Salt-Water Moon

Mercer series

by David Benson French

It’s a splendid moon-filled night at Coley’s Point in August, 1926. Eighteen-year-old Jacob Mercer has returned from Toronto to the tiny Newfoundland outport, hoping to win back his former sweetheart, Mary Snow. But Mary has become engaged to wealthy Jerome McKenzie, and she is still hurt and bewildered by Jacob’s abrupt departure a year earlier. She will not be easily wooed.

Cast of 1 woman and 1 man.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Canada, Classics, Fiction, Drama

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

David Benson French, OC was a Canadian playwright, most noted for his "Mercer Plays" series.

Reviews

[gracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

tbh I giggled it was cute

[Lucile Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

161. Salt Water Moon by David French
This play is a flashback to Mary and Jacob’s romance on a full moon summer night in 1926. Jacob, who had gone to off Toronto to work without a word, has come back to Coley’s Point, Newfoundland, where Mary, who has lost both parents, has become engaged to the local school teacher, Jerome Mackenzie. Her younger sister, Dot, has been sent to an orphanage and Mary is hoping to get her back. The play is sweet and you know Jacob will get the girl in the end. However, I may be the only person who doesn’t really want him to: her year dating the schoolteacher has given her a window on an entirely new life and in some places in the dialogue you feel she is almost too good for Jacob. David French is excellent with dialogue and knows exactly when and how much Newfoundland accent should be used.

[Garth Mailman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mercer series
Salt-Water Moon
David Benson French

I intend to read the text but can claim to have seen the play performed live in the back yard of a heritage home in Trinity Newfoundland with the lad playing Jacob Mercer seated on a swing attached to a tree in that yard. Nothing could have made it more authentic. Seems the performance was June 13, 2010.

What I had not realized until I started reading the texts is that this play occurs 20 years before the first in the series in time when Mary and Jacob are their sons’ age.

The author began a long tradition of Newfies leaving home for Toronto and making a career of writing about home and the immigrant experience. French was 11 when Newfoundland voted 51% to join Canada in 1949 a month before I was born.

The two plays that follow this one are not available in e-book form. 1949 and Soldier’s Heart.

To the play. It’s been nearly 14 years but I have a sense that the version I saw in Trinity was an adaptation. The basics:

The boy who left home to seek his fortune come back to woo the gal he left behind him. The fact her wedding to another man is pending added urgency to his mission. Having now read the two plays that are the after history we know he was successful. Alas his interactions with his own sons proved history repeating itself.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a sweet read, and it does appeal to the romantic in me, however, it does feel like quite a conventional at times, which kept me from feeling it’s full impact. For me it’s kind of hard to really feel for Jacob and his attempt to win back his love. Although as I kept reading I did buy into their relationship and did want them to end up together so I will give the book that. It’s too bad I can’t give half stars cause I think I’d probably settle on a 3.5/5 but I think it is just good enough to have it as high as 4/5.

Since it is a play I kept thinking about how I would direct it or how I would stage it and stuff, and I will say when putting this play on I feel like the number one thing someone needs is chemistry between the leads. Obviously chemistry is always important when people are acting together but here it needs to be palpable and the main reason why is because whenever they turn on each other and yell it needs to be seem as coming from a place of fear of losing that person rather than anger. I don’t think actors who actually hate each other could pull that off. What I also do love about this play is it’s very simple, like it could really be effectively done with two actors, a telescope and a door frame.

[Venus · Rating 5 out of 5]

the relationship spelled out between Mary and Jacob is extremely intriguing and resonates even with modern youth. French’s use of monologue really captures a storytelling element that is surprisingly very effective.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely 2-hander that is a prequel to Leaving Home.

[shinji · Rating 3 out of 5]

so freaking cute omg. 3.5

[Benjamin Dennehy · Rating 4 out of 5]

realistic and topical. one star off because it hurt me emotionally

[Adelaide Felx · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first ever script 🤩. When I read this I though the guy was a total jerk

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last play in the Mercer trilogy, this one occurs in the past, when Jacob and Mary are sweethearts back in Coley's Point, Newfoundland. As mentioned in passing in the previous plays, Jacob had unexpectedly departed for Toronto to work, leaving Mary behind. In his absence, she becomes engaged to someone else, but upon his return on a starry night, the two converse about the past, their current situation, and what possibility the future may hold. A truly magnificent love story with just enough Newfoundland dialect to allow anyone to read easily, while still feeling truly authentic. Words cannot describe how beautiful this extended scene between a man and a woman can be on a stage. Highly recommended and just a beautiful end (yet beginning), of the Mercer trilogy.

[lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've talked about this before -- maybe i'm just a little tired of hetero fiction. I probably shouldn't trash Salt-Water Moon because of its impact on Canadian theatre, so I'm not going to. It wasn't bad enough for me to trash. i just found it a little generic.