Just as one show set in Newfoundland says goodbye to London, another one arrives. Despite David French being Canada’s best-known playwright, it has taken decades for Salt-Water Moon to have its UK premiere, with the Finborough Theatre playing host to this star-lit love story.
Where Come From Away was set in the days following 9/11, Salt-Water Moon takes place almost a century before, but also in the aftermath of tragedy. The inhabitants of a remote coastal town, not yet part of Canada, still mourn the husbands and fathers lost in the First World War.
Mim Houghton’s simple set takes us to a yard covered in bark which is separated from the stars that adorn the walls in constellations only by a metal bench. A month away from marriage, Mary Snow gazes at the stars through her looking glass, but her quiet contemplation is soon disturbed by the arrival of a former lover, Jacob Mercer.
The protagonists here are but teenagers, and their separation has only been around a year, but for the youngsters this has clearly felt like an eternity. The one-act play centres around the conversation between the pair over the course of an evening, while the rest of the Coley’s Point townsfolk attend a wake.
Though not immediately clear, Jacob’s intentions are to win Mary back. To scupper her upcoming nuptials and marry her himself. Salt-Water Moon, on first impressions, is a will they/won’t they kind of set up, but this play is in fact the third in a series of five ‘Mercer Plays’ and anyone with a knowledge of French’s work already knows how things will turn out.
But this play can be watched on its own, Peter Kavanagh’s snappy direction keeps the audience in the moment, and the past and future melts away in the presence of two teenagers in love. It’s fairly verbose, so the danger would be to rush it, or worse, drag it out. Here, though, the pacing feels just right, and the audience are kept gripped throughout.
Part of that comes from the richly drawn characters, and primarily in the fact that Mary always seems to have the upper hand; while Jacob begs, cajoles and demands, Mary maintains a serene calmness that seems to disarm her former beau.
Bryony Miller captures this nuanced portrait of Mary with subtle perfection. The hurt that Jacob caused by leaving unexpectedly, uncoils slowly like a spring in Miller’s hands, and the stoic determination displayed in the early scenes gives way to a more caring and loving character.
Joseph Potter is electric as Jacob, charming the audience as much as Mary, Potter leaps around the set, fizzing with a nervous energy. The performance carefully balances the love Jacob feels for Mary, and the resentment that has built up from other aspects of his life. In one scene Jacob describes conditions at The Battle of the Somme, this monologue from Potter is entrancing in its searing delivery.
The play is of course limited in some ways, both by its structure and its position in French’s related works. While it can be enjoyed on its own, there’s an enduring sense that we’re missing something and it leaves us yearning for a season that brings together all of the Mercer Plays under one roof. Still, Salt-Water Moon does feel like a precious jewel, carried across the Atlantic, finally discovered.
Salt-Water Moon is at Finborough Theatre until 28th January 2023.
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