Within (and without) the Family
by Jim Murchison
Usually, the conflict and resolution of family rifts and the discovery of truths that we all recognize and relate to makes for good theatre. When it is layered and crafted as meticulously as Rick Chafe's understated masterpiece The Secret Mask it makes for great theatre. Most of the time we grow up not learning enough about each other, not speaking our minds and harbouring our resentments, but in The Secret Mask father and son meet as virtual strangers. George never really knew his father Ernie. Ernie left when he was two. At the beginning of the play the father is more the child, learning to speak and grabbing at fragments of thoughts in an effort to pull himself back to cognition after a stroke has severely reduced his memory. George naturally resents his father deeply for leaving and dislikes him more for what he imagines him to be because he has never really known him.
