An explosive, deeply affecting study of alienation and the redemptive power of love, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea was written in 1983 but retains its funny, frightening, and hypnotic appeal

At a rundown bar in the Bronx two of society’s rejects strike up a halting conversation. Danny, whose fellow truck drivers call him “the animal,” is a self-loathing young man who resorts more to violence than reason. Roberta, who is still haunted by the memory of an ugly sexual incident involving her father, is a divorced, guilt-ridden young woman, distrustful of men. The possibility of a genuine relationship begins to emerge—the first for both of them.

The play is being performed at the 2014 Nanaimo Fringe Festival, at the Harbour City Theatre venue.

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea had its premiere at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in February 1984 then played Off-Broadway in June 1984 starring John Turturro and June Stein. It’s been described as “a wrenching love story” and “the equivalent of sitting at ringside watching a prize fight that concludes in a loving embrace.” It was written by John Patrick Shanley.

Now the play is being performed in Nanaimo for the 2014 Nanaimo Fringe. Director Bonnie Catterson says “It is an incredibly difficult play, an actor’s ‘wet dream'” and asked herself “who could handle the incredibly complex and dynamic characters and their volatile relationship?” She found “Roberta” and “Danny” in Carly Neigum, a student at Vancouver Island University, and Raymond Knight, a Nanaimo artist, musician, film-maker and actor. (Image left: Carly Neigum, Bonnie Catterson, and Raymond Knight at Catterson’s Kismet Academy).

We speak with Bonnie Catterson, Carly Neigum, and Raymond Knight.

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Find tickets and information about Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and the Nanaimo Fringe Theatre Festival here.

on Twitter

must-see @nanaimofringe “danny and the deep blue sea” carly neigum & raymond knight shine. direct. by @KismetAcademy pic.twitter.com/Xm1spL2pPP

— peoplefirstradio (@peoplefirstrad) August 16, 2014