The Power to Endure

The Melville Boys

by Norm Foster
Directed by Murray Tilson

Presented by Take Two Theatre, Timmins

at the QUONTA Drama Region Festival

Queen Victoria was watching the final race of the first America's Cup yacht competition from the deck of her royal yacht.  She asked her captain, "Who is first?"

"The American yacht, Your Majesty."

"And who is second?"

He looked again through his telescope.  "There is no second, Your Majesty."

That story could well sum up the position of Norm Foster on the list of "Canada's Most Produced Playwrights."  I'm sure the fact drives many, many other fine Canadian writers to distraction but the fact remains, for all that.

Some people will argue about quantity over quality.  They may have a point (there are some of Foster's plays which I find tedious).  No such charge, however, can be fairly levelled against The Melville Boys.  This was Foster's second play.  It was first professionally staged in 1984 and continues to be produced, year in and year out, all across the country -- and beyond.

What gives The Melville Boys such enduring power and punch?  It begins and ends as a very funny play indeed, but in the middle -- when it turns deadly serious -- the script socks you right in the gut, bringing you forcibly face to face with timeless human problems and questions you would rather not face.  This continues to be, for me, the exemplar of Norm Foster's particular gift: the ability to set you rolling with laughter and then slip under your guard with some serious and tough issues and force you to attend to those as well.

The 2017 QUONTA Drama Region Festival opened with this ever-popular play, which by now can fairly be called a Canadian classic.

The set, designed by Amy Standeven, created simple but effective acting areas on the semi-circular thrust stage.  My first thought, even before the show began, was that it looked too neat and precise to be a long-time family cottage at the lake.  The two old lanterns on a shelf above the kitchen stove were just right, and if everything else had been in tune with those -- and with about three times as much assorted "stuff" as we saw -- the room definitely would have looked the part.  There was a clever half-a-screen-door leading out to the path down to the water, but it was not consistently used -- some actors on some occasions opened and closed it but at other times just brushed past without moving the door at all.

The keynote of all the performances was the energy which all the actors brought to the stage.  No chance that this show would ever lie down and die on us!  The play, for those not in the know, shows two brothers going for a fishing weekend at the old family cottage, and meeting two sisters.  Sounds like a prescription for fun, yes?  But there's a shadow on the weekend -- the older brother, Lee Melville, is dying of cancer and can't get his irresponsible younger brother, Owen, to face up to that fact.  Perhaps inevitably, the visitors find out and in the end they are the ones who crack open Owen's stubborn resistance.  That paves the way for the blockbuster final scene which, done properly, will reduce the audience to quivering shreds (yes, that was me who let out at audible gulp at the climactic moment of the scene).

Costumes were uncredited, but they worked well for me.  The only questionable choice was Lee's bright red sweatshirt.  That's a colour that should only be used on stage if you want everyone's eyes to focus right there.  If you don't, then the bright red will "pull focus" every time the actor moves, taking the audience's eyes away from where they might better be looking.  Fortunately, this company was strong enough across the board that the shirt didn't cause major problems in that way.

Paul Charette set the character of Lee Melville in the right places.  The exasperation at Owen's shenanigans was believably older-brother in tone.  His awkwardness in dealing with Mary, one of the visiting sisters, was great fun -- he developed a kind of aw-shucks look and speaking voice which were very appealing.  As the play went on, and the stakes were raised, his speeches poured out faster and faster, and he began tripping over his words.  At some moments this worked well, but at others it became a problem.

Nate Elliott was the devil-may-care, thoughtless, self-centred younger brother Owen to the life.  I liked the way that, in the first scene, he gave absolutely no special emphasis to such lines as, "You have a lot of work to do here."  Right away, we got the picture of how he always shirked any work he possibly could avoid and shoved it all off onto Lee.  That picture kept getting clearer throughout.  In the final confrontation with Lee, his voice shot right to the final pitch of tension very quickly, and then stayed there -- but a little more building and shading would have served the scene even better.

Michelle Goulet took the role of Loretta, the wannabe-TV star, and pushed it right to the limit.  While her commercial for Harry's Used Cars was totally hilarious, it was also perilously close to over-the-top.  Thankfully, she didn't go right off the deep end.  In the second act, she showed a great deal of humanity and empathy in handling Owen when his stress over his brother led him to propose to her after one wild night in the bedroom.

The best of the empathy in this play came from Mary, portrayed by Dominika Prabucki.  That is the way the script is written, and she created a diverse, many-sided character.  Her finest moment came in the scene where Lee blurts out that he's dying and then goes on to describe how his wife, Arlene, will carry on with her life and remarry.  While he was doing that, Prabucki's face slowly morphed from anger to bewilderment and then on to shock -- all plainly visible.  A few moments later she was stuffing her face with the turnip cake and talking through mouthfuls of food, while still remaining completely audible and understandable every inch of the way.

This play depends heavily on truthful acting -- it is a very naturalistic piece.  I felt that in the second act, all four found their truthful moments without any hint of caricature or formula.  All this helped the climax of the piece to reach in and hammer us exactly as it needs to do.

Director Murray Tilson composed nicely assorted stage pictures, making use of all parts of the playing area.  The show flowed strongly right from the get-go, the energy of the company well-harnessed to catch and hold the audience's attention.  There were some moments in the show when I felt a little more breathing space and use of silence (in small doses) would help to vary the tempo.

What we got was a true high-energy performance which remained breezy and enjoyable in the comedic moments, and didn't shirk the higher-stakes dramatic scenes towards the end.  All in all, a truly entertaining evening of theatre.