Two-hander play The Amaryllis plants the seed for theatre to grow again
Director Mindy Parfitt, who launched The Search Party company on the eve of lockdown, now readies a world premiere
In The Amaryllis, Shawn Macdonald and Amy Rutherford star as two codependent siblings who just happen to love Jesus Christ Superstar. Photo by Emily Cooper
The Firehall Arts Centre and The Search Party present The Amaryllis from November 12 to 22. COVID protocols here
IT REALLY SAYS SOMETHING about theatre in our pandemic times that anything that steps outside a solo show seems like a large-scale undertaking these days.
“Somebody was like, ‘Woah! Big production!’” Mindy Parfitt, who’s directing the two-hander The Amaryllis at the Firehall Arts Centre, says with a laugh.
”I’ve appreciated everybody's dedication to the protocols for people to feel safe, and then for people to just do their work--not constantly talk about the pandemic,” she adds of the production process. “I was worried about ‘How much is that going to be in the space?’ But for everybody it's been nice to just move away from that to practise our art.”
With so many of her colleagues out of work, Parfitt is a bit surprised to find herself directing a world premiere of a play by Michelle Riml under the banner of her new theatre company, The Search Party. And she says the themes of The Amaryllis, about two codependent siblings working their way out of a somewhat isolated existence, could not be more relevant.
At the end of 2019, Parfitt launched the troupe with a production of The Father, just a few months before the pandemic hit.
The lockdown that soon followed saw the cancellation of several big projects, among them Parfitt directing a larger-cast show at the Arts Club called The Cull, written by playwrights Riml and Michael St. John Smith.
At the time, Parfitt probably wouldn’t have predicted she’d be joining a socially distanced cast and crew, with another premiere by Riml, just six months later.
“It was difficult for me to find a way to practise my art. Some people transitioned to online easier than I did,” says Parfitt, who cofounded Ottawa’s Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre before returning to Vancouver, completing her MFA in directing at UBC, and helming productions everywhere from Bard on the Beach to the Arts Club. “I have kids and I was trying to build some semblance of normalcy for them. I had just started this company and had these big dreams, and then it was like, ‘Okay, that’s not happening.’”
But then came the call from the Firehall’s artistic producer Donna Spencer, who had methodically reopened the venue with new COVID safety protocols. She invited Parfitt and Riml to stage The Amaryllis, and rehearsals for the eclectic, bittersweet comedy started at the venue under new regulations, with actors Shawn Macdonald and Amy Rutherford. His Jeremy works as the troubled agent to her Lucy, a popular voice actor; together they inhabit their own, quirk-filled world--including a sizable obsession with Jesus Christ Superstar.
Parfitt says she’s surprised at how normal the rehearsals feel, given what’s happening outside the theatre’s walls.
“We have clear protocols in place and that allows people to feel safe and comfortable in the room--which is important,” she says. “It does feel a little different: as a director I often get up and get in the space or touch someone on the shoulder, and there's a sort of physical comfort and comforting that goes on that is inaccessible to me right now…..And I do have to be careful about not touching a lot of props.”
Photo by Emily Cooper
She adds there were bigger conversations for Macdonald and Rutherford, who do have to interact onstage, and so had to enter each other’s bubbles.
“It had to do with how people are going to live their lives outside the room--that’s what allowed that to happen,” Parfitt summarizes.
The Search Party devotes itself to high quality scripts with fully realized production design, something Parfitt aims to achieve with the more fantastical elements that come with the show’s titular metaphor. The amaryllis is a notoriously hard-to-grow flower that arrives, in this play, to the siblings as a mystery gift. So even though the show takes place in the apartment where the siblings live together, set designer Ana Cappellutto, sound designer Ruby Singh, and lighting designer Itai Erdal work to conjure the touches of magic in the script.
The end result is a piece that might help people imagine how they’ll leave isolation and reintegrate in the world as the pandemic lifts, Parfitt suggests.
“One of the things that comes out of the piece is it's about making a change and how a small act can take so much bravery,” she says. “It’s about the possibility of change and renewal, and in a way that speaks so strangely to this time. How do we make change and move on?
“For a fairly good chunk of time we've been separating ourselves from one another. That's what these two people have done: isolated themselves from the rest of world. Right now we are having to transition out of our homes and there’s a lot of anxiety around that, and it takes courage to go out and do that again.”
In a way, that courage also reflects Parfitt and her casts’s journey, getting out of the house and briefly venturing into the world of live theatre again.
“You did have to leap in being fuelled by believing in the importance of theatre,” Parfitt says. “It’s so magical to sit in a space with people and share an experience with people--even if you’re 12 feet away from them.”
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