Theater Review—

‘The Old Man and the Sea’ Is Bring Brilliantly Retold — And Added To — In New Haven

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — Readers familiar with Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novella The Old Man and the Sea, the last work published during his lifetime, will remember the tale of Santiago, the aging fisherman down on his luck, who after 85 days of no catches, sails far out into the Gulf of Mexico where he manages to hook a 1,500-pound marlin. The fish is so big that he cannot bring it into the boat.

After an epic struggle, he is finally forced to kill the fish so that it does not tow him further out to sea; he then spends the next three tortuous days rowing back to Cuba with his prize, only to find that the entire fish has been eaten by sharks, leaving nothing but a monstrous skeleton. The book ends there.

Now Long Wharf Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting and Scenic Designer Craig Siebels have collaborated to turn the piece into a two act play, including an apocryphal second act in which the old man’s tragedy is seen through the eyes of “the boy” who takes care of him in his dotage.

Given the background and talents of these two “adaptors,” I feel they were inspired to write this work because of the creative opportunities it presented: Long Wharf has always been known for its innovative staging, and this production is truly outstanding in its representation of the sea. A tilted platform of uneven planks drop open to create heaving waves, while the garishly colored rowboat bounces upon a giant spring so that the audience can well get seasick watching Santiago trying to keep his balance when he stands up.

In addition, the narration is accompanied by a guitarist performing Cuban folk music, which enhances the sense of mythic timelessness surrounding the story.

In the second act the play changes from a narrated ballad to a dramatic interaction between Santiago and the boy, Manolin. The sea has been replaced by a fisherman’s shack, dominated by the image of the Virgin of Cobre (the patroness of Cuba), whose statue was found, according to legend, by three fishermen in 1628.

The painted rowboat has been replaced by the old man’s bed. He lies in it, surrounded by the tools of the trade he can no longer pursue, lost in the fog of dementia, reliving memories of his former strength, and that great day, when he went too far out to sea and caught the great fish.

The Boy comes each day, bringing food and news, helping Santiago to get dressed, reporting on the exploits of Joe Dimaggio and the old man’s beloved Yankees (Beisbol was always big in Cuba) and trying, with love and respect, to reorient him to the present.

The acting — Mateo Gomez as The Old Man,  Rey Lucas as The Boy, and Leajato Robinson as Cienfuegos, the balladeer — is splendid, and I think that the team of Ting and Siebels have succeeded in capturing Hemingway’s fascination with the heroism and dignity of simple peasant culture.

At the same time, how much you enjoy this production, apart from appreciating its fine acting and remarkable technical design, will depend on how you feel about Hemingway. Once the prototypical American writer, adored by generations of college students and wannabes, he has been reduced and re-evaluated over the years, and seen as a self-promoting, swaggering bully, whose celebration of machismo was entangled with his own egotism and the need to validate his own manhood, through his glorification of  real men.

If you can get past this view of the author, then you can appreciate his nuanced portrayal of the natural world — in particular, the sea — as well as the focus by Messrs Ting and Siebels on the passing on of skills, tradition and dreams, from the Old Man to the Boy.

(Performances of this world premiere conclude this weekend. See this week’s  Enjoy calendar for details on this weekend’s performances.)