‘Sailor’s’ Urgency Spirals Out of Control

The sounds of lovemaking fill the darkness. As the lights come up, a man stands in a seedy hotel room, naked; his male lover lies spent on the bed. Persistent, tinny mariachi music from the next room penetrates the paper-thin walls, laughter drifts up from a nearby pier.

Jesus Alberto Cabrera’s “Call of the Night Sailor” at the Unity Arts Center depicts love as an urgent necessity, conducted in doorways, in movie theaters and in filthy hotel rooms such as this one, located in an unnamed port town on the Gulf of Mexico. After nature’s siren call, the sensitive young Juan (Edwin Rivera, understudy for Daniel Rey), actively homosexual since early adolescence, picks up Homero (Ram), a macho sailor on shore leave. During the course of their one-night stand, the lovers progress through various stages of lust, drunken camaraderie and, ultimately, violence.

In Grupo de Teatro Sinergia’s production, Cabrera’s initially promising drama spirals out of control as his structure grows shakier and his dialogue more purple. Ricardo Soltero’s set is evocatively scummy, but Robert Fromer’s eccentric lighting distracts from the action.

Convincingly passionate, Ram and Rivera are unable to overcome their characters’ faulty dramatic dynamic, which shifts without motive or explanation. Liane Schirmer, who directed and translated from the Spanish, gives the play a convincingly gritty edge but does little to ameliorate its final floridity.