Dark and Bloody Laughter on the High Seas: Zach Winston on 'The Unfortunate Cutthroats'

Zach Winston and the EDGE correspondent he meets with at a local Starbuck's have something in common: Dying tech.

EDGE, with no idea what Winston looks like, had just tried texting. EDGE also has a laptop that has started to emit an alarming grinding noise. Winston, who turns out to be a young man of only 21 years, approaches the table where EDGE sits, clutching an iPhone and pondering the prospect of a new computer. After introducing himself, Winston explains that he had not gotten the text message because his cell phone has just given up the ghost.

It's just as well, perhaps, that Winston's new play, "The Unfortunate Cutthroats," is set in the year 1710 -- long before such modern mixed blessings. Winston has not written a "Pirates of the Caribbean"-style romp, though. He knows far too much about the actual day-to-day operations of old pirate ships and their crews, having worked as a tour guide at the New England Pirate Museum in Salem for the last three years.

But first things first. EDGE is keen to know whether the young scribe might have borrowed from his own biographical experience in creating his play about "sea robbers," more popularly known as pirates -- those mythical figures of banditry and mayhem. Specifically, EDGE wonders, is the Google search on Winston's name that turns up an account of a stabbing from some years back simply the result of a namesake's misdeeds? Or could some of the play's gore (there's a gunshot to the head in the first scene, complete with a fountain of fake blood; more shootings, and the occasional knifing, follow) be a case of art imitating life? Could EDGE be meeting with a real life rough boy?

"The first thing anyone wants to know at a job interview is whether I have a criminal record," Winston tells EDGE. "I'm, like, 'Nah, I'm not that guy. That's another Zach Winston.' "

It's with a mixture of relief and disappointment that EDGE presses on with the interview, noting that one of the play's main characters, an infamous brigand of the high seas named Edward Drake (and nicknamed "Lefty" because he's missing much of his right side) is also a Bible-quoting proselytizer.

Greg Davis plays Drake. "He's incredible in the role," Winston enthused. "He actually also works at the Pirate Museum, and he's wanted to play a role like this for a long time."

He certainly seems to know something about the part, bringing the appropriate growl and swagger to the role. But along with all that there's also weariness. Time, it seems, is the one foe that even the toughest old salt surrenders to.

Not that the play romanticizes outlaw life on the high seas.

"It's an historically accurate account of piracy, mostly around New England, but we mention some other places where piracy was popular," Winston told EDGE. "Ever since I've started working [at the Pirate Museum] I've been wanting to write this play, because I think it's a story that's not really told very often, and when it is told it's not very accurate. People don't understand that pirates were not these jolly, shanty-singing happy guys dancing around on a ship. They were bloodthirsty killers, for the most part, and you see these Gilbert and Sullivan pirates, or these Disney pirates. I took that and turned it into Martin Scorsese pirates, Quentin Tarantino pirates. That's really more true to the way things were."

So audiences shouldn't expect to see a flamboyantly Keith Richards-like fellow stumping around on a peg leg and growling, "Argh!"

"No, not a chance, no."

What about eye patches and hooks?

"Oh, there are eye patches and hooks, there certainly are! Most of them were fishermen, so if you got your hand cut off, they would literally take a hook and use it as a replacement."

And there's gore too. How about swordplay?

"Well, no, because the swords are not historically accurate," Winston notes. "Most pirates were not actually educated in sword fighting. But oftentimes they would be discharged soldiers, and sometimes they would carry a sword. But they often wouldn't use them. They'd use guns or blunt objects."

The world of piracy was getting more intriguing by the second.

The typical pirate costumes, too, are part of the show. Winston explained why: "That's actually something that Gilbert and Sullivan and Disney got right. Pirates would be very flamboyantly dressed."

Underneath the finery, though, things were a bit grittier.

"Their motives were the same as why people become criminals nowadays," Winston continued. "Desperate times, desperate measures. This was still in the midst of colonialism in America, so people were still unemployed, looking high and low for jobs, and a life of piracy often had a great appeal to it because you had a consistent job, nobody would judge you for the things you might do [or might have done].

"You see the same sort of thing now. In Afghanistan, you see a lot of the terrorists in the Taliban and whatnot, and it's the same idea."

And, of course, pirates are not simply relegated to the Cineplex any more. We hear more and more about Somali pirates. Like other entrants in the catalogue of the world's oldest professions, piracy seems to adapt with the times, but never vanish.

In the case of "The Unfortunate Cutthroats," there's a deep-seated personal history playing out between two former officers from the British Navy. Captain Drake -- who presides over a ship christened the Baptismal -- and Captain McCarthy (Ryan Edlinger), who not only is an accomplished veteran of the seas but also a shipbuilder and the architect of his own vessel, the Steadfast.

