What better place to set a play about memory than “at the cottage,” a timeless place where lasting memories are built. Ryan Cormack’s set is a faithfully presented cottage, complete with aging deck, paddles on the wall, ancient barbeque and a couple of Muskoka chairs. The couple who are the heart of this story are also faithfully presented – an unpretentious, middle-of-the-road couple in their 70’s on the day of their golden anniversary. They should be celebrating their accomplishments - Glen (Peter Anderson) is a successful car salesman, Sandy (Eileen Barrett), a popular writer of romantic fiction. 50 years married is quite an achievement in itself – but Glen is alone at the cottage. Sandy has thrown him out.

We learn this later in the play, which opens with Glen waiting for Sandy as he sets out the wine and arranges the balloons. Sandy does arrive, in a state of anxiety. Apparently Glen has sent her a message suggesting he needs help and not unnaturally she is furious when she discovers it was a subterfuge. Glen is placatory but to no avail – and at the end of Act 1 Sandy storms off – unfortunately via the giant mud puddle around the corner of the cottage.

Fresh clothes - obviously whatever they can find in the cabin, kudos here to Madeleine Polak’s costumes - and a glass of wine cool the temperature. As they talk, we gradually learn about the ups and downs of their life together and scroll through the fads and fancies of the decades. As young newlyweds they were full of dreams and plans and determined not to be like various unsatisfactory parents, ridiculous siblings or awful friends. Plans – careers now, babies later - were disrupted but 1970’s science failed and nature took its course. Sandy’s writing hopes were put on hold and Glen never stopped working with his brother. Two children, one a star, one a problem – “a bi-polar, bi-sexual drug-dealer” – (O, the 80’s) and then self-improvement. Sandy takes a writing course and has her “head turned…just a crush” for one of the group. Sex therapy enlivens a middle-aged marriage. Meanwhile, parents and siblings die and friends split and crash. A neighbour has multiple body parts replaced.

Glen and Sandy have different memories about how these things happened and they thrash them out in a series of flashbacks cut with the present. Alexandra Caprara (lighting design) keeps the timeline distinct and clear under Arthi Chandra's brisk direction.

Though Eileen Barrett is fiery and intelligent as Sandy and Peter Anderson’s Glen is warm, gentle and stalwart, they could not bring this play to life. It is only as the play draws to a close that little hints and niggling questions are resolved and the answer to why Glen and Sandy have quarrelled so seriously is revealed. A tragedy, tenderly performed, but it would have been so much better against a truly careful look at a deep-rooted partnership, and so much more interesting against a sharp examination of daily life.

© 2026 Elizabeth Paterson