FACTORY’s SALT-WATER MOON Featuring Ania Soul and Jajube Mandiela

Factory presents SALT-WATER MOON by David French, directed by Ravi Jain, starring Kawa Ada
and Mayko Nguyen and featuring live music by Toronto singer-songwriter Ania Soul. Part of Factory‟s
Naked Season, this beloved Canadian classic about love, loss, and reconciliation will be re-
imagined through Jain‟s bold staging in order to ask, “Can you ever truly return home?”

“With just two actors and only a few physical elements, the audience will be transported to the
place of David French’s timeless tale; Newfoundland under a star-filled sky,” explains director
Ravi Jain.

It‟s 1926, the First World War is over, and every day the villages of Newfoundland are being
abandoned by their young for a new life in the big city. But eighteen year-old Jacob Mercer has
come home to Coley‟s Point, from Toronto, to win back his former sweetheart Mary Snow, who he
abruptly left over a year ago. By the light of a moon-filled night, the former lovers meet to
confront their past choices and contemplate a possible future together.

SALT-WATER MOON is David French‟s best known and most successful of the Mercer plays. It was an
immediate hit when it premiered at Tarragon Theatre in 1984, and continues to be produced around
the world. SALT-WATER MOON is the recipient of the 1985 Canadian Authors Association Literary Award
for Drama, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, a Hollywood Drama-Logue Critics‟
Award, and was a finalist for both the Chalmers Awards and the Governor- General‟s Award for Drama.

David French (1939–2010) is one of Canada‟s most celebrated playwrights, and one of the first to
write distinctly Canadian stories. Born in the outport of Coley‟s Point, Newfoundland, French was
inducted into the Newfoundland Arts of Honour in 1981 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of
Canada in 2001. Among his works are the semi-autobiographical Mercer plays: Leaving Home, Of The
Fields, Lately, Salt-Water Moon, 1949, and Soldier’s Heart. This quintet of plays has also touched
audiences across Canada and in the U.S., Europe, South America, and Australia. French‟s other works
include the smash-hit backstage comedy Jitters, the thriller Silver Dagger, and an adaptation of
Strindberg‟s Miss Julie.

Ravi Jain is a multi-award-winning actor, director, producer, educator, arts-activist and Artistic
Director of Why Not Theatre. Most recently, Why Not collaborated with The Theatre Centre to produce
The November Ticket, a trilogy of award-winning controversial plays including WE ARE PROUD TO
PRESENT . . . by Jackie Sibblies Drury, which he directed. His acting credits include the
Dora Award-winning SPENT (Theatre Smith-Gilmour/Why Not Theatre/TheatreRUN) and A Brimful of

Asha (Why Not Theatre/Tarragon). Select directing credits for Why Not include The Prince
Hamlet, I’m So Close, A Brimful of Asha, Greenland (winner of NOW Audience Choice Award and Best
Production SummerWorks „09), and Iceland (winner of NOW Audience Choice Award and Best New Play
SummerWorks ‟12).

SALT-WATER MOON features performances by Dora Award-winner and star of Factory‟s critically
acclaimed BOMBAY BLACK, Kawa Ada (Accidental Death of an Anarchist/Soulpepper Theatre; Paper
SERIES/Cahoots Theatre; Lilies, Wonderful Town/Red Peppers/Shadowplay; After the Dance, Sunday in
the Park with George /Shaw Festival; and Bombay Dreams/Broadway) as Jacob Mercer; and
Gemini-nominated actress Mayko Nguyen (Helen Lawrence/Canadian Stage; Passion Play/Convergence
Theatre/Sheep No Wool/Outside the March; carried away on the crest of a wave/Tarragon Theatre; and
tv credits Slasher/ Chiller TV, Killjoys/Space Channel, Cracked and Bloodletting & Miraculous
Cures/CBC TV) as Mary Snow.

Stripped down to the most fundamental and striking elements, the Naked Season pares down theatre to
a series of pure encounters between the audience, the actors, and the text. SALT-WATER MOON is
presented as part of a seasonette that also includes: A LINE IN THE SAND, written by Guillermo
Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef and directed by Nigel Shawn Williams, March 8 – 27 in the Studio
Theatre; and THE CRACKWALKER, written and directed by Judith Thompson, March 22 – April 10 in the
Mainspace Theatre.

“Naked is about going to the roots of storytelling, it’s imagining the story with limitless
possibilities.”
Ravi Jain

FACTORY presents The Naked Season 2015/16 CANADIAN CLASSICS REIMAGINED

SALT-WATER MOON
Written by David French, Directed by Ravi Jain FACTORY, 125 Bathurst Street (at Adelaide) Factory
Mainspace Theatre
Starring Kawa Ada and Mayko Nguyen
February 23 – March 13, 2016
Media Night: Thursday, February 25, 2016 @ 8pm Opening Night: Friday, February 26, 2016 @ 8pm
Tuesday – Saturday @ 8pm • Sundays @ 2pm
* New This Year – All Single Tickets $35 – Preview Tickets $25 *
See all of the shows in the Naked Winter Seasonette with a 3-Play Pass for just $99.
Tickets and Passes can be purchased online at www.factorytheatre.ca, by phone at 416.504.9971, or
in-person at Factory‟s Box Office, 125 Bathurst Street (at Adelaide)
Connect with Factory!
factorytheatre.ca • @FactoryToronto • FactoryTheatreFB • Support Us!
Production Sponsor
Pivotal Project Management
Factory‟s 2015/2016 Season Sponsor is BMO Financial Group

Media Contact: FLIP PUBLICITY, 416.533.7710 • @FLIP_PUBLICITY
Ashley Belmer X253 ashley@flip-publicity.com or Carrie Sager X224, carrie@flip-publicity.com