“Mary’s Wedding” reviewed by Jacob Davis

Recommended *** Arriving at First Folio during the 100^th anniversary of the World War I’s Spring Offensive, Mary’s Wedding, by Canadian playwright Stephen Massicotte is an unabashed tear jerker. Featuring just two actors playing a pair of young lovers, it moves backwards and forwards in time, freely associating sounds and images they experienced before and during the war. Directed by Melanie Keller, Debo Balogun and Heather Chrisler plumb the horror and disappointment of the Great War which was a sort of coming-of-age for Canada as a country, but for them exists only on a microscale.

The story beings with Mary on the eve of her wedding. Though she is apparently happy in her relationship, she is reminded of her first love, with Charlie, a stableboy she knew as a teenager. Mary arrived in Canada from England shortly before the war broke out and was from a status-conscious middle-class family. So when she first met the provincial Charlie hiding in a barn during a thunder storm, she was being a bit naughty by reaching out to him. They soon became friends, though. He taught her as much about animals and she taught him about the world beyond their small town, and they shared a love for poetry.

It becomes apparent that Mary’s dreamtime reminiscence is not entirely fond. She and Charlie parted on bad terms. He truly thought the war would be a good thing; she knew better. While they apparently continued their correspondence, Charlie debated how much of the war’s misery and his own fear of inadequacy to include in his letters, and Mary sensed this. But in her dream, she’s right there in the trenches with him in the form of his superior, Sgt. Muriel Flowerdew (a historical person). Charlie and Flowerdew were good buddies, and through him, Mary witnesses Charlie’s disappointment as he is separated from his beloved horses, as he is shelled in the trenches, and as his gentle nature is turned toward killing.

A well-worn barn designed by Angela Weber Miller is the location of the entire play.  The actors explore every bit of it, with shifts in lighting (Michael McNamara) and sound (Christopher Kriz) signaling shifts in location. Keller’s dream staging sets up Balogun to deliver one soldier’s experience of a massive catastrophe. When his character is in battle, it feels as if we are pumped with adrenaline with him but hyperfocused on him alone. He is greatly assisted in this by Chrisler, whose narration becomes, at times, a living sound effect from a place at the edge of the audience’s field of vision. Playing two characters allows her to show range as both the awkward, inexperienced Mary and as Flowerdew, who is the living incarnation of the stiff upper lip. She and Balogun are cute together and it works to the play’s advantage that Charlie’s significance to Mary was in being her only friend at a crucial time in her life, not just that he was pigeonholed as “The One.” She also has a great sense of humor. Mary’s Wedding is a play for people who want sentiment on a human scale. There are many other works that satirize and castigate the social forces that led to World War I. This one is about how people process loss and find meaning for themselves in forces beyond their control.

“Mary’s Wedding” will continue at First Folio Theatre inside the Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W 31st St, Oak Brook, thru April 30, with performances as follows:

Wednesdays      8:00 pm

Thursdays           3:00 pm

Fridays                  8:00 pm

Saturdays            4:00 and 8:00 pm

Sundays               3:00 pm

Running time is ninety minutes with no intermission. Tickets range from $34-44 with discounts for students and seniors and may be purchased by calling 630-986-8067 or visiting firstfolio.org. Parking is available for free on the grounds.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Mary’s Wedding.”