Young Critics

Mary’s Wedding has proven the importance of an excellent cast and crew. These extremely skilled people have saved a somewhat clichéd plot from being overly clichéd. A one-act play starring only two cast members, Mary’s Wedding (directed by Anne Marie Cammarato) is being performed at the Delaware Theatre Company, now through March 16.

Mary’s Wedding takes place in Canada and is set during World War I. It revolves around the budding romance of two young people, Charlie and Mary. Charlie goes off to war and dutifully writes Mary letters while away. Mary worries about him from home. It may sound like your everyday clichéd love story, but Mary’s Wedding has become so much more than that (thanks to some incredible performances). It’s reality mixed with fantasy. Mary is having a dream about events that changed her life, and because it is her dream, most of the events have a slant to them. They take place as she remembers or imagines.

The events of Mary’s Wedding do not take place in sequence though. As it is stated in the beginning of the play, “The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning”. Mary dreams and envisions events out of order. To understand what is taking place you have to pay close attention to the dialogue, so be prepared for some serious listening. (Though I wasn’t a fan of the mixed sequence of events, what would this plot really be without that extra twist on things?)

The opening scene is the first meeting between Mary and Charlie (they have both found shelter from a thunderstorm in a barn). It is immediately clear that Mary is taken with Charlie. Through the passing of time, their like for each other grows into love. They are torn apart when Charlie volunteers for the war and is sent off to France. Mary reads his letters at home, while Charlie experiences the terrors of the warfront.

Erin Moon plays the sweet and caring Mary. She speaks with a faultless British accent throughout the play, a feat that most impressed me. She brings this amazing energy and life to the stage that just lets her talent shine. Particularly striking to me was her transitioning between the characters of Mary and Sgt. Flowerdew (who is Charlie’s commanding officer on the front). She switches from character to character so casually it’s as if she’s been doing it forever.

Stafford-Clark Price stole the show for me though, as Charlie, who is swept up in the moment along with all the other men and volunteers for war. His performance truly moved me. After shooting his first German and the painful way he describes the trenches of the front lines, his emotions are heartbreakingly real.

Beowulf Boritt created an incredible set that seemed to fit perfectly with the play. All white, it was a nice reminder that the play was a dream. The slanting barn (looking as though it would fall apart) was (to me) part of the way Mary remembered things. If the memories were from the past, then it makes sense that she would picture things as being older. The not quite rightness of the barn also served as a reminder that this was a fantasy.

Sound effects (thanks to Fabian Obispo) added much to the play. Sounds of thunderstorms that soon turned into gunshots (which were extremely realistic) set the mood for much of the play.

The question I found myself asking while watching a performance of Mary’s Wedding was, “Can this really be called a soaring love story?” I felt that the romance, while prominent throughout the play, took a back to seat to other events taking place. Mary’s Wedding, though dreadfully romantic, doesn’t seem to really be about romance to me. I felt it was about Charlie’s experience on the front and what he had to go through (I felt this most strongly when he recited a moving monologue describing the conditions of the trenches). To me, it was about his loss of innocence (after killing someone for the first time) and what he had left behind.