A play first done in Kamloops will now get to have a conjoined twin in Prince George.
This is not merely Theatre Northwest's version of The Best Brothers. This is the same actors, same director and most of the same production elements transported here from the Western Canada Theatre Company (WCTC). It was such a hit there that TNW's artistic director Jack Grinhaus saw a perfect import play ready and waiting, so TNW and WCTC teamed up.
It's not always (or even usually) possible for the same team to pick up a production and move it to another location. It's difficult enough just to hold a play over a few extra days. But The Best Brothers has only two actors to schedule.
There sure wasn't any trouble convincing them.
The two-hander is performed in this case by Aidan deSalaiz and Ryan James Miller. They loved the script, a popular comedy by master Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, and they had an unmistakable charisma together, according to director Sharon Bajer (who, just to make this even more geographically complex, is based in Winnipeg).
After being the creative captain for the first edition, she is now giddy to watch this version more as an audience member.
"Aidan and Ryan are so delightful together, you'll see what I mean, just a bubbling chemistry plus their individual theatre skills," Bajer said. "I had worked with both of them before and loved their work and their energy. And I happened to know that each of them had a really strong, positive relationship with their moms. I've met both their moms. That has so much to do with this play. The complicated relationship these characters have with the mother of the play makes her almost a third character. Now, that isn't why these actors got the part but it was a factor in how we approached the script, and they are so good at moving these guys, these brothers, along."
Bajer has an almost familial relationship with this play. She was at Stratford (the town-sized theatre operation in Ontario) when the very first staging of The Best Brothers occurred, with MacIvor himself in the cast. Then, her husband got to perform one of the parts in a production done for Prairie Theatre Exchange. Now that the Kamloops experience is in her mental files, she expects a strong showing for the TNW audience.
"What I think I like about doing a re-mount, this always happens, is it tends to deepen. It has a fresh energy of rediscovery, but the rehearsal process has a sort of shorthand to it. I felt really proud about our production. The boys felt they had done very good work. Usually that's it, you have to just let that go and walk away. So we are so very excited and flying high that we get to bring it all back and do it again in a new space for a new audience."
The play is a load of laughs with layers of emotion underneath. Bajer said each performance gets her laughing, no matter how many times she's seen it, and sometimes the tears still wet her eyes as well.
She and the actors are in re-rehearsals now in Winnipeg and will spend only a few days inside the Prince George space getting the spacial details worked out.
The Best Brothers runs at TNW from April 12-29.
Tickets are on sale now at Books & Company or instant seats online via the TNW website.
