With the cast and crew of the current TNW play there to enjoy the moment, Theatre North West unveiled the set of plays they will show the city next season.
The city's professional theatre company is about to launch The Girl In The Goldfish Bowl on Friday. It is the last show in their current slate of presentations, which was a fitting time, said artistic director Jack Grinhaus, to look ahead to the 2016-17 offerings on the way.
"I am constantly trying to find ways to build seasons that audiences can both connect to with familiarity and also be pleasantly surprised by ones they never expected to see - individual plays that will woo newer audiences to the theatre and also, for our loyal subscribers, an entire season arc that tells a whole story throughout the season," he said at the unveiling event this week. "This current season that is wrapping up was based on the theme of 'Aesthetic And Taste' as I attempted to get to know audiences here in Prince George (it was Grinhaus's first year in the city) through a series of plays that tested the boundaries and also provided many options for the audience to indulge in."
This coming season's underlying theme will be Strong Females as each show puts women characters - and thus women actors - at the forefront of the stage.
The four showcase productions are:
Fly Me To The Moon by Marie Jones
Alice In Wonderland by Brainerd Duffield (adapted from Lewis Carroll's two classic Alice books)
Drowning Girls by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic
Half Life by John Mighton
Fly Me To The Moon is a bracing Irish comedy in the vein of Waking Ned Devine. It follows the moral dilemmas and comical dialogue between the caregivers of a man they've just discovered is dead in the next room, just as his pension cheque is due to be cashed - a job they are tasked with carrying out. Grinhaus called it a "what-would-you-do of the highest order." Of course a certain Frank Sinatra song also figures into the action.
Alice In Wonderland is celebrating its 150th year as a beloved and befuddling story of a girl who takes a wild trip into a surreal world.
This play combines this psychedelic adventure with the sequel, Alice Through The Looking Glass. The characters are famously vivid and the social allegories are, too.
Drowning Girl is a "murder mystery story told like you've never seen it," said Grinhaus. It is about three brides who meet in the afterlife, all having been murdered by their husband by means of bathtub drowning. They work with each other to gather ghostly evidence against their macabre husband. It is a play that has been exciting and thrilling Canadian audiences for almost 10 years.
Half Life turns to romance, and again it is a Canadian play that has scored big points with audiences and critics alike since it won the 2005 Governor General's Award.
It follows two elders who meet in a nursing home and fall in love, but wondering if they had perhaps already met before. As their middle-aged children watch this unfold, it brings up issues of aging, true love, irrelevant emotional connections, and the beauty of memory no matter how old you might be. It is one of those plays, said Grinhaus, that will compel long and deep conversations after the final bows are taken.
The new season is on sale now via the Theatre North West website.
Tickets to The Girl In The Goldfish Bowl (it won the Governor General's Award the year before Half Life did) are also on sale online, or at Books & Company while supplies last. It runs Friday through April 27.
