Family ties come unravelled with The Net
Review by Michelle Desbarats
“The Net” is the sixth and final play of the GCTC “Stages” season at the Irving Greenberg. Written in French by Marcel-Romain Thériault and translated by Maureen Labonté and Don Hannah, this production is the world premiere of the English translation.
The setting is the interior of a home in New Brunswick. The characters are three generations of an Acadian family. Anthime is the aging grandfather. Leo is his second born son. Etienne is the son of Anthime’s firstborn deceased son.
Before the characters arrive, the set waits, almost like an unknown character itself. Unformed as yet by any story, the living room, dining room and small kitchen are quiet. One can imagine meals being cooked and eaten. A framed photograph of a woman rests on the kitchen counter. A sofa offers a place to sit. There is a maritime feeling of a family that, for generations, has earned a living from the sea. There is an aura of tradition, of expected continuance.
In the modern tragedy that is presented, this foundation of tradition begins to be unhinged by a series of factors such as the depletion of the fish stock, the government’s involvement and, as well, by the interior re-workings of the family. Anthime wishes to secure his grandson as the inheritor and Etienne, an MBA graduate, has no interest in this and wants to return to his forays as an environmentalist. Meanwhile Leo has had his ambitions curtailed simply by being the second born son.
The play asks the following questions: How do people behave under the pressure of a society that is losing its way of earning a living? What happens to the family? What choices are made? What incomprehensible answers are arrived at? What seeds in people are activated that, in other situations, may have germinated differently?
In order for a drama to be successful the audience has to care about the characters. Amid the collapsing fishing industry Anthime clings resolutely to what has always carried him through. His character, very well played by David Fox, uses timeworn hands to literally and metaphorically hold on. We see him gathering the net in his arms as well as reaching for the photograph of his beloved wife and friend, Rita, whose death has shifted the connections within the family. Visibly shaking, he lights some candles. In his frustration he grabs a book from Etienne’s hands. Everything about him speaks of a stubbornness, frail now, but absolutely determined, but it has also caused him to be blind to the full knowledge of Leo’s schemes, the true nature of the fishing industry and his grandson’s desire to be released from the inheritance. We see an old man trying to create, in the time he has left, what he believes will keep his family going.
Leo, played authentically by John Koensgen, is the classic character of an individual born to little or no power, and what avenues ambition can take. Koensgen enlivens his role with some likeability that allows the audience to initially empathize with his position. As the story emerges, he allows his character’s nature to come forward and reveal what has become his horrific approach to solving the problem. Koensgen uses his body posture well to illustrate the frustration he is holding and the bitterness and desperation that fire his actions.
Etienne is probably a little less rounded as a character. Ben Meuser gives a solid performance but he is mainly presented as being in disagreement with his grandfather’s plans. There is not so much of a personal appeal to the patriarch as there is his want to just leave the world of his family. There is not as much illumination in the script as to who he really is. There is allusion instead to his characters contrast to the traditional family expectations in a number of ways. During a portion of the play he is wearing, after a shower, a piece of fabric wrapped around his waist like a skirt. In this attire he argues against Anthime who is persisting in giving him the boat, that Leo so dearly wants.
The exciting story builds to a wrenching conclusion. Earlier moments are resonanced as the audience realizes that a plan has been put in place by one of the characters and that this is the engine that drives the scene to its final end. Well directed by Michel Monty, The Net is frank about the stark reality faced by so many in a region that owes its livliehood to a dwindling resource. It is also nuanced by haunting strains of radio music, the east coast wind whistling whenever the front door is opened, and the vision of a crab boat in a failing industry that is still in need of a captain.
GCTC’s “The Net” plays the mainstage at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre until April 3; contact the GCTC box office for show times.
