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 play is some 40 years old but it holds up quite nicely today. Though Shanley makes clear it’s set in the Bronx, there’s no other direction indicating a period in time. In fact, it might be even more timely now considering the alienating nature of technology in contemporary society as people share the same space yet feel so far apart. I’m not sure why the play has not had more New York revivals beyond the one in 2004. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea may be a small play but it has a big heart beating erratically beneath its turbulent surface.
1984 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2004 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2023 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Production Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Aubrey Plaza |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Danny and the Deep Blue Sea |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play | Christopher Abbott |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Lighting Design | John Torres |
2024 | The Lortels | Outstanding Revival | Danny and the Deep Blue Sea |
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