Jack Goes Boating

What would you do for love? Would you... learn how to cook? Overcome your fear of water and learn how to swim? Would you be patient with the object of your affection as they work through their hangups? Fight and suppress your jealousy to make your relationship last? In Jack Goes Boating—the latest offering from The Seeing Place—four simple souls experience complex emotions and interactions as they exhibit the things we do for love.

TSP has developed a reputation for engaging New Yorkers in conversation about what makes us human by presenting critical works at affordable prices. Sometimes those works are quite challenging, like their recent production of Cloud 9, which we reviewed last quarter. And although (or, perhaps, because) Jack Goes Boating is much easier to digest, this story is that much more seductive!

Featuring Brandon Walker in the title role (which starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the original production a decade ago, as well as the film adaptation a few years later), airport limo driver Jack dreams of a job with the MTA, but otherwise muddles through adulthood, incessantly vaping pot with his friend and fellow driver Clyde (Marc Randolph Henry) and Clyde’s telemarketer wife Lucy (Candice Oden). When the couple sets Jack up on a date with Lucy’s quirky coworker Connie (Erin Cronican, who also directs the production), clumsiness ensues as romance very slowly unfolds. Through one increasingly-uncomfortable situation to the next, the ensemble skillfully endears us to their humble characters, making us want desperately for everything to work out in the end.

For anyone who’s experienced the beautifully-awkward stages of an early crush, or the trials and tribulations of a long-term relationship, Jack Goes Boating provides plenty of opportunity to reflect and relate. So grab tickets to The Seeing Place’s production before it closes on November 19th, then come back here and tell us what you thought. As always, your reviews help others decide whether they should attend, and your ratings help us help you find events and activities you’ll love!