmas Eve and their attempts to celebrate primarily involve Richard trying to get blindly drunk, and Sharky trying to stay sober. Sharky’s plan is tested when his manipulative brother invites a crew in to play cards—including Nicky Giblin, the new companion of Sharky’s ex-wife, a man endowed with a smug and overstated sense of superiority—as well as with possession of both Sharky’s wife and his car. This will be a Christmas Eve to remember!

Just as in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, past deeds come to haunt this Christmas Eve.

What begins as a tale about a crew of losers living in squalor and playing cards takes an unexpected turn when one of the card players, Mr. Lockhart, turns out to be the devil himself, come to play for Sharky’s soul.

To tell more would be to spoil the fun.

Under the co-direction of Robert Waterhouse and Joseph Natale, the entire cast is marvelous: Richard Lambert as Sharky, a man who has turned over a new leaf, perhaps too late; Tom Makar as the unwashed and inebriated elder brother; Dan Walker as Ivan Curry, the myopic card player with a chronic gambling problem; Steve Copps as smug yet feckless Nicky; and Christian Brandjes as mysterious and evil Mr. Lockhart.

Christmas stories from the other side of the pond often evoke tales of the supernatural, and The Seafarer, especially such a smart production, is welcome respite from more saccharine holiday diversions.

The New Century

Paul Rudnick has a talent for viewing his own times with refreshingly irreverent insight and humor. In plays like Jeffrey, Regrets Only, Valhalla, and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, he has made us laugh at repressive politics, homophobia, World War II, AIDS, and intolerance of every sort. In The New Century, he expands on this repertoire through a set of one-act plays.

Buffalo United Artists holds a special place in their collective heart for Mr. Rudnick, having produced Jeffrey, Valhalla, and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told before. They have populated The New Century with Caitlin Coleman, as Helene, “a Jewish matron from Massapequa and the self-proclaimed ‘most loving mother of all time’”; Jimmy Janowski as “Mr. Charles, currently of Palm Beach,” described by Rudnick as “an aging homosexual hounded out of New York City by younger gay men, who find his flamboyance a threatening throwback to an earlier tougher time”; Mike Seitz as Helene’s son David and as Mr. Charles’ companion Shane; Kelli Bocock Natale as Barbara Ellen, a craftswoman and competitive cake-decorator from Decatur; and Arianna Boykins as a young mother in search of a bright future for her young child. If any of this sounds serious, get over it. Count on Rudnick to turn everything from 9/11 to Cristo’s Gates on its head. This sort of mayhem is a specialty of BUA, and they take on The New Century with deranged enthusiasm. The New Century is being performed at the Main Street Cabaret in the Alleyway Theatre complex.