Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Christmas Shows
Irish playwright Conor McPherson's Dublin Carol and The Seafarer
T’is such a joyous time of year but for those facing Christmas without a loved one, the holiday season can be emotionally lethal. If you find yourself a Pet Single this season, about to drown your sorrows in sinful amounts of eggnog while scarfing down one too many mincemeat pies, look no further for a shoulder to cry on. Remember, if you think you’ve got it bad, there is always some poor schmuck worse off than you, especially in the fictional sense.
Ireland’s favorite Dublin son, playwright Conor McPherson (Rum and Vodka, Shining City, The Weir), has created your perfect Christmas theatre libation, for those who want to embrace that Inner Scrooge, with two similar themed witty and gritty plays now playing at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Dublin Carol
Dublin Carol is the story of middle aged booze-hound John Plunkett, in present day Dublin, Ireland, and aye, McPherson leaves no doubt that Plunkett is indeed a modern day Scrooge, for he left his family long ago having replaced them with daily bouts of medicinal plonk.
Plunkett holds steady employment thanks to his boss Noel, saved from a life in the bottom of a bottle, recounting stories of his past and how he met his boss, now ill in the hospital, to Noel's young nephew co-worker Mark. The funeral home office, though old and musty, is furnished stylishly enough, but when it comes to the Holly Jolly, the décor is sorely lacking, with only a cheap Christmas plastic tree and a few sad fairy lights.
On Christmas Eve, a young woman named Mary comes to visit, akin to Ebenezer Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Past, and John Plunkett is forced to come face to face with his inner demons, perhaps the chance to escape the weight of the ponderous chain of guilt he has wielded for himself over the years. Dublin Carol directed by Steppenwolf's Amy Morton, stars long-time Steppenwolf ensemble member, William Petersen, (aka CSI’s soon-to-depart Gil Grissom) as John Plunkett. Due to popular demand, Dublin Carol, now playing at Steppenwolf’s Upstairs Theatre, has been extended to Dec ember 28.
The Seafarer
Conor McPherson’s other delightfully dark Christmas yarn, now a seasonal fave, is The Seafarer. It's about demons within maybe even right beside you, one fateful Christmas Eve during a winner take all poker game doused in booze and vitriol.
James “Sharkey” Harkin is an ex con, desperate to avoid the temptations of drink, who looks after his older blind alcoholic brother Richard in their dank Baldoyle, North Dublin flat. Richard’s fellow drinking pal, near sighted Ivan Curry, is their bumbling Holiday flatmate, and one night another regular drunk at the Harkin household, Nicky Giblin and his new friend, Mr Lockhart, come to join them in their Christmas Cheer drinking festvities. Mr Lockhart suggests an innocent game of poker.
It’s one part Faust, one part John Milton, one part Harold Pinter, and a generous jigger of Edward Albee straight up with a twist.
As the men proceed to play cards and drink themselves into their usual stupors, the group recall the fateful life decisions that got them to eternally squalid Godforsaken existence. And true to McPherson form, of course it turns out, Lockhart and Sharkey have met once before...
"I hope your eye is in. I hope your game is up. Because to tell you the truth, I'd love a run for my money just once. Or maybe you just feel like giving in. Maybe it's a relief to finally be set free from the jaws of God's wilderness, is it?"
The Seafarer, directed by Steppenwolf's Randal Arney, featuring Frasier’s famed sit com dad, John Mahoney as Richard Harkin, is playing at Steppenwolf’s Theatre Downstairs to February 8, 2009.
William Petersen
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