What Jewish festival celebrates deliverance from Egypt?

Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Dude Abides

Home
Progressive Christian

Last updated on: December 16, 2008 at 12:36 pm by Cathleen Falsani

2008-12-16T12:36:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

GODSTUFF

“THE SEAFARER”:

PITCH BLACK HOLIDAY COMEDY PACKS A SPIRITUAL WALLOP

Set on Christmas Eve in a seaside village north of Dublin in a home populated by hard-drinking, down-on-their-luck Irishmen, Conor McPherson’s play “The Seafarer” is not what you’d call light holiday fare.

The play, at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, reflects on the flip side of what holiday cheer can bring.

Depression. Self-loathing. A sense of alienation, hopelessness, sorrow.

McPherson’s play, however, is brilliant. And the Steppenwolf production — featuring ensemble players John Mahoney (in a masterful performance as Richard); Tom Irwin (Lockhart); Alan Wilder (Ivan); the exceptional Francis Guinan (Sharky), and newcomer Randall Newsome (Nicky) — is a shining star in the firmament of perennially dazzling Chicago theater.

A dark — pitch black, really — comedy, “The Seafarer” packs a spiritual wallop that just might provide an unlikely (if ultimately joyful) antidote for sufferers of Christmas malaise.

It is an emotionally eloquent, wonderfully human explication of the experience of divine grace, which is what the Advent season is supposed to be about — God reaching God’s hands into the world, in the cry of a newborn baby, sent to redeem the world through grace. Unwarranted, unmatched, un-earnable grace.

The men all are problem drinkers. They’re either bachelors or in troubled relationships. Each has that loser vibe, with the possible exception of Lockhart — the odd man out in his tailored clothing, expensive trilby and refined brogue. The men have sought out one another’s company (and the comfort of jars of stout and cheap whiskey) in order to keep the heavy despair bay, if only barely.

Richard is blind (the result of taking a tumble into a garbage bin). Sharky is unemployed, heartbroken and just two days sober. Ivan and Ricky are hungover and in Dutch with their wives. And Lockhart, for all his finery, also is searching desperately for something eternally out of his reach.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” this is not.

In a particularly brutal scene, Lockhart tells Sharky what Hell is like.

“There truly is no one to love you. Not even him,” Lockhart says, pointing to the sky to indicate the Almighty. “He let you go. Even he’s sick of you.”

That’s what Hell on Earth feels like. No one loves you. You don’t matter. God has thrown up God’s hands and stormed out of the room, leaving you to your own sorry devices. There is no hope. There is no joy. There is no one coming to the rescue. You’ve messed up your life, and there’s no way to right it. Ever.

And all the twinkling Christmas lights, spiked eggnog and twee carols only serve to make the darkness in your heart feel that much darker.

Thankfully, McPherson doesn’t abandon Sharky — or the audience — in that slough of despair.

Salvation comes at dawn Christmas morning, coinciding with the arrival of the baby Jesus. Whether it’s divine or human intervention is left open to debate.

Still, God is clearly the God of second chances, of do-overs and the cosmic mulligan.

Richard, with the gravelly voice of a surly prophet, points out the moment of grace, which arrives, as it normally does, without bells and harp music.

“Ah, buck up will you, Sharky!” Richard says. “I don’t want the whole, ‘Aw, life is too hard, and I can’t take it!’ off of you today now, right? Do you hear me? We all know you’re an alcoholic, and your life is in tatters, and you’re an awful fucking gobshite. We all know that. But you know what? You’re alive, aren’t you? Aren’t you?”

Yes. And sometimes, just breath in lungs and the beat of a heart (even when it feels about the size of a raisin), is grace enough to give thanks and keep going. You may be a loser, a disaster, but you’re still here and, believe it or not, somebody loves you.

A few years back, I had the chance to interview Mahoney about his faith for a book I was writing, The God Factor, a collection of spiritual profiles of famous people. Mahoney’s interview was my favorite of the 32 in the book, and something he said over lunch in Oak Park that summer day in 2005 has stuck with me. In fact, I think about it every day. And I want to leave you with it — an Advent meditation, if you will, for those of us who sometimes feel we’ve lost our way, especially this time of the year.

“If I had children, what I would mostly want them to understand is exactly the opposite of what I was taught when I was a kid,” Mahoney said. “I’d want them to know that they will always be forgiven, that they will always be loved, that they will always get a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance and a fifth chance and however many chances it takes. I would want them to know that, unless they are really, really vicious and mean and totally horrible, that they are going to heaven. They don’t have to worry about a thing. God will always love them and forgive them.

“Yes, you make mistakes. And, yes, you do things that you shouldn’t do, but you will be forgiven, and you will be loved, and you won’t be loved any less. You will be loved just as much as you were before you made those mistakes.”

(“The Seafarer” runs through Feb. 8 at the Steppenwolf Theater, 1650 N. Halsted. Ticket information online at www.steppenwolf.org or call (312) 335-1650.)

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 12, 2008

Next Post

December 19, 2008

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Jewish festival celebrates deliverance from Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pentecost Tabernacles Passover Purim