Everything about “Salt Water Moon” is minimalistic: the two-actor cast, the one-night-only timeframe and the plot’s straightforward love story. The no frills approach works; it strips the play down to its core, honing in on an intricate relationship between two people, and gives them the space and time to develop all the facets of their characters. “Salt Water Moon” depends completely on the performances of the two leads, who manage to create a quaint and hopeful tale of love, set during harsh times.
The play takes place during one August night in 1926, on the front porch of a home in Newfoundland—a Canadian island almost entirely inhabited by Irish immigrants. Jacob Mercer (Danny Rivera, COL ’11) has recently returned from Toronto to see his old sweetheart, 17-year-old Mary Snow (Caitlin Cassidy, COL ’11), a month before she’s due to marry someone else. Although Jacob begins his visit under the pretense of stargazing, their conversation eventually uncovers their personal pasts, along with the economic and emotional consequences of World War I.
Unfortunately, the day’s setting forces Rivera and Cassidy to adopt bizarre Irish-Canadian accents with dropped H’s and the occasional “aboot”. While Cassidy is more successful at maintaining the accent (Rivera’s fades in and out with how passionately he’s acting), neither is believable and the accents are distracting and incoherent until you get accustomed to ignoring them.
Because “Salt Water Moon” takes place in one night, much of the dialogue reminisces over past events, which is where Rivera really shines. Armed with deep dimples and a big personality, Rivera executes his monologues with enough posturing, charisma and comedic timing to convince you he’s three people instead of one. Cassidy spends most of “Salt Water Moon” acting angry, with a certain huffiness that gets a little one-note as she constantly squints her eyes and juts her jaw. But after the slightly lagging first half, Cassidy’s character finally softens and reveals the vulnerabilities that let the audience understand why Jacob is in love with her.
While a number of moments recalling World War I are meant to be heartbreaking or thought-provoking, the emotions behind those themes are often too heavy for Cassidy or Rivera to pull off. They’re at their best expressing the traditional (albeit predictable) course of their love story—from the sarcastic banter to the painful lovers’ quarrel to the heartfelt confessions—since they have the onstage chemistry needed to support it.
The set is simple and sparse, from the dull colors of the house to Mary’s best yellow dress—complimented a number of times yet so big it makes Cassidy look like she’s playing dress up. The moon, however, is magnificent, taking up a good portion of stage left and obviously painted with great attention to shadows and craters to make it both realistic and enchanting. The attention paid to the subtle shifts in light as the lovers gaze at the stars or the moon or talk about various topics heightens the authentic feel of the play’s setting.
Directing for the first time, Alex Kostura (SFS ’09) wanted to create “a bridge from Newfoundland to D.C. and from 1926 to 2008,” which he mostly accomplishes. Be it in the folk songs Rivera and Cassidy sing delightfully in tune, or the various myths and tales they tell, they convey the culture without a history lesson, making the audience feel like they’re eavesdropping on another time and place. Yet despite the culture gap and heavy themes, the play’s phallic jokes and family pressures will be familiar and relatable territory for most audience members, and the characters will charm their way into your hearts.
“Salt Water Moon” runs Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. in Walsh Blackbox Theatre. Tickets are $9. For more information or to purchase tickets visit performingarts.georgetown.edu
