The Melville Boys At The Foster Festival
The Melville Boys, an early play by Norm Foster, is marking its 40th anniversary with a sterling revival at The Foster Festival in St. Catherines, Ontario.
The Melville Boys was Foster’s second published play and according to the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia the one that put him on the map as an important Canadian playwright. In the current production, under the attentive direction of Foster Festival artistic director Emily Oriold, it’s easy to see why.
Foster’s ability to write vivid and distinct characters who can be extremely funny while still retaining their true-to-life humanity was already on vivid display in this early effort.
The Melville boys of the title are Lee (Isaiah Kolundzic) and Owen (Daniel Reale), who have come to the family cottage for a weekend getaway. Sane and sober elder brother Lee has some family issues he’d like to discuss. But high-energy Owen, a Canadian version of a good old boy, wants nothing more than to drink beer and fish.
Their plans are interrupted by the arrival of two attractive sisters, Mary (Emily Lukasik) and Loretta (Kelly J. Seo). As is often the case in a Foster play, romance begins to bud, tentatively in the case of Mary and Lee, spectacularly in the case of Loretta and Owen.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the Melville Boys are not exactly free. Owen is engaged to be married and Lee is not only married with two daughters but he has cancer and doesn’t have long to live.
None of this bothers Owen who is instantly attracted to the vivacious and sexy Loretta. She is, after all, an actress! A scene in which she reenacts her greatest success, a television commercial for a car dealership, is one of the play’s highlights, and well staged by Oriold.
The relationship between Mary and Lee builds more slowly. She, too, is married, although her husband left her years earlier. When Lee lets slip the fact that he has just a year or so to live, their conversation deepens and darkens.
While Loretta and Owen are having a wild fling in the bedroom, Mary and Lee sit up all night playing cards and talking.
In the cold light of down, The Melville Boys takes a more serious turn as both Loretta and Lee try to talk some sense into Owen, albeit at different times on different topics.
Unlike many of Foster’s later plays that involve relationships, The Melville Boys does not have a conventional happy ending. Indeed, it was likely the way in which Foster avoided the conventions of the “well made play” that made those critics of forty years ago sit up and take notice.
And yet, The Melville Boys is deeply satisfying as a piece of theatre. Yes, it leaves you with questions, but that’s one of the reasons that after-theatre drinks were invented.
Oriold has chosen her cast well. Kolundzic and Reale are well matched as brothers, and Reale goes to town with the flashier part of the two. Lukasik and Seo are perhaps less well matched as sisters, but you can’t fault their acting. And like Reale with Owen, Seo has a wonderful time with the gift of a character that is Loretta.
The creative team of Beckie Morris (sets), Alex Sykes (lights), and Alex Amini (costumes) is back for the third time this season and do their usual classy job. Let’s hope they’ll be back next season.
The Melville Boys continues at the Mandeville Theatre in Ridley College through August 25, 2024. For more information and to purchase tickets visit The Foster Festival website.
For a complete index of reviews CLICK HERE.
Don’t miss another review or blog post! SUBSCRIBE HERE.
