Live and in person at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, Springer Theatre, Gananoque, Ont. Playing until Sept. 8.
Written by Stephen Massicotte
Directed by Brett Christopher
Set by Joe Pagnan
Costumes by Jayne Christopher
Lighting by Jeff Pybus
Composer and sound by Richard Feron
Cast: Maev Beaty
Wade Bogert-O’Brien
Intensely emotional. A bitter-sweet, gentle ache of a play about love and war.
The Story. It’s 1920, the day before Mary’s wedding. She dreams of a time a few years before, of a thunderstorm and the first time she met and probably fell in love with Charlie, a young man about her age. Because of the thunderstorm, Mary found shelter in a barn. There she saw Charlie and his horse. Charlie was cowering in fear of the thunder. He still found the ability to calm his also terrified horse. Mary calms Charlie as well after they introduce themselves. She has recently arrived from England with her parents. Charlie is a local farm boy in the prairies. When the storm passes Charlie returns to his usual self. He offers Mary a ride home on his horse. Her mother is not happy about Mary meeting what she describes ‘as a dirty farm boy.’ A friendship forms between the two young people and that slowly grows into love.
World War I is raging in Europe. When Canada joins the war effort Charlie feels it’s his duty to sign up. Mary is upset by this. They have a fight and Charlie goes off to war without Mary saying goodbye to him, but Charlie writes her the most personal letters. Their love grows deeper and it leads up to the day before Mary’s wedding.
Performance and comment. Stephen Massicotte’s wonderful two-hander play debuted in 2002 and has played consistently across the country since then. I’ve seen at least five productions of it within the last 10 years and one never gets tired of it. It’s about sweet, innocent first love that grows deep. It’s about war, separation and challenges to that love. And it’s about communication through letter-writing, that wonderful, old-fashioned way of communicating that required thought, effort, the need of a pencil and paper and the determination to get it sent to the one for whom it was meant. Imagine it.
It’s very tempting to compare previous productions of the play, but I don’t see the point. Most people won’t have seen the same ‘collection’ of productions so who does the comparison serve? Nobody. So I’m not doing it. I don’t roll that way.
Joe Pagnan has designed a terrific set for this wonderful production. It has the outline of the roof of a barn at the top of which are plants and foliage draped over a high beam. There are planks of wood stacked askew on the stage that suggest different locations, especially when the structure can be rotated to reveal a sunken area that can be a trench in the war scenes. There are fence structures to the side that suggest a farm fence etc.
Jayne Christopher’s costumes are rustic farm wear for Charlie (Wade Bogert-O’Brien) (shirt, suspenders, khaki pants and boots, to which an army jacket is added for the war scenes) and a long white dress for Mary (Maev Beaty) that can be her nightgown or any other kind of long dress.
The lighting by Jeff Pybus is exquisite. There are flickering lighting effects when Charlie describes being shelled by the enemy; or when bombs are dropped (kudos also to Richard Feren for the sound effects of the gunfire, the lapping of waves as Charlie crosses the ocean in a ship the subtle other sounds one hears during this terrific production.
The whole production is directed with such sensitivity and creativity by Brett Christopher. It’s poignant, funny, almost impish in some of its invention—the perfect timing of an umbrella springing open is one. (Okokok, I know that spring-loaded-umbrellas were not invented in 1920. A little poetic/theatrical license is in order, especially when the joke is so beautifully executed by Wade Bogert-O’Brien as Charlie and Maev Beaty as Mary.
There are several scenes with horses and they are suggested by Charlie just holding a looped bridle almost arm’s length. So simple and so expressive. The acting of both Maev Beaty as Mary and Wade Bogert-O’Brien as Charlie is heartfelt, tender, emotional and expressive. In one scene Mary says to Charlie that she nearly died of grief and Maev Beaty’s playing of that scene is so invested with the emotion of the memory that one can feel Mary’s heartache. So vivid is the playing that one can also conjure the heartache in one’s life as a result. Wade Bogert-O’Brien as Charlie is innocent, shy and yet beautifully wise and mature. Together they lead each other into falling in love and holding that feeling close. At one point Mary is stuck in her dreams, as she has a recurring dream before her wedding, and Charlie gently tells her how to move forward with her love. This was the most emotional, moving production of Mary’s Wedding that I have ever seen.
It’s theatre that does indeed hold a mirror up to society and shows us the best of us and the healing power of love. As always, take Kleenex.
1000 Islands Playhouse presents:
Plays until Sept. 8, 2024.
Running time: 90 minutes, (no intermission)