The Seafarer...

Went to see The Seafarer written by and directed by Conor McPherson at the National Theatre on Saturday.

I was looking forward to this as I thought The Weir was one of the best stage plays of the past decade and his movie I Went Down was pretty bloody laugh-tastic too.

And The Seafarer was pretty good. It told the story an itinerant brother returning to the family home to look after his blind brother at Christmas and it included the McPherson stock-in-trade of slapstick sight gags, drunken ramblings and seamless Irish comedy patter. Then the Devil arrived determined to claim the soul of the sighted brother via a game of poker…

It was enjoyable stuff with a bit of an upbeat message about the redeeming power of love thrown in but it just didn’t fully add up for me and it all seemed a bit too pat. Like a sitcom the play had a convenient comedy ending and that undermined the better work that had gone before.

For all that, though, it was still a very solid piece of work. Jim Norton was superb as the visually impaired brother Richard, Ron Cook (with his occasional slipping accent aside) was nicely understated as Satan and Conleth Hill was entertaining as Richard's hapless drinking buddy Ivan.

Well worth a look.