The history is told to us entirely in the natural conversation between the two actors.  The description of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 is a fine piece of writing, poetic and sad, from Jacob as he describes his father’s bad dreams after being abandoned in No Man’s Land.  However, Jacob despite his empathy for his father refuses to take responsibility for the way in which he left Mary a year before and made no contact since. 

Mary star gazes with her employer’s telescope and tells us the names of the features on the Moon and describes St Elmo’s fire.  Jacob relates a film he’s seen in Toronto while they both sit face on, as if in the cinema, about a man called Tom who rescues the woman he loves just as she is to be married to someone else.  

Mary has a terrible story about the cruelty doled out to her younger sister Dot in the institution and we understand her decision to marry a man she doesn’t love who is wealthy and who will provide a home for Dot.

The performances are outstanding: Bryony Miller as Mary prim and hurt, now protecting herself from further emotional damage and as closed as a clam; and Joseph Potter as Jacob, swaggering and arrogant at times but always interesting to watch.   

The simple but effective set has multiple stars some shining blue as they look out at the clear night time sky.  The accents may waver for a native Canadian but I didn’t notice because the words involved me throughout.  Fine writing, fine acting and fine directing!