It’s 1914, and Mary (Maev Beaty) has just arrived from England to start a new life in western Canada. One rainy night, she meets Charlie (Wade Bogert-O’Brien), a handsome farm boy who loves riding horses and who is terribly afraid of thunderstorms. First love strikes hard, but history has other plans for the pair, as Charlie ships off to fight in the First World War and Mary is left waiting for his letters.
Told in retrospect through a series of dreams, Steven Massicotte’s “Mary’s Wedding” is a touching story of innocence, awakening, war and grief. As Mary sleeps, she follows Charlie from sweeping prairie landscapes to muddy trenches, tracing their romance through letters from the front lines and flashbacks to the hopeful days when they first met. In this Thousand Islands Playhouse production directed by Brett Christopher, the lovers meet in a large wooden barn (set design by Joe Pagnan) framed with candles in mason jars and hanging garlands of white and pink flowers.
The set’s rotating centrepiece allows the action to shift quickly between home and the battlefield, while Jeff Pybus’ lighting design brings thunderstorms and shellfire to awe-striking life, drawing out poignant parallels in the script and enhancing the uncanny elements of the dreamlike storytelling. Beaty brings out the pensive, lyrical qualities of Mary’s monologues while capturing perfectly youthful awkwardness in her conversations with Charlie. As the dream shifts, she dons a trench cap and transforms seamlessly into the dry-witted Sergeant Flowers, who bonds with Charlie as they go through the harrowing ordeals of war.
Bogert-O’Brien plays Charlie with great sensitivity, portraying a vulnerable, endearing young man full of guileless charm who is endlessly — and often fearfully — attuned to the world around him. In many ways, “Mary’s Wedding” feels like typical Canadiana mixed with a wartime romance, but the plot’s predictability doesn’t stop it from being affecting, and this production pulls all the right strings to earn its rightful status as a tearjerker. Massicotte’s rhapsodic writing style and the surreal story structure give “Mary’s Wedding” a fresh, enchanting feeling while tapping into both the historical details of the period and the timelessness of young love.
Haley Sarfeld is a writer, composer-lyricist and theatre critic whose recent work appears in Intermission Magazine, The Skeleton Press and at kingstontheatre.ca. Mary’s Wedding A Thousand Islands Playhouse presentation of the 2002 play by Steven Massicotte, directed by Brett Christopher and playing at the Thousand Islands Playhouse through September 8.
Tickets at the Thousand Islands Playhouse box office, at www.1000islandsplayhouse.com or 613-382-7020.
Cast Mary: Maev Beaty Charlie: Wade Bogert-O’Brien.
