In Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, the two characters delve into a bitter argument at a bar. Roberta is a single mother of a teenage son who spends her evenings partying, hoping to boost her self-esteem. Danny is a misunderstood loner who lives with his mother. The two strangers share their self-destructive habits and battles with addiction. As the characters excavate their deep darknesses, they make room for empathy.
Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley wrote Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, his second play, in 1984. Shanley is known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt: A Parable, and writes searing dramas that explore complex, human topics. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea premiered at the Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville before debuting in downtown New York with the Circle in the Square Theatre.
they’re tough roles—ones that require an actor to go from “fuck off” to “marry me” in the span of 80 minutes (another reason aspiring actors love them). As the truck driver who bears the nickname The Beast, Abbott is fearless—by turns dynamic and devastating, imposing but not terrifying, poignant but never pathetic. In her stage debut as divorcée Roberta, film and TV actress Plaza—whose deadpan delivery and dagger-filled glares proved a highlight of the Sicily-set second season of The White Lotus—tends to fall into a familiar cadence with Roberta’s lines, wilting under the weight of the Noo Yawk accent. She’s more comfortable with lighter one-liners like “You got friendly ears,” one of the awkwardly sweet compliments Roberta gives Danny.
The sinewy, wired Abbott embodies Danny’s necessary thuggishness. Plaza, too, has an affinity for a feral character desperate for a safe haven. Still, like Danny and Roberta’s bond, the production is unfinished business.
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