Centaur Theatre Company and Kay Meek Centre present The Goodnight Bird by Colleen Murphy, Jan. 29 to Feb. 14 at Kay Meek Centre, 1700 Mathers Ave., West Vancouver. Tickets: $15-50 at kaymeekcentre.com or 604-981-6335.
When a homeless man unexpectedly lands on the balcony of their new condo, long-married couple Lilly and Morgan Beaumont begin to question their relationship, their routine and their comfortable, albeit dull, lives.
"Both of them are unhappy. They love each other, but they're unhappy," says North Shore actress Nicola Cavendish, who plays Lilly in the North American premiere of The Goodnight Bird by Canadian by playwright Colleen Murphy at Kay Meek Centre.
This is the second major role Cavendish has taken on since taking a hiatus from acting in 2012. She first met Murphy many years ago at the Banff Playwrights Colony and says she was immediately impressed by the Quebec-born writer's wit and wisdom. So, when Murphy expressed interest in Cavendish playing a part in her dark comedy The Goodnight Bird, she jumped at the opportunity.
"It's an actor's treat to land into a script like this," Cavendish says. "It's a very rich and very challenging play for all of the three characters."
The action takes place in the bedroom of a couple in their mid-60s. Lilly, a recently retired schoolteacher, and her husband Morgan (Christopher Hunt), recovering from a heart attack, are shocked one night when a mysterious vagrant named Parker (Graham Cuthbertson) flies off the roof and lands on their balcony. The intruder butts into their home and their personal lives, sparking a dialogue between Lilly and Morgan about things they never realized they were missing.
"It's not just a play about one night in the bedroom of an affluent couple. It reverberates into all sorts of things which, to be honest, I'm still discovering," Cavendish says.
She describes the tone of the first half as a "chaotic comedy" as the characters respond to the absurd situation they have found themselves in. "But it's got stomach underneath it," she says. In the second half, she says, the characters are reminiscent of a "gentle" version of the troubled middle-aged couple George and Martha from Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Goodnight Bird was first staged in 2011 at the Finborough Theatre in London where Murphy was a playwright in residence. Kay Meek Centre and Montreal-based Centaur Theatre Company are co-producing the upcoming presentation in West Vancouver under the direction of Centaur's Roy Surette, who has worked with Cavendish on a number of occasions, most recently the Arts Club Theatre Company's production of 4000 Miles last fall. When Cavendish sent Surette the script for The Goodnight Bird, he knew she would be perfect for the part, he says. And he was also impressed with the play.
"It's a bit surreal, it's quite funny, but it's also quite poignant," he says.
As director, his challenge is to find the right pace for the story so that the action unfolds in a credible and convincing way.
"What happens to this married couple happens very quickly. It's in the course of two scenes in real time," he explains. "I think our challenge is to keep the absurdity of the action to a little bit of a minimum and to make it really believable."
Cavendish expects the audience will find much they can relate to in this story.
"I want them to be engaged by it and I want them to see themselves in some of it," she says.
After its run at Kay Meek Centre, The Goodnight Bird will travel to the Centaur Theatre in Montreal for three weeks.
"It's always wonderful to know that the theatres in the country can still produce Canadian playwrights' material and put it on the stage for us to digest as Canadians, and it's an honour to be able to do such a thing for Colleen Murphy," Cavendish says.
Artists Confidential: An informal chat with members of the cast (Christopher Hunt and Graham Cuthbertson) will take place Thursday, Feb. 5, 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the Welsh Hall at West Vancouver Memorial Library. Admission is free, but is on a first-come, first-served basis.
