Moonlight After Midnight – An Intellectual Puzzle

Fringe Description: Weird · Intellectual · Intimate
Martin Dockery, unbeknownst to me when I sat down to watch “Moonlight After Midnight”, is a fringe icon. I, on the other hand, was much more distracted by sharing a name with lead actress, Vanessa Quesnelle (we are few, but we are mighty!). Although the blurb of “beautiful woman, mysterious man” didn’t grab me, the concept of an intellectual puzzle play struck me as quite interesting.
 
The setting, unfailingly, is a hotel room, in which our cast of two dynamically spar throughout. Who they are, and what is going on, are the central themes to the narrative. But this isn’t a vapid existential crisis; there is a well sculpted script teasing us with mystery. Clues are dropped for the audience to guess at, yet we are forever on the back-step as the play plays with our expectations. I can’t help but explain the story as a spiral: you keep returning to similar (but never the same) points, of Quesnelle entering, of the comet… points which become familiar but are ever changing as layers build atop them.

I found the performances strong. I did feel that Dockery dominated – he had more lines, more ‘important’ things to say, and most of the story revolved around him. Quesnelle was saved from a supporting role by the pure dynamics of the pair, the palpable power plays, and the enjoyable multitude of ways the characters turned the tables on each other. I would have liked Quesnelle’s character to have had more objectives, and a more equitable focus. And I didn’t feel the revealing ending justified her playing second fiddle.

On the topic of the ending… There is one. Which is important (for some people) regarding a puzzle. I am in two minds about it. [Don’t worry, no spoilers here.] On the one hand, a single fact means that there is a fixed point, a truth, and thus a resolution of all that has come before. Would we rather it not be there so we’re left guessing? Or does that solitary anchor prove the author wasn’t just waxing lyrical (not to mention providing peace for audiences who hate unresolved stories)?

The bottom line is that this mystery about relationships tickled my brain and captivated me from start to finish. The vivid performances by Dockery and Quesnell, and the chemistry between them, cannot be denied. This is an intellectual puzzle I enjoyed piecing together.

You can see it for yourself on Sept 7, 9, 12, or 14 at Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island.

By Vanessa B Baylen