Stephen Massicotte's poignant romantic drama Mary’s Wedding is a beautifully engaging story of two young adults whose love is tested during World War I.

Set in 1914 Canada, Mary’s Wedding concerns the titular young bride-to-be reminiscing about Charlie, the “dirty farm boy” she meets while sheltering during a summer thunderstorm. Through interweaving scenes of time, dreams, and memory, their budding relationship is tenderly explored. However, the Great War threatens to impact their resilient bond, especially as Charlie goes off to fight in the trenches of France.

Originally produced in 2002 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Mary’s Wedding won the 2000 Alberta Playwriting Competition and also received the 2002 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play and the 2003 Alberta Book Award for Drama.

Over the years critics have praised the play for its depth, poeticism, and tear-jerking essence. Calgary Herald particularly praised Massicotte’s attention to detail and imagery:

“Mary’s Wedding … proves Massicotte is a gifted storyteller with an ear for detail and imagery… It was Massicotte’s descriptive writing that allowed the audience to really lose themselves in the moment. There was nary a dry eye in the house by the time the actors took their final bows.”

The Washington Times went so far as to consider the work emotionally on par with the characters of the legendary Emily Brontë. “Put[s] you in mind of the grand passion of Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, the vastness of their love mirroring the wild tangle of nature.”

Blake Robison, Osborn Family Producing Artistic Director, directs the production. He fondly recalled an acclaimed staging of Mary’s Wedding in Washington, D.C., from 20 years ago that still lingered on his mind.

“When I moved to Washington, D.C., in 2005, there was a fantastic production of the play running at a small company called Theater Alliance,” Robison said. “It swept the Helen Hayes Awards that year, and everyone was talking about it. I must have logged it away in my brain as something I’d like to make down the line. In my view, this is a perfect play for our Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre — intimate, heartfelt, timeless.”

As he dove deeper into the script, he found the language thoroughly captivating. “I’m drawn to the imagery and poetic nature of the language,” Robison said. “It matches the fluidity of Mary’s dream.”

As a two-hander, the play thrives on the sensibilities of the actors and the connection between them. In addition to Charlie’s delicate balance of shy lover and tough solider, the actress playing Mary doubles as Sergeant Flowers, offering an opportunity to showcase a colorful layer of versatility.

“The play is a tour-de-force for the woman playing Mary and Flowers,” Robison said. “It’s fun for the audience too — highly theatrical and occasionally comic. Charlie’s challenge is to toggle between the Canadian prairie and the battlefield in France. Together, the two actors create a mosaic of encounters and experiences for the audience to follow.”

Robison is focusing on the play’s imaginative qualities in his staging. He wants the audience to fully invest in the environmental magic that can occur with just a few changes of scenery or a simple shift in lighting or sound.

“The key thing to remember is that the entire play is a dream,” he said. “We’ve created a barn-like environment on stage that can transform to other locations and other moments. With a shift of lighting and sound, we see Charlie and Mary riding a horse or we see them outside her mother’s tea party, or we see Charlie on a boat to France. It’s the best kind of theatre because it sparks the audience’s imagination.”

He also hopes audiences are moved by the play’s touching reminder to savor special relationships of the heart. “Life is made up of small, vivid moments. People and time move onward, so we should treasure those moments, even as they become distant memories.”