Reviews OWE & Fringe Published 26 January 2012

The Sea Plays

Old Vic Tunnels ⋄ 23rd January – 18th February 2012

A trio of early works by Eugene O’Neill.

Sam Smith

When Bound East for Cardiff, the first of Eugene O’Neill’s Sea Plays, premiered in Provincetown in 1916, the converted fish house venue came with real sound effects in the form of incoming waves and fog horns. There probably isn’t any place in London that could ever achieve the same degree of authenticity, but the Old Vic Tunnels come remarkably close. The imposing brick walls of the performance space, literally under the arches and complete with damp air and rough flooring, capture something of the claustrophobic nature of ship life, while Alex Baranowski and Emma Chapman’s sound and lighting designs speak directly of a gritty, grimy existence. Even the trains that periodically rattle overhead evoke the sound of a ship’s pistons.

O’Neill’s Sea Plays pre-date virtually all of his major works, but were of paramount importance in shaping his decision to devote his life to writing plays. When first performed they met with considerable acclaim, largely because O’Neill was introducing European introspective themes to American theatre at a time when Broadway was still ridden with melodramas and light-hearted comedies.

The three plays, two of which are set on board a ship, explore the lives of a group of mainly English and Irish merchant seamen. In many ways, each play constitutes a meditation on life, although it soon becomes clear just how important structure and plot are in shaping our understanding of the characters, and maintaining our interest in their plight.

Bound East for Cardiff, so acclaimed when it premiered, proves to be the weakest of the trio, precisely because it is the least plot-driven. It does not help that in coming first we have had little chance to come to know, and hence feel for, the characters, but the play still possesses some potency. Several days from shore, Yank (Carsten Hayes) is dying and Driscoll (Matthew Travannion) is vainly trying to keep his spirits up; the resulting discussion reveals the hopes and anxieties of the two men. A life at sea is fine when one is young and carefree, but it ultimately takes its toll and leads to yearning for the life that could have been. Yank in particular fears death because he once was its cause, stabbing a man in Cape Town in self-defence.

The first piece is carried by excellent performances from Travannion and Hayes and by a staging which understands and utilises the strengths of the venue. A storm is depicted via swinging beams, and the reactions of the men as they frantically pull on the ropes; the ship’s free standing walls are spun around to capture moments occurring above and below deck, and to create a general sense of energy and activity.

As engaging as this all is,  it is the second and third plays that really make an impression. In the Zone captures the fears of a group of seamen whose ship could be attacked by the Germans at any moment. They are under such emotional pressure that they turn on a sailor who is acting vaguely suspiciously. The more they strive to expose him as a saboteur the clearer it becomes that they have made a mistake, but by this time paranoia has taken too firm a hold. When the sailors are finally forced to accept his innocence, his private life has been totally exposed in the most humiliating fashion. It is a powerful exploration of the extremes to which anxiety can force men.

The third play, The Long Voyage Home, is even more chilling in its depiction of a conspiracy to drug a sailor and force him to serve on a dangerous ship and the true horror comes from the way in which these people are willing to destroy someone’s life for money. The drama is made all the more gripping by the excellent central performances: Raymond M Sage plays the hapless Olson as a total innocent so that it instantly feels wrong to see him taken advantage of. Similarly, Amanda Boxer, as the temptress, is so convincing in her pleas for him to stay that the audience can hardly believe she is lying, and then scarcely accept that she could be quite so cruel and manipulative.

Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, comes to the West End in April; these three plays, so atmospherically staged by Kenneth Hoyt, provide the perfect primer to the man and his work.

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Sam Smith is a contributor to Exeunt Magazine

The Sea Plays Show Info


Directed by Kenneth Hoyt

Written by Eugene O’Neill

Cast includes Jordan Bernarde, Amanda Boxer, Mark Carter, Lauren Garnham, Ashley George, Carsten Hayes, Gareth Kieran Jones, Michael Norledge, Chris O’Shea, Kristian Phillips, Raymond M Sage, Vincent Santvoord, Matthew Thomas, Eva Traynor, Matthew Travannion, Eddie Webber

Link http://oldvictunnels.com/

Running Time 1 hour 55 mins (including interval)

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