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Skye Brandon (right) and John B. Lowe in The Secret Mask

A comedy on the surface, The Secret Mask is also a touching rumination on family

"Carriage my bottle shipper type."

Learning lines is never an easy task, but how do you memorize and deliver dialogue that’s bent beyond recognition? I’m not sure, but John B. Lowe does it extremely well in The Secret Mask.

Before we get to the veteran local actor’s excellent commandment of twisted talk, you need to know why his character’s diction is distorted. In the Prairie Theatre Exchange production — written by Winnipeg playwright Rick Chafe — George (Skye Brandon) has waited 40 years to meet Ernie (Lowe), the dead-beat dad who abandoned him at the age of two. Despite George’s pent-up anger towards Pops, their initial meeting isn’t acrimonious — but it’s not all that happy, either. See, Ernie’s suffered a stroke which has left him with extensive memory loss and aphasia, an impairment of language ability.

It’s not that Ernie can’t speak, he just can’t find the right words. However, he has no problem finding the wrong words, spouting sentences such as the aforementioned "carriage my bottle shipper type." Ernie’s full of fuddled phrases like this and Lowe handles them all beautifully.

Ernie’s language disorder is where most of the play’s humour comes from. Sure, aphasia is a serious medical condition, but when Ernie says "snap up on the pump and ease up on the groceries" whilst showing George how to drive stick, one can’t help but laugh. And you’re supposed to find it funny. Chafe went through this ordeal with his father (the stroke and the aphasia, not the estrangement) and is very adept at picking out a tragedy’s lighter moments.

Still, The Secret Mask isn’t completely comedy. It’s a story filled with layers — tender, touching and tense. For instance, given their past (or lack thereof) and present, the relationship between George and Ernie is obviously a stressful one, but it’s not the only strained association here. For one, there’s the upsetting situation going on in Ernie’s own head. While his aphasia is often amusing, it’s also heartbreaking to watch an obviously intelligent and sociable man struggle though the simplest of sentences. Through many heated, expletive-filled phone calls, we also find out that George’s marriage isn’t exactly hunky dory, nor is his relationship with his teenage son.

Stratford-based Brandon is excellent as George, especially excelling in the story’s most explosive moments. Local actor Sharon Bajer plays several roles, including a speech therapist, and facilitates the scenes superbly. Props to Brian Perchaluk for his sparse set design — basically a table and a couple of chairs — which enables director Robert Metcalfe and stage manager Karyn Kumhyr’s smooth and incredibly quick scene transitions.

Speaking of shifts, anyone with an elderly parent or grandparent will relate to The Secret Mask, as it’s a story of that inevitable turning point, when children become caregivers.

Or you can throw Mom and Dad in the home. It’s your call.