More Dolores Drake, please. Her portrait of Mary Snow in Western Gold Theatre’s production of Salt-Water Moon is excellent. We don’t see enough of her onstage.
But Salt-Water Moon is a poetic two-hander and, to sustain its tension, which is a tricky thing to do, you need to get the balance of the characterizations exactly right. Craig March does solid work as the play’s other character, Jacob Mercer. Still, the balance is a bit off. That’s because of a couple of weaknesses in March’s performance, but also because of how those weaknesses interact with some of the challenges of the script.
In David French’s award-winning play — it’s a classic of Canadian drama — it’s 1926 and 18-year-old Jacob has just returned to Coley’s Point, Newfoundland. He’s there to convince Mary, who’s engaged to a schoolteacher named Jerome, to marry him instead. Jacob and Mary were dating seriously until Jacob disappeared without warning a year earlier. Mary hasn’t heard from him since and she’s none too happy to see him now.
In director Michael Fera’s production, Jacob and Mary are both played by actors who are several decades older than their characters. I didn’t find this convention particularly resonant, but I was glad, nonetheless, to see a couple of older actors playing challenging roles and getting a bunch of stage time.
Drake, who was born in Newfoundland and grew up there, has complete mastery of the accent: its musicality, humour, and fire. Her Mary is pissed with Jacob and she’s not letting it go. In its vivacity, this Mary’s exasperation with Jacob is a joy to behold.
Emotionally, Drake also goes to the depths with the character, which lends tremendous weight to Mary’s argument that marrying Jerome is the right thing to do. When Mary’s father was killed in WWI, her mother suffered a breakdown. Mary has been “in service”, working as a maid, since she was nine years old. Her sister Dot is still in a home for girls, where the matrons abuse and humiliate her. Jerome’s steady job — and kindness — could mean salvation for them both.
On the other side of the coin, Jacob is a charmer — and that charm, his version of vivacity, is built on an oceanic scale of confidence. Although he’s more of a yarn spinner than a liar, Jacob bends the truth when it suits him, he sings to seduce, and he is assured in his sexuality. Movie cowboy Tom Mix is his hero.
March, the actor, can’t sing, so that’s lost. But that’s a matter of casting. More importantly, March’s Jacob doesn’t have much swagger: his take on Tom Mix is ironic and, sexually, he’s tentative, almost apologetic. So, relative to Drake’s Mary, March’s Jacob is underpowered — and the tension that should underlie the play’s sparring is diminished.
That’s important because Salt-Water Moon is one long poetic battle. As they try to work their way to a common understanding, Jacob and Mary tell stories, but in the present moment, there’s precious little action. So you need to keep the sparring on the boil.
March’s failure to match Drake’s vivacity exacerbates what I regard as a structural challenge of the play: the factors driving Mary— Jacob’s abandonment of her, and Dot’s abuse — are immediate and compelling, while the factors driving Jacob — his working-class father’s humiliation by Jerome’s more upper-class dad a year ago — are more distant and, to me, less engaging.
While my basic point is that I could have used more fire from March, I must also acknowledge that the actor’s commitment to the material, his presence in its moments, including during Jacob’s long monologues, goes a long way towards keeping things afloat.
My attention started to wander a couple of times during this production. Mostly, though, I was content to watch two mature actors unfold the story.
About the perspective of age: although this production’s presentation of Salt-Water Moon as a memory play — including set designer Sheila White’s modern-day Vancouver backdrop — didn’t unlock new meaning for me, my own age was a factor in how I received it. My sense is that playwright French regards a potential rekindling of the flame as the happiest potential resolution to the story. As a younger man, I was more willing to buy into this romanticism. At 73, I found myself wanting to say, “Jacob is full of promises, Mary, but he has proven to be unreliable on follow-through. Go with Jerome, practicality, and kindness, girl. In the long term, they’re better bets.”
Drake’s fierce investment in Dot allowed me to recognize that. And for this fresh perspective, I’m grateful.
SALT-WATER MOON by David French. Directed by Michael Fera. A Western Gold Theatre production. At the PAL Theatre until June 7. Tickets and information.
PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of Craig March and Dolores Drake by Javier Sotres)
THERE’S MORE! You can get all my current reviews PLUS curated local, national, and international arts coverage in your inbox FREE every week if you subscribe to Fresh Sheet, the Newsletter. Just click that link. (Unsubscribe at any time. Super easy. No hard feelings.) Check it out.
0 Comments