PORT TOWNSEND — Starkly different people, both in mid-life, surprise themselves by falling in love when they thought their lives were pretty well set in “Sea Marks,” which opens tonight for a three-week run at Key City Public Theatre.
A preview of “Sea Marks” was offered Thursday. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays this week through Oct. 19.
Tickets are $24 to $29, with a pay-what-you-wish performance at 2:30 p.m. this Sunday. The venue is the 66-seat Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., which opens an hour before show time.
Ticket purchase is available at 360-385-5278 and KeyCityPublicTheatre.org; if a performance is listed as sold out online, patrons are encouraged to come early to the theater to see whether overflow seating is available.
Walk-up ticket sales are also possible from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays at the playhouse.
“Sea Marks” is the story of Colm, an Irish fisherman living on a remote island, and Timothea, a passionate woman who lives in an urban flat in Liverpool.
It was written by novelist-sculptor-actor Gardner McKay.
“There is a lot of love underneath it all,” said “Sea Marks” director Allen Fitzpatrick, who directed an Off-Broadway production of it in New York City years ago.
Fitzpatrick, who has also acted and directed shows in Seattle and around the country, likes the way “Sea Marks” delves into romance between people in middle age. In this production Colm is 54 and Timothea 46; she’s been married and divorced while he’s always been a bachelor.
All this being said, the play has many sweet, comic passages, added Fitzpatrick. Whatever their ages, the pair have moments when they feel like young lovers.
The nonprofit Key City Public Theatre, in its 61st season, receives support for this show from Key City Fish Co. of Port Townsend and from season sponsors Aldrich’s Market, Alchemy Bistro, Edensaw Woods and Avamere at Port Townsend. The 2019 season is dedicated to the memory of the theater’s good friend and longtime patron, Dan Huntingford, former owner of SOS Printing.
