Twin sisters celebrating their 30th birthday, a remote B.C. community and a mysterious Scrabble-champ stripper all come together for the dark comedy Trout Stanley, which opened last week as part of the TNT summer theatre festival.
“It’s a look at what happens when a daily routine is disrupted by an outside force,” said Elizabeth Barrett, who stars alongside Sarah Jane Hicks and Gabriel Macdonald. The trio just wrapped up the first show in TNT’s summer theatre festival, Comedy Bouquet.
The outside force in question is Trout Stanley, played by Macdonald. He brings out a whole other side of the sisters, Sugar and Grace, and the things they discover about themselves over the course of the show might surprise you.
Adrian Wagner’s promotional photos for the show feature Hicks with a gun and Macdonald tied to a chair, giving audiences some indication of where the plot is headed.
“Comedy Bouquet was pretty light-hearted and superficial fun, while this show is much darker,” said Hicks. “It relies on irony and situational comedy.”
And Macdonald finds the script relatable.
“These are situations and characters you can really recognize, so we had lots to relate to while we were rehearsing,” he said.
Barrett loves the script written by Claudia Dey, which has been described as a ‘Yukon Gothic’ by Variety.
According to her it bounces back and forth between intelligent, hyper-quick dialogue and lengthy chunks of descriptive prose.
“I think Dey is trying to tap into some sort of myth structure to create an iconic Canadian myth,” said director Richard Rowberry. “I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to showcase the talents of these tremendous young actors.”
Barrett, Macdonald and Hicks are all from Nelson but are pursuing post-secondary education in theatre.
The show runs from August 17 and 20. It involves some sex and violence, as well as strong language. It starts nightly at 8 p.m. at TNT Theatre on the corner of Ward and Carbonate.