Seared is the kind of theater that I adore.  A straightforward story with writing so gorgeous and acting so adept that it becomes something bigger than it at first appears.

Harry (Raul Esparza) and Mike (David Mason) are the somewhat uneven partners in a tiny Brooklyn restaurant.  Harry is the genius at the stove; making magic from the top-shelf, freshest ingredients he sources daily at dawn, plus lots of butter.  Mike is the man at the front of the house and the money behind the idea.  Having sunk his life savings and years of sweat into the endeavor he would love for Harry to be just a tad less demanding and the restaurant to be a lot more profitable.  The third member of this little ‘family’ is the restaurant’s only full-time waiter and de facto peacemaker, Rodney (a fantastic W. Tre’ Davis). Rodney is the calm in the center of the storm that is the, seemingly never-ending, conflict between Harry and Mike.  He admires Harry’s talent, as well as Mike’s hard work.  He sees both sides of the story while trying not to take sides.

When we first meet Stephen Rea’s Eric he appears to be a man in the throes of a mid-life crisis.  Living on Cyprus Avenue, in a nice part of Dublin with his wife, Bernie (Andrea Irvine), daughter, Julie (Amy Molloy) and Julie’s infant daughter, he is an Irish Protestant who doesn’t consider himself Irish and who is stewing in a soup of political disillusionment, rage and bigotry.  When the first question he asks the counselor, Bridget (Ronke Adekoluejoa) is, “why are you a n.....r?”, the stage is set for a series of questions, confrontations and horrors that took my breath away.