A review of Jeff Pufahl’s new musical Prairie Salt

I’ve long heard it said that prairie boys make excellent sailors. I don’t know for certain that that’s true, but what I can say, after seeing Prairie Salt at the MacKenzie Art Gallery Saturday night, is that at least one prairie boy has made an excellent musical about sailing.

Prairie Salt was written and produced by Jeffrey Pufahl, a Saskatchewan native. Directed by Michele Sereda, artistic director of of Regina’s Curtain Razors, and performed by Pufahl and Newfoundland actor Jon Pinksen, Prairie Salt is both a musical about sailing voyages and a voyage in and of itself–the voyage of a young man from Saskatchewan who runs away to sea to find adventure, and in the process finds himself.

The story is autobiographical. Pufahl really did run away to sea, in a unique fashion. At the age of 18 he joined the crew of the Amara Zee, run by the Caravan Stage Society. This 90-foot sailing ship, based on a traditional Thames River barge, sails from city to city; at each stop, her crew of actors/sailors puts on shows on the ship’s deck. Pufahl took the gig to prove he could make it as an actor, but in the process he fell in love with sailing. When the Amara Zee’s voyage was over, rather than seek out a new role as an actor, he sought out a berth on another sailing ship, this one heading into deep water on a voyage to the Caribbean. There, thanks to an encounter with a tropical storm, he got perhaps more of a taste of the sailing life than he’d bargained for.

All of that is in Prairie Salt, but the musical is no mere travelogue, or even an ordinary coming-of-age tale. It includes lots of humor, making the most out of the fish-out-of-water (or, in this case, maybe gopher-in-the-water would be a better metaphor) nature of its story. But what lifts it above the ordinary is an element of the fantastic, a touch of magic realism, most apparent in the character of Jonas, an old salt who sits on the dock, bottle of muscatel in hand. The first time Jeff (the version of himself Pufahl plays in the musical) meets Jonas, the old man gives him directions to the Amara Zee. But Jeff keeps crossing paths with Jonas, who looks as though he never moves from his spot on the dock, but somehow turns up in port after port. It’s clear he’s far more than just another old drunk; in fact, to Jeff, and to the audience, he seems to be the very embodiment of sailing life, and through his own memories of sailors who were old when he was a child, a direct link to the great Age of Sail.

The best song in the show, for my money, comes in the scene where Jeff, drunk on rum, reads Jonas’s logbook, stained with saltwater, sweat, and tears, and envisions himself sailing to every corner of the seven seas over decades and centuries. Through Jonas, Jeff has somehow tapped into all the ancient tradition and folklore of the sea.

Of course, it was only a drunken dream…or was it?

It may take an unprepared audience a while to adjust to the mixture of fantasy and reality in Prairie Salt, as well as to the mixture of poetry and prose–large sections consist of rhyming, Robert Service-like verse (which, it turns out, was actually written by the real-life old sailor who inspired the character of Jonas). But then, it takes Jeff a while to adjust to the nautical life, too. Once he has his sea-legs, though, he falls in love with it. Open your heart to Prairie Salt, and you may fall in love with it, too.

The songs in the show are a mixture of traditional sea shanties–sometimes with slightly rewritten lyrics–and original tunes. Prairie Salt was written by Pufahl in collaboration with Montreal writer and poet (and tax lawyer) Andrew Auerbach and Cincinnati composer Julie Spangler. There’s a lot of music in this 75-minute show, and all of it is good. Pufahl has the better voice of the two actors, but Pinksen’s contributions are solid. He’s particularly funny as Remy, the very French captain of the Amara Zee (or as he puts it in his best number, “Remy, Capitan!”); later he switches hats (literally) and becomes the equally funny, prim, proper, and by-the-book Captain Mark. And, of course, he’s also Jonas, the mysterious old sailor.

Accompanying the songs and providing background music for some scenes is the talented Dan Flegel on keyboard, who apparently has the entire score memorized, since he’s in plain sight and his music isn’t.

The set combines the basic elements needed–a mast, a sail, a ship’s wheel, a transom and a few pier pilings–simply and effectively; cleverly, the sail allows Pinksen to make his various costume and character changes without leaving the stage.

Whether you’re a Prairie-born landlubber or a web-footed sea dog, you’ll find Prairie Salt a tantalizing theatrical treat, a tasty blend of tunes, tradition–and even one very funny tango between an inebriated sea captain and a rather nervous young sailor.

Can’t run away to sea? Instead, run away to see Prairie Salt.

It’s the next best thing.

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2004/07/a-review-of-jeff-pufahls-new-musical-prairie-salt/

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