The Best Brothers explores sombre topic with dark comedy
Death, dysfunction and awardwinning Nova Scotia playwright Daniel MacIvor’s signature dialogue all come together in the Kay Meek and Western Canada Theatre production of The Best Brothers.
In the play, a remounting of a successful Kamloops production, Kyle and Hamilton Best are brothers with issues. When their mother dies after an accident that falls far outside the ordinary, the pair must come together to deal with her affairs. Along the way, long simmering rivalries, affronts and affections come out in the open and things get awfully raw and un-brotherly. Toss in dead mom Bunny haunting about and her charming and havoc-wreaking dog Enzo contributing to the chaos and a dark comedy comes out.
In Sharon Bajer’s director’s notes, she says: “We will all have to deal with the death of a parent at some point in our lives and navigate through the emotional roller coaster of grief. But along with grief can come clarity, insight, truth … and maybe even the understanding of what it means to truly love.”
The roller-coaster ride to arrive at some kind of final resolution makes for a great bit of theatre, and one that fits into a new trend in theatre as the population ages and dies.
“I would say that rather than being triggering, it’s a cathartic work for people who have gone through this kind of loss,” said Bajer.
“Plus it’s not just the brothers’ completely different approaches to grieving which fuel the comedy, but the mother turns up as well to comment. It’s an incredibly interesting device, because Daniel has each brother playing their late mother, but what you get is her the way that they saw her.”
Perception, impression and memory can all be great tools for resolution. They can also be the devil in the workings between individuals forced together to accomplish goals.
A produced playwright (Jesus Does Laundry Too), Bajer first saw The Best Brothers in 2011 and loved it. She was deeply impressed that the story could be presented different ways depending on casting and direction.
“It’s quite a collaborative piece, and lends itself to different interpretations which, as a writer, I find really exciting,” she said.
Aidan deSalaiz agrees. Playing brother Hamilton Best, the actor is pleased to be appearing in his first MacIvor play.
“He uses language in ways that are really relatable and real, with such rich characters,” said deSalaiz.
“That’s always exciting for any actor to do, and then you can add in the elements of comedy. And this is a very funny play in a way that is quite authentic.”
With three siblings he is quite close to, deSalaiz admits that one thing in the play that struck him as both irritating and comforting is how you can’t hide from your siblings.
“They often know you better than you know yourself, which isn’t a risk-free reality,” he said.
“It’s stuck with me doing the play that the older I get, the subject matter is something that is always in the back of my mind. What winds up happening for both the actors and the audience is that the play becomes a very cathartic experience.”
DeSalaiz cites how the intimate and authentic subject matter affects people in different ways. At the Kamloops production, he saw people busting a gut laughing at the same time others were bawling. He speculates that it might come down to where you are in the process of saying goodbye to a loved one.
“We are pretty much onstage all the time, save when one of us becomes the mother and we are alone for that,” he said.
“It’s very intense playing multiple parts, but the joy in getting to do this remount is that what each character says is what you feel you would say in a similar situation anyways. The show has become part of our DNA.”
Both Bajer and deSalaiz say The Best Brothers is one of the best shows they have ever worked on. As they prepare to take the remount to Vancouver and Prince George, the small cast and crew feel at one with the work.
“I really gravitate toward dark comedy and MacIvor is a master of it, but everything he does is also full of heart,” said Bejar.
“He’s not all slick and shine when he’s able to flip over pain and suffering on its head. Showing the morbid and often hilarious side of grieving and suffering is something we are all so familiar with, even if we don’t want to admit it.”
The Best Brothers runs for two weeks at the Kay Meek Studio Theatre in West Vancouver, a venue that has really been upping its game in the past few years; it is a great, intimate performance space.