[Woody’s [rating: 5]
Paul Ulloa (Danny) and Kimberley Roberts (Roberta) star in “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.” Photo by Sharon Rimando.
“Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” would merit a rave review were the theatrical company decades old.
But it deserves special acclaim because the two-character, two-act drama is Flynn Spirit Productions’ first outing.
Let’s say, six stars out of five.
Paul Ulloa and Charlotte Garwood, who named their new venture after their son, Flynn, have said they “want to bring risk-taking and [emotionally] moving theater to audiences and artists.”
They’ve fully met both prongs of that goal.
From the git-go.
Ulloa gets maximum credit because he effectively doubles as the play’s star, assuming the violence-prone title role opposite Kimberley Roberts’ power as Roberta, a divorced mother tormented by the ever-present image of an ugly sexual encounter with a family member.
Both tattooed characters in their mid-30s are foul-mouthed, angry, father-hating, tortured souls — the epitome of self-loathing.
Both seek compassion and forgiveness.
And both shout a lot — almost eardrum-splittingly — in the 20-minute first act, which is as intense as anything I’ve seen on a Bay Area stage in many a moon.
Playwright John Patrick Shanley and director Estelle Piper turn down the decibel count a notch for Act 2, which is nearly twice as long — and soften the would-be lovers into something approximating likability.
That let me breathe normally again.
And be grateful for experiencing something fresh, crisp and improbably believable in the 48-seat Phoenix Theater, high up in a building just off Union Square in San Francisco.
What had drawn me there was the playwright, John Patrick Shanley, who’d written two other plays I admired, “Doubt” and “Moonstruck.”
It wasn’t the fact that Danny, a possible killer known to his fellow truck drivers as “The Beast,” believes his inner pain (“everything hurts all the time”) will lead to a heart attack, or that unemployed Roberta thinks she’s nuts, desires punishment and fantasizes about being blissful in jail, and has relegated care of her 17-year-old son to her parents.
It wasn’t that either’s desperate craving for tenderness, for happiness, for love, may appear too rapidly.
Or that they both are momentarily naked.
And it certainly wasn’t that the set reminded me of a seedy neighborhood bar in the Bronx where, on my first newspaper job, I’d frequently guzzled tap beer with locals.
In any case, I’m glad I could watch two downtrodden theatrical caterpillars morph into butterflies.
Despite Danny undoubtedly remaining, as Roberta labels him, “a caveman.”
“Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” runs at the Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason St. (between Geary and Post), Suite 601, San Francisco, through May 3. Night performances, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Matinees, 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $30. Information: www.eventbrite.com. or (510) 843-4822.
Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net or at www.vitalitypress.com
