There's something human about the lowly goldfish.
Or is it perhaps the other way around? They live below the surface of our existence, yet we fixate on them. We set them up in our environments and stare at them. We pay less than a dollar for them, drop them a few flakes of food to keep them going, and we can become mesmerized wondering what they think about as they wander among the plastic seaweed and toy castles inside their little tanks.
How similar an actor is, on stage, as the audience watches them swim through dialogue and furniture and costumes. We look in on them as they portray a little world that, when done well, is stylized on our own.
The latest Theatre North West production gives us another chance to tap the glass of life and see what flounders and what rises to the surface. The Girl In The Goldfish Bowl is a Canadian modern classic. Playwright Morris Panych has won two Governor General's Awards for his writing, and this play was one of them. He gives the audience a broken family, and a young broken-hearted girl mourning the death of her goldfish. As we know from life, children in an emotional crisis will often transfer the bigger problems they don't understand onto the smaller things in their life. And aren't we all children, after all?
Actor David Leyshon plays the little girl's father and said the appeal of this production for him is how simply Canadian this script is. Real Canadian. Authentic life Canadian.
"It's been around long enough that it's taken hold in the theatre community, and I've really wanted to be in it, so I'm grateful to finally get that chance," he said. "It's nice to be telling 'our' stories and not some quaint thing with Mounties and maple syrup and whatnot. This is just a story about a family, and their complex human relations, and strong emotions they feel and how that turns into strong emotions for the audience. It doesn't make a point of being Canadian, it is just done in the Canadian context so we're all going to just automatically relate to it because it is unapologetically rooted in B.C. culture."
Lauren Brotman plays someone new to the household, someone the young girl is confused by, we will say euphemistically. Her character might well have judged the little household the same way the audience does, on first view, but she has a different standpoint now.
"So often in life we see a perfect family, on the outside, but once you look inside and get to know what's really there, it's a total disaster," Brotman said. "The flipside of that is, we often go through life thinking we're totally normal and justified in what we're doing but the people around us think we're totally nuts. This play is at the crossroads of those realities and those moments where you might have confront the possibility that you're dysfunctional, and what will that admission mean for everyone?"
Brotman said the playwright showed particular skill, so exciting for the actors and engaging for audiences, of varying the mood of the play. There are heavy themes at work, here, but Panych salts the whole meal with jokes and witty dialogue and thoughtful concepts, she said, which have the effect of "playing a full melody, not just the same note played over and over again."
Another Theatre North West play similar to this was entitled Art, at the start of this season. It also starred David Leyshon.
"It's great because I was here at the beginning of the season, I then did It's A Wonderful Life in Ontario in the middle of the season, and now I'm back in Prince George sort of book-ending the season with TNW," Leyshon said. He was also in last season's production of Billy Bishop Goes To War, playing the titular character.
"I like going where the work is good," he shrugged. "The plays here keep being high-quality, the people are always great, so I'm lucky enough to keep being asked back to take part in interesting projects."
Brotman was seen in the TNW play The Secret Mask last year, and also earned accolades for directing the Shakespeare outdoor adaptation held at the City Hall lawns during Summerfest last year. She lives in Prince George, unlike the majority of TNW actors, and is connected to the theatre company through marriage. Her husband Jack Grinhaus is artistic director. She gets to see the shows from a different perspective, as an ongoing audience member as well as backstage once in awhile. She has noticed an eagerness for actors in other parts of Canada to come work here because of the reception they receive from the patrons.
"This is an audience that gets theatre, they understand the process and appreciate the creation of theatre," she said. "What this audience does not have is an 'come on, impress me' attitude about it. They come expecting quality work, but they also come expecting to be entertained. There is a generosity that comes from the audience, and actors totally sense that. It makes it a much better experience if you're an actor."
The Girl In The Goldfish Bowl runs from April 7-27. Tickets are available online at the Theatre North West website or at Books & Company.
