Feb. 22, 2012 - Issue #853: Folkways
One Good Marriage
"It's hard to promote this show without giving away too much," says Mather. "I'll tell you this right now, the first line opens with, 'Everybody died ... everybody's dead. But thanks for coming!' The play profiles a married couple celebrating their first anniversary. But there's this serious kind of sadness in the background that keeps popping up, and we find out that something terrible has happened."
Reycraft is known for his writing for television (Slings and Arrows, Vampire Diaries), but his skill for playwriting is what originally drew Mather to the piece. The plot deals with heavy issues, and Mather notes that this script can be as mysterious as the tale it's telling.
"We've had many rehearsals where we just sat down and read, just finding the subtleties in the lines. There are a lot of hidden gems in the dialogue itself."
Mather's eagerness to get this piece out to an audience is easily noticed. "Edmonton loves smart writing," he says. "Theatre here is always evolving. People ask me, 'Why don't you go to Vancouver?' Vancouver is film. Toronto is money. Edmonton is innovation. It's not, 'What's commercially successful?' it's, 'What can we add to the conversation?'"
Conversation is precisely what Mather hopes to incite in his audience. This season, Rabid Marmot Productions has shown a penchant for topics relating to being an outsider. The couple in this piece has their "community literally ripped away," leaving them on the outside, wondering how to forge new identities.
"Sean Reycraft said it himself: 'I want to take a mild-mannered, slightly depressed couple, and have something extraordinary happen to them.'"
While the nature of the couple will allow audience members to relate, the tragic twist to their story is what will keep them guessing. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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