Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

Phoenix Theatre, San Francisco

About the Show

Set in a rundown bar in the Bronx, two of society’s rejects, Danny, a brooding, self-loathing young man who resorts more to violence than reason, and Roberta, a divorced, guilt-ridden young woman whose troubled teenage son is now being cared for by her parents, strike up a conversation over a beer. Danny, whose fellow truck drivers call him “the beast,” seems incapable of tender emotion, while Roberta, who is still haunted by the memory of an ugly sexual incident involving her father, is distrustful of men in general. As their initial reserve begins to melt, they decide to spend the night together and the possibility of a genuine and meaningful relationship begins to emerge—the first for both of them. In the end, both characters find hope for a future touched with less bitterness and loneliness than they had imagined before their fateful meeting.