|
The Sea Horse
By Edward J. Moore
Directed by Dado
At A Red Orchid Theatre
1531 N. Wells
Chicago, IL
Call 312-943-8722, tickets $14 – $16 - $20
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 7 PM
Running time is 100 min with intermission
Through March 5, 2006
Tough, raw, passionate love story
A Red Orchid Theatre finds quirky, obscure plays that necessitate strong actors and deft direction. Their latest gem, The Sea Horse, is a bawdy, battling and intoxicating two-hander. The realistic, detailed set (design by Grant Sabin) depicts a raunchy, seamen’s bar in Southern California, The Sea Horse where hard drinking, hard fighting merchant sailors come to quench their thirsts. The only thing lacking with the set is the smell of stale beer.
Harry Bales (Guy Van Swearingen) returns from two months aboard ship to The Sea Horse. He lives with the tough, large-sized proprietor, Gertrude Blum (Kristen Fitzgerald) with whom he loves and fears at the same time. From the opening scene when Harry, pounds on the door at 2:30 AM in a rain storm and Gertrude ignores him, we know that this isn’t a gentle romantic play.
Eventually, Gertrude opens the door letting a soaked Harry enter and the verbal duet begins. These two wounded, emotionally scared characters have a love/hate relationship filled with passionate and sexually charged moments. The guarded Gertrude loves the good guy Harry as a sexual and life companion only.
She listens to Harry’s latest scheme offering advice and caution. Harry has a special present for Gertrude---a wedding dress. This sends Gertrude into an emotionally bitter frenzy.
She belittles and threatens Harry often resulting in physical combat that has the two punching, wrestling and waving a ball bat at each other. Many of these fights end up with hugs and kisses. To these crude, blue collar types, sex, booze and physicality are ways of life. Fighting is just another form of communication and foreplay.
Kristen Fitzgerald is terrific as she goes from stern gentle motherly type to mean tough barmaid to tortured soul terrified of love, yet still vulnerable to it. Fitzgerald is one of those confident actors willing to reach whatever level needed to accurately portray her character.
Guy Van Swearingen, another gutsy actor, specializes in playing flawed weird characters, plays Harry with a combination of raw, salty, hard drinking macho; a simple guy lost in his present dream for a better life and a hopelessly determined lover. These two sparkle together.
Harry has an epiphany that sees him buying a boat and taking Gertrude away from her hard life running a seedy tavern. His marriage proposal garners laughter from Gertrude and the sparks start to fly. Gertrude’s abusive marriage left her untrusting of men.
These two are so emotionally scared and jaded that intimacy, filled with optimism, is foreign and uncomfortable to them. They use humor, angry (and physicality) together with alcohol to cope with their trepidations. Kudos to fight coordinator David Woolley for the scary fight scenes making Gertrude a fearsome figure.
Fitzgerald and Van Swearingen are so powerful and accurate in conveying their pathos, desires and their lust that the show unfolds as a character study. The Sea Horse contains raw humor, violence and sexuality in a sordid look at how two damaged people struggle in an attempt to have love over come fear.
The Sea Horse is a tour de force for Kristen Fitzgerald and Guy Van Swearingen. You’ll be hard pressed to witness finer theatrical craftsmanship than displayed here.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio Show
This show eligible for a C.S.T. Equity Theatre Award
January 23, 2006
Jeff Recommended
|