The two captains share mutual culpability for past misdeeds, and now enter into a final dance of treachery and stratagem, with the Steadfast and her crew at stake. What drew Winston to this story in particular?

"None of the characters are actually based on any historical individuals," Winston told EDGE. "However, that being said, a lot of the events that take place on the ship in this play are based on real events.

"One thing I'll say, while not giving too much away, is that cannibalism was not uncommon," Winston continued. "Pirate ships would get lost at sea with inadequate provisions. None of the pirates were very educated. Now and then there was a more intelligent one; anyone who drinks Captain Morgan brand rum [has] heard of Captain Henry Morgan, one of the best pirates who ever lived. But for the most part they were not very bright guys, they'd find themselves lost at sea not knowing what to do, and their rations would get scarce, and their crew mates would start to look more and more delicious."

So what lay behind the playwright's choice to make one of the pirate captains a Bible-toting believer?

"Mostly a dramatic contrast," Winston told EDGE. "You see all these criminals on board a ship and then you have a guy who's preaching from a Bible. You think, 'Just how righteous is this guy?' It's the way you might see people like Fred Phelps on TV, or the evangelicals who preach about living a holy life and whatnot, but really, it's like, 'How holy are you if you're trying to foist this kind of life on people?' "

But the play is not meant to be a simple story of good battling evil.

"I don't want to say there are protagonists or antagonists, because the whole point of all of the characters in this play is you can't really judge them as good or bad. They are all in a pretty gray area.

"It's an ensemble piece," Winston added. "But the two main characters are a focal point in the play. One of them [McCarthy] is a brutal captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. Then you have this guy [Drake] who is preaching from the Bible, and because of that it's hard to make you think he's really as bad as he is. [Drake's] daughter [Sadie, played by Jenna Forristall] is aboard the ship, too, and she is the only person he can ever really show any sort of mercy. He's in love with his daughter, he wouldn't trade her for the world."

The play has a backstory, and the main characters have, if not a grudge, then at least a score between them.

"Some people call [Drake] a traitor because he ran away from an attack a long time ago," Winston explained. "A majority of this play has to do with the events that took place before. Then you get all these people in the same room, and hilarity ensues. Believe it or not, this is a comedy -- a very dark comedy."

"The Unfortunate Cutthroats" is Winston's first full-length play, and clocking in at three hours it is an opus of considerable dimension. The running time gives ample opportunity for Winston to let the characters interact in dramatic and amusing ways.

The ship's cabin boy, Marcus (Peter Murphy), is a simple fellow who likes action and bloodshed. His mentor, the ship's cook Sam (Andrew T. Mattox II), is a former captain from the British Royal Navy, and a war hero to boot; Sam has retreated from the arenas of sea battles and military politics to the Steadfast, but his natural impulses remain those of a leader. He spends a good deal of his time trying to keep the peace among the Steadfast's few remaining crew, including an inseparable pair of always-feuding best friends, Everett (Alexander Joseph) -- a perpetually unwashed kleptomaniac -- and Boyle (Christian Sterling Hegg), who forever complains about his empty stomach.

"I've written a couple of one-acts here and there. All throughout high school I would write screenplays during class. I was an ADD kid, so they gave me Adderall, so I would focus on things really hard... but not on class-related things. So the teacher would be teaching about biology and I was writing a screenplay about Motley Crue."

Writing isn't Winston's only forte. He also appears in the play as Henry Flynn, a reckless Irishman who is always in trouble and blubbering about it.

"He's more or less a man-child," Winston observed. "He's not fit for a pirate crew at all. All pirates might be troubled in some way, but this guy is just absolutely terrified by everything he sees. At the very sight of blood, he's straight out the door."

Winston hadn't envisioned himself in the role. That bit of inspiration came from elsewhere.

"I had finished writing the play," Winston told EDGE, "and I showed it to James Sotis, the artistic director, and he's directing this production as well. I showed him the script, and he looked at me asked, 'did you write this role for yourself?'

"It's scary," Winston added. "I didn't even think about it when I was writing, and here he was pointing out all these characteristics that I share with Flynn. He said to me, 'I was convinced that you wrote the role of Flynn for yourself, so I would really appreciate it if you would play this role.' "

"I was, like, 'Er, I don't know about playing a role in my own play...' But he eventually convinced me."

Winston has also had a turn with direction, having been an assistant director in a play from last season, "Burning the Barn," which received an IRNE nomination for Best New Play -- an impressive result for such a young company especially since at the present time, Vagabond Theatre Group can only mount one production per year. Typically, the run of each play is short: only one weekend.

"This is only our third production. Hopefully after this we'll be able to make more revenue and do some more plays."

"The Unfortunate Cutthroats" ran from July 13 - 16 at the Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts,