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Allen Hamilton as Richard and Patrick Bailey as Ivan in the Jungle Theater production of "The Seafarer" by Conor McPherson.

While many theaters are bringing back their warm holiday chestnuts of "

," Jungle Theater is trying out its own brand of seasonal entertainment. 

, by Conor McPherson, is the tale of four Irish drunks who've pretty much wasted their lives, and proceed to spend Christmas eve playing a game of poker while getting blitzed. Director Joes Sass said despite the boozing and cursing, the play glows with the holiday spirit.

The darkness in the lives of these men appears to be the desperate state in which they live. Richard has recently lost his sight and is adjusting poorly to his new disability. Sharky cares for his brother despite the constant abuse Richard heaps onto him. Ivan can't help but drink himself into a stupor, leading his wife to kick him out of the house. Nick is shacking up with Sharky's ex-girlfriend and prone to consuming all his friends liquor.

The drama and suspense comes with the arrival of a certain Mr. Kilbourne, who it turns out has played poker with Sharky before, and is a bit of a shark himself when it comes to cards. Before long it's clear that Kilbourne is no ordinary visitor, and Sharky realizes he's playing for more than just the pot on the table.

Phil Kilbourne as Mr. Lockhart in "The Seafarer" 

Sass said another one of the inspirations for "The Seafarer" was the legend of Dublin's 'Hellfire Club,' a hunting lodge that in the 1800s was used by aristocrats and land-owners to gather for drinking and card-playing:

Sharky (played by Stephen Yoakam) contemplates his bleak past and even bleaker future in "The Seafarer."

Sass believes playwright Conor McPherson to be a master of storytelling. Sass directed another McPherson play, SHINING CITY, in which a man was haunted by the ghost of his recently deceased wife. He says "The Seafarer" explores, in a much funnier way, similar themes about how we strive to break away from past relationships, turn over a new leaf, and create a second chance for ourselves.

"The Seafarer" gets its name from an anonymous English poem written in the late 8th century.

Sass said the poem's bleak description of life at sea could aptly describe that of any one of the characters in the play. But by the end you're left wondering if the most desolate one of them all isn't the devil himself.

 opens tonight at the Jungle Theater and runs through December 20.

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

Author

While many theaters are bringing back their warm holiday chestnuts, Jungle Theater is trying out its own brand of seasonal entertainment, featuring alcoholism, gambling and the devil himself.

A different kind of “Christmas cheer”

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