For those who have taken English 10A at UCLA, reading old translations of Anglo-Saxon poems such as “The Seafarer” and “The Wanderer” is not just a recommendation, but a requirement, and a difficult one at that.
However, Conor McPherson has found some new meaning in the 1,300-year-old poem “The Seafarer” for his new play of the same name.
The play does not involve characters one would have expected to find 1,300 years ago, but instead offers something far more relatable.
“(It’s about) a group of guys gathering to play a game of poker on Christmas Eve, and the stakes get really, really high,” said director Randall Arney.
The stakes of this Dublin poker game are raised partly due to the flowing alcohol and ““ as the play progresses ““ to the realization that one of the characters at the table might be the devil playing for one of the other guys’ souls.
McPherson’s play first premiered in Sept. 2006 at London’s National Theatre, and ran on Broadway through Dec. 2007.
The Broadway production received multiple Tony Award nominations in 2008, and later that year made its debut in the U.S. After joining the production in Chicago, Arney and the rest of the “Seafarer” crew made their Los Angeles debut at the Geffen Playhouse on April 14, and they will be performing there until May 24.
Arney and two of the cast members, Tom Irwin and John Mahoney, helped bring the play out west to the Geffen, where rehearsals began about a month ago. The addition of actors Andrew Connolly, Paul Vincent O’Connor, and Matt Roth brought a new dynamic to the production.
“The script, of course, has all stayed exactly the same, but because you have three new actors all of a sudden, it changes more than you might think,” Arney said. “Even though they are saying the same lines, they have different rhythms.”
A play’s production can be challenged by the demands of a high-maintenance star, but having an ensemble cast without any single character stealing the spotlight can present challenges of its own.
“In this case, it really takes the teamwork of five guys who all have to be really good and quick together,” Arney said. “That is the biggest challenge: getting all five of the actors up to the same par.”
While the actual plot of the play has little to do with the original Anglo-Saxon poem, it evokes many of the same emotions, placing them in the context of a much more relatable and enjoyable story.
“It’s about loneliness and alienation, and that’s similar to some of the themes of the play,” Arney said.