1949, Bat Masterson’s Last Regular Job, Exile
1991; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 66; Linguagem: Inglês
10.3138/ctr.66.014
ISSN1920-941X
AutoresDavid French, Bill Ballantyne, Archie Crail,
Tópico(s)Theatre and Performance Studies
ResumoCritics who viewed David French’s three earlier plays about the Mercer family as a “trilogy” will no doubt be expanding it to a “tetralogy” with the appearance of 1949. But this play makes very clear what should have been evident before: the Mercer plays do not constitute a unified saga portraying the fortunes of a single family through time, but are rather a set of variations on a theme, in which French’s family myth is embodied in a series of plays of different styles and involving different characters, although some of these characters share names and a few basic personality traits. The Jacob and Mary of 1949 have some qualities in common with the Jacob and Mary of Leaving Home (which supposedly takes place eight years later), but they are much softer, more insightful people, and they live in a much less harsh environment. Significant details vary considerably from one play to another. Mary’s old beau, Jerome McKenzie, moves from being a prominent St John’s Q.C. to whom Mary constantly alludes in Leaving Home, to a quiet, studious, prematurely-balding schoolteacher who represents security as opposed to sexiness in Salt Water Moon, to a handsome war hero, ladies’ man, and newspaper reporter in 1949, someone whom Mary “hardly ever mentions” (p. 119) because of her awareness of Jacob’s jealousy. These transformations must be attributed, not to time, but to changes in French’s own attitude to his background and his goals as an artist.
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