The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum. Neptune Theatre Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary With a Canadian Classic
I
n 1940s Cape Breton, the price of coal was frequently death in the mines, overpowering fear, widowhood, chronic physical or emotional illness and unending poverty.
In playwright Wendy Lill’s 1995 stage adaptation of The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum (one of the many incarnations of Sheldon Currie’s 1976 short story by the same name — also a novel, a movie — Margaret’s Museum — and a radio play) the equal shadows of crippling poverty and the threat of death underground are ever present
Photo :NAC
Regular references in the script to a family ancestor’s notebooks and the fact that one of the key characters and the author of the original short story/novel share a surname, give the impression that the storyline is semi-autobiographical, though this is never confirmed
We are told that Margaret MacNeil’s father and brother died in the mine. Her grandfather has black lung disease. She lives with him, her other brother and her embittered mother in the shack her father built. Life is bleak until a larger-than-life stranger, Neil Currie, arrives to sweep her off her feet.
For a while, Neil’s music and spirit awaken the MacNeil family and Margaret finds love and joy. Then, the price of coal takes over in spades.
As well as opening the NAC English Theatre season, this co-production of The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum marks the 50th anniversary of the Neptune. Given the geographic location and culture the play depicts and the fact that director Mary Vingoe also guided the original production 17 years ago, it is an understandable choice. However, although The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum has been described as a Canadian classic, the play has less connection to central Canada in 2012, even when production values — particularly the ambience created by Sue LePage’s multi-level set and Leigh Ann Vardy’s atmospheric lighting — are strong.
In this sometimes spirited and occasionally tedious presentation, the most effective performances come from David Francis as the coughing but otherwise silent grandfather and Gil Garratt as Neil, who has to cope with bagpipes and a violin as well as with the additional demands of singing as he tries to charm the MacNeils and the audience.
As Margaret, Francine Deschepper is periodically, but not consistently, appealing, while Martha Irving as her mother, Catherine, rarely moves beyond pursed lips and anger at the curves that life has thrown her.
In general, this production of The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, partly because of its uncomfortable ending, leaves one feeling somewhat hollow.
A coproduction Halifax Neptune Theatre/NAC English Theatre
By Wendy Lill,, based on the novel by Sheldon Currie
Director: Mary Vingoe
Set and costumes: Sue LePage
Lighting: Leigh Ann Vardy
Sound: Paul Cram
Cast:
Margaret MacNeil………………………………………………..Francine Deschepper
Grandpa…………………………………………………………..David Francis
Neil Currie………………………………………………………..Gil Garratt
Catherine MacNeil………………………………………………..Martha Irving
Ian MacNeil……………………………………………………….Jeff Schwager
The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum continues at the NAC Theatre to November 3, 2012