Venue: Granville Island Stage, Vancouver
Date(s): March 28 - April 27, 2002
Reviewer: Jane Penistan
The sound of running water is the overture to The
Girl in the Goldfish Bowl. It accompanies the set of a somewhat
dilapidated interior of a family home, flanked by the towering timbers
of the neighbouring dock.
As the lights go up, Iris is balancing on the back of the shabby
chesterfield, wearing a snorkel and goggles, executing the
breaststroke. Iris removes her diving gear and explains that this is
the last day of her happy childhood, that she is eleven years old and
that her beloved goldfish has died and been flushed down the toilet by
her mother. Leslie Jones plays Iris exuberantly.
Wearing pinafore dresses or jeans she bounces through the evening with
all the enthusiasm and gaucherie of a pre adolescent. Graceless as a
puppy and as uninhibited, Iris is the daughter of an unsuccessful,
war-damaged, designer/inventor father and a disillusioned mother.
Still not quite in the present day and full of his dreams for his
great design, Owen (Tom Scholte) and Sylvia (Jennifer Clement), are
the disenchanted parents. Sylvia is so taken up with trying to make
ends meet in her poverty stricken life, and full of self pity, she has
little time to pay much attention to her fanciful daughter.
In order to make a little income, the parents take in lodgers. Rose
works at the nearby fish cannery, and is a lady of much experience in
life and a tendency to drowning her sorrows. Meredith Bain Woodward's
Rose is a full-blown flower withering her way through to a hopeless
future. A great performance.
Into this unlikely household comes Lawrence (Zachary Ansley), a man of
mystery. When he first confronts Owen, Lawrence is wearing Owen's
bathrobe. Both he and Iris explain that Lawrence has fallen into the
water and that his clothes are being dried, and that is why the robe
is borrowed. Iris and Sylvia both want Lawrence to stay at the house,
but initially, Owen is suspicious of this stranger who has nowhere to
go and seems to have come from nowhere.
Lawrence charms Iris, who begins to consider him a reincarnation of
her goldfish, and he even convinces Owen that his design is not in
vain. Sylvia is attracted to this unknown man. Rose is instantly
wary of this enigma, considering him a "con man".
As relations between Owen and Sylvia deteriorate, Sylvia becomes more
enamoured of Lawrence, and secretly begins to lay plans to leave home,
--possibly with Lawrence? Rose gets drunk and throws herself at
Lawrence, but subsides into oblivion. According to Iris, she finds
Lawrence covered in blood after an accident in the bathroom.
Suddenly the family is united. Sylvia and Iris try to get his body
down the stairs and out to the river, but alone they cannot manage it.
Owen finds them and comes to their help.
Rose reads in the paper that a body of an unknown man has been washed
up, but the family is not concerned. Iris, now an adult, looks back on
her childhood and the reality of her shattered dream. This is a really
moving climax to an intriguing, witty and thought-provoking play.
While the standard of performance of all the actors is excellent,
Iris' transition from child to adult is outstanding.
Morris Panych has given his cast interesting characters to realize,
and supplied them with a humorous script. This production is full of
life and energy and is never dull. Suitably impecuniously dressed,
the cast is ably supported by the music, soundscape and subtle
lighting.
It was a privilege to be present at this most successful first night
of The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl.
© 2002, Jane Penistan
Girl in the Goldfish Bowl runs at The Arts Club Granville
Island Stage March 28 - April 27, 2002, Monday through Saturday at
8.00 p.m. with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2.00 p.m.
Tickets are Monday $28.50, Seniors, $25.50, Students $18.50. Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday evenings, $35.50, Seniors, $30.50. Students,
$22.50. Friday and Saturday evenings $37.50, all seats. Matinees
Wednesday and Saturday $8,50, Seniors, $25.50, Students $18.50.
Box Office 604-687-1644
Monday Mix Lecture, Monday April 8. Free complimentary light supper,
6.30; Lecture commences at 7.00 p.m. "Life in the Theatre on and off
the Stage" by Morris Panych.
Tuesday, Talkback April 16 at 8.00 p.m.
Wednesday, Telus Student Matinee April 3, 17, 24 (Talkback). All
performances at 2.00 p.m. Telus Educational Subsidies contact Group
Sales 604-687-5315, ext. 245 for information.