The Bakehouse Theatre Company. The Bakehouse Theatre. 20 Apr 2013
The stage lights reveal a set that is a little 1940s on one side and a little 1960s on the other. There is a hallway with stairs leading to the next floor. Downstage is a large couch in front of which is a coffee table with an empty goldfish bowl on it.
Only a few minutes into act one, you get the feeling this is not a cosy little play about a mother who has fallen out with her husband and a twelve year old girl who keeps a diary and has just lost a gold fish that was flushed down the toilet, but a complex production developing a multilayered, almost absurdist genre, script. And who is the mysterious Mr Lawrence who suddenly appears and becomes the central character around which the narrative is woven?
Written by Canadian playwright Morris Panych, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl is driven by the words which flow free and fast and move the action between reminiscences of the 1940s and the 1960s. The play is set on the 22nd of October 1962 at the height of the Cuban missile crisis.
Added to this very specific reality, the development of the action is largely narrated through the eyes of 12 year old Iris as she records the day’s events in her diary. Is she writing what she sees? Or is what we see a compilation of what she senses and feels as a twelve year old passing out of the innocence of childhood? Just as you think you have sussed the action out, Panych takes it in another direction.
Peter Greenʼs direction is cohesive and straight forward. Green has a seasoned eye for dynamic tension between characters. There are lots of subtly held sillinesses, fast throwaways that are never wasted, and smooth transitions between scenes; it is almost filmic.
The strong cast is led by Miranda Pike as the 12 year old Iris with a vivid imagination. Pike is a tour de force as she carries the dominant narrative role throughout the production. Romina Verdiglione plays Sylvia, the long suffering mother who moved out of love with husband Owen long ago; a difficult role that doesn’t have a strong emotional journey, but which is made incredibly tangible and wistfully sad by the power of Verdiglioneʼs performance. Scott Perry plays the enigmatic Mr Lawrence, and brings freshness and a strange other-worldly quality to the man (or goldfish) that is so attractive to the daughter, the mother, the father, and the legal godmother who also lives in the house.
Patrick Clements as Owen, the father, has the difficult role of the out-of-work draftsman of geometric possibilities who is increasingly supplanted by Mr Lawrence, but makes a late run to regain a more central role in the family; a strong and even performance. Bronwyn James is Miss Rose, Iris’s legal godmother lost somewhere between the 1940s and the 1960s, but is also a realist and strong as nails. James brings this quirky character totally to life.
Manda Webber has designed a set torn between elements of past and present (1962), and yet is absolutely cohesive. The set is the fifth character. Credit also needs to be given to Angela De Palma, as scenic artist, and Andrew Zeuner and Peter Howard for their set construction. One of the best sets I have recently seen at Bakehouse. Totally functional and yet convincingly detailed.
This review would be incomplete without a salute to Stephen Dean, his lighting and sound designs, and their operation. This is a complex production of a complex script; the lighting design in particular reflects this. The general lighting echoes the moody nostalgic staging. The special effects are subtle. The operation is seamless. A memorable lighting moment comes towards the end of act two. Suddenly the characters are lit by strong white light . . . and then this effect is gone. The sounds are sparse and disciplined. Dean is a master of his craft.
The production is still flexing its muscles and will continue to grow. The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl is a strong reason to support locally grown artists and graduates of Flinders University and the Adelaide College of the Arts.
Martin Christmas
When: 20 Apr to 4 May
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com
