With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, what could be more appropriate than offering a production of Gardner McKay’s Sea Marks? The clever folks at Milwaukee’s Soulstice Theater have made this catch-of-the-day. They have paired two fine actors (both sporting plausible Irish accents) and the lilting dialogue that takes audiences to a remote village on an island off the west coast of Ireland. Part love story, part poetry, Sea Marks tells the bracing tale of two mismatched lovers. Colm (David Ferrie) is a fisherman who, as he informs the audience, “has always lived by the sea.” Even his modest house is built of stone that has been cut from the cliffs towering above his small village. “I know everyone, and everyone knows me,” Colm continues. As Colm delivers his monologue, the production team provides nicely balanced sound effects. There’s crashing waves and the hum of a strong wind. A Celtic fiddler plays Irish folk tunes just offstage. Eventually, the fiddler (an excellent Therese Goode) plays only during set changes. Still, the lively music is enough to remind audiences that the Irish are known for their music as well as their literature. Sea Marks is a charmer from start to finish. Although it has modest ambitions, the play also has a tendency to capture audiences’ hearts. The play opened Off-Broadway in 1981 and soon became a favorite of regional theaters. This reviewer recalls seeing a 1986 production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Although a critic sees hundreds of shows in a lifetime, this critic can still recall some memorable moments from a production of Sea Marks seen 30 years ago. The play was filmed as a PBS special in 1976. It starred the fabulous George Hearn (Broadway’s Sweeney Todd) as Colm. The play also had a brief Off-Broadway revival in 2014 at the Irish Repertory Theater. As the plot continues, the only thing that might get Colm to turn his back on the sea is love. As a 55-year-old virgin, he only barely realizes what he is missing by not having a woman in his life. He writes to a lady from Liverpool whom he saw at a wedding two years earlier; he is not sure that she will remember him.
Timothea, who receives the letter, is indeed clueless about the man who has written to her. She is perhaps a few years younger than Colm. She is divorced, with no children. Timothea likes the way Colm writes about nature — the waves, birds, clouds and fog that he faces every day. She encourages him to write again, and he does. (The play takes place in the 1960s, long before cell phones and Skyping were a reality.) Their correspondence continues regularly for 18 months before Timothea visits Colm’s village again. She is supposedly there to celebrate a distant relative’s wedding. But she is actually more interested in seeing Colm. After imbibing some whiskey for courage, Timothea reveals that she is a former Welsh farm girl who has moved to the city to start a new life. She relishes her publishing job (though it is somewhat menial). She takes great pride in her career achievements. Timothea’s lonliness has drawn her to a man she barely recalls. Their early conversations are one of the play’s highlights. The playwright delivers a great deal of humor through Colm’s bungling efforts to make small talk.
Eventually, Colm travels to Liverpool to live in Timothea’s flat. They cuddle and talk about their dreams. However, when Colm talks of the sea and his place in it, Timothea is not really listening. She cooks up a plan to take Colm in a much different direction. She has her boss publish a book comprised of Colm’s “poems,” which are really excerpts from his letters. Colm tries to be pleased about this publication for her sake, but it’s clear he’s very uncomfortable about seeing his words on a printed page. Timothea, ignoring clear danger signs, begins to talk of “our dreams.” These include keeping Colm close to her in Liverpool. Conversely, Colm would love to have Timothea live with him by the sea. However, she’s not about to give up her “position” for a life on a cold, windy, isolated island. While Colm is still in Liverpool, news of a shattering event back home tells Colm that it’s time to return to his village. He doesn’t seem to care one bit about reading his poems in public or being interviewed on television. He’s a man, after all, not some woman’s project. Timothea could have saved herself a lot of heartache had she recognized this sooner. But who among us hasn’t learned too late about a doomed love? Or the cost of giving up one’s dreams in hopes of pleasing someone else? These are the themes that keep Sea Marks afloat, more than 30 years after its debut.
The Milwaukee production offers a chance to see two exceptionally fine actors carve out these characters, under the direction of David Sapiro. As Colm, David Ferrie immerses himself in the crude, slightly vulgar ways of a simple fisherman. His grooming leaves much to be desired, and some of his habits annoy city folks. Another plus is the chance to see Swenson onstage. In addition to being an actor, she is also the producing director of another Milwaukee theater company. Most of her creative efforts are focused in that role. Here, Swenson creates a character as the playwright intended: a lonely older woman. She is not entirely sympathetic, but one with good intentions. Swenson’s puzzled and sometimes painful looks reveal Timothea’s inability to see why Colm won’t embrace her plans; she fails to understand that when Colm follows her lead, it makes him feel less of a man. Swenson and Ferrie share a good chemistry when they are in the same scene. It is not difficult to imagine that they truly love each other. It’s also not hard to imagine that — at their age — they may not be as willing to compromise as much younger lovers might be. These are all good lessons, intertwined in the Irish yarn that makes Sea Marks such a pleasure to watch.
