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I have a thing for the devil.
The devil wants friends.
He wants a bit of his own back.
Hes an addict never satisfied by the fix.
So of course the devil is a gambler.
He likes games, riddles, tests.
Hes viciously competitive and easily bored.
Eternity is horribly boring.
The devils got to keep things interesting.
In the lonely voice of this ancient mariner, McPherson heard the Morning Star.
The devil is also a traveler, houseless and hearthless.
As is McPhersons style,The Seafarerslowly unfolds its murkier depths under a surface of deceptively casual banter.
Its not a play where much happens.
Its characters primary actions are talking and drinking, its central event, a game of cards.
But for two of the players, that game has eternal stakes.
Our hapless hero is James Harkin, known as Sharky to his friends.
Thats where Richard is when the play begins, on a particularly inauspicious Christmas Eve morning.
God, its freezing!
roars Richard as he wakes.
Sharky pokes at the fire, but his efforts wont make much difference.
The house is about to get a whole lot colder.
What did you have to go and invite Nicky Giblin up here for?
Sharky snapped at his brother earlier.
But a bad penny always turns up.
But the thing Sharky did that landed him in that cell that thing remains.
And he owes Mr. Lockhart another game, this one played for keeps.
Only Sharky and Mr. Lockhart know the stakes of the poker game the men all sit down to play.
Only they drive the storys plot, such as it is.
In the meantime, his constrained energy creates room for the broader, more demonstrative characters.
He can be vicious to his brother, but he loves and needs him desperately.
Hed be the games most formidable player if he didnt have a handicap.
As Mr. Lockhart himself, Broderick is an interesting choice, compelling if not always visceral.
I only wish Id been more thoroughly shaken when it did.
But Broderick still does right by the character, especially when Mr. Lockhart gives in to ennui.
Well, that is one maudlin fucker!
Richard declares about him at one point to uproarious laughter.
Its a hilarious moment, and a sad one.
Though Sharkys trial and his potential redemption is our moral focal point, McPhersons play isnt named for him.
Thats fine good, even.
The Seafareris at the Irish Repertory Theater through May 24.
