Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre opened its 38th season with the world premiere of For Love Nor Money, an historical drama by Antigonish writer Laura Teasdale. Its eight-day run in a FAST/Mulgrave Road Theatre co-production wrapped up Saturday, with both a matinee and evening performance.
Mulgrave Road Theatre commissioned Teasdale, who co-wrote FAST’s outdoor Robin Hood with FAST’s artistic director Andrea Boyd, and developed the script with a view to staging it sometime in their new theatre, still under construction.
For Love Nor Money stars Fountain School of Performing Arts graduates Liam Oko as Henry Marshall Jost and Maude McInnis as Carrie Maria Hart, two real people who were betrothed to one another as young teens by their wealthy families in Guysborough in the 1800s.
It is 1865 and Henry Marshall Jost or “Marsh” is about to show his intended bride, now eight years into her engagement, the house he has built for her. (The home, which we never see but can easily imagine, inspired Teasdale. She learned its unusual history when she taught in 2022 at Mulgrave Road; the company’s office is next to the house.)
This one-act play running under 90 minutes without intermission starts in the present then goes back in time to the teenage Marsh and Carrie coming to terms with their wealthy families’ wishes and then forward to their fights and into the future. The time changes are clearly done with McInnis’s brilliant red hair pinned up or down and shifts in speech and posture by the actors.
Emmy Alcorn, artistic of Mulgrave Road, directs on FAST’s sweet, thrust stage for clarity, dynamic movement and climatic arguments as Marsh’s expectations of love and marriage founder on the rocks of Carrie’s ambition to run her own business and not be treated as a woman like “chattel.”
McInnis’s Carrie is a sparkling, fiesty, teasing, excitable and warm young woman who fights against the strictures of her family and her times but is also a warm and loving friend and community member. She loves to exclaim “Gadzooks!”
Marsh is a slower, more methodical and serious man, who keeps a ledger and always makes lists. His dream is to make a million dollars, whereas Carrie believes business is about customer service and fair pricing. Their arguments are as relevant today as they would have been in 1865.
While these characters are very different, the actors make their relationship and the warmth within it ring true.
The surprise ending, which is the ending of the true story, is a good twist. The play has a key kiss and I don’t know still if it was a good kiss or a bad kiss, a subject for discussion on the drive home.
Teasdale has peppered her script with good comic lines, local colour and interesting references to Nova Scotia history including the rarity of and delight in pineapples; she makes the town and these people come alive.
For Love Nor Money has minimal staging with stone-like blocks for benches and a beautiful backdrop of a black coastal landscape in silhouette against a large open sky beautifully lit by lighting designer Ingrid Risk in washes of pink for sunset. The stage space is the secret place where the two characters have met since they played as children and this is where Marsh chose to build the house.
This play, a world premiere at FAST, deserves a second production. To read more about Teasdale and the creation of this play go to Amanda Campbell’s TWISI site. The Way I See It Theatre & Music Blog –
MARY VINGOE-CRAM
It’s hard to write about theatre today without a heavy heart after learning of the death of Mary Vingoe-Cram.
Mary is one of Nova Scotia’s and Canada’s great theatre artists as an actor, director, writer and co-founder with Michael Fuller of The Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro. Last August she spoke at the opening night party for Still Dancing in a celebration of the Ship’s company’s 40th anniversary. She stood proudly by her daughter Laura Vingoe-Cram, the Ship’s current artistic director, currently on leave. Laura’s sibling is artist/writer Kyle Vingoe-Cram.
Born in Dartmouth, Mary co-founded four theatre companies including Nightwood Theatre in Toronto, Eastern Front Theatre in Dartmouth and in 2010 HomeFirst Theatre. She was artistic director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival; her play Refuge was shortlisted for the Governor General’s award in 2016; she won Nova Scotia’s prestigious Portia White Prize and is an officer of the Order of Canada.
Just last summer HomeFirst teamed up with Two Planks and a Passion Theatre for the world premiere of The Mountain and the Valley, by Catherine Banks, adapted from the novel by Earnest Buckler.
Also last summer Theatre Baddeck staged Mary’s play The Company Store and sadly and in a terrible coincidence the author of Theatre Baddeck’s other offering in 2024, The Trout Fisher’s Companion, has died; Cape Breton playwright/filmmaker Michael Melski, 53.
So this weekend marks the loss of two legendary artists influential for the art they gave to their audiences and as mentors to playwrights, artistic directors, directors, writer and filmmakers.
- Viva la Vida with Quixote!
- Mamma Mia! You Gotta See-a: a mini-review plus midsummer theatre listings ie-a outdoor theatre is still on!!
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