Spellbound is the word to describe the hold Mary (Sarah Roa) and Charlie (Tanner Zerr) had over the audience during the 90 minute production of Mary’s Wedding on opening night. The backdrop for the play is The Great War, the time period 1914 to 1920. Opening with Mary and Charlie meeting for the first time in a rural Canadian setting, the play progresses through many emotions that are portrayed with raw realness. As Mary and Charlie traverse the 6 year period that the play is set in we see Charlie go off to fight in Europe and we experience their relationship as it traverses the hope of a new beginning, the excitement of young love, the newness of such an intimate connection, the anxiety of separation, the agony and horrible deprivation and suffering of soldiers in The Great War, Mary’s regret and finally the grief that war carries with it.

The play is anchored throughout with the repetition of thunder and lightning. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade and letters that tell the story of two people who have found each other and are torn apart by The Great War. Set against a background of gray, white and red symbolizing hope and innocence, trauma and war, the two actors playing three characters bring the reality of life during The First World War to life. Mary’s Wedding ends with a message of hope, a hope that is tinged with regret and memory of the past. So much insight is packed into the ninety- minute script, a tight direction and with a delivery that draws the audience to the characters, it is wonderful theatre. Mary’s Wedding is a play that carries a timeless message, one that needs repeating again and again it seems. Don’t miss this play.

© 2022 Nancie Ottem