Peter Anderson stars as Archibald Twill in Electric Company and Studio 58’s world premiere of Flee.
To the human eye, a flea circus will always fail to impress. No matter what jaw-dropping feats the tiny insects achieve, they all happen beneath our level of perception. From the flea's point of view, however, it's another story altogether.
"On the flea's level, it's not banal at all. It's actually fighting for its life," says Electric Company co-founder Jonathon Young, who is directing the world premiere of Flee. "It's actually horrifying."
A co-production between the groundbreaking Electric Company and Langara College's Studio 58 – now celebrating its 50th anniversary – Flee centres on Caprice, a singing flea with a woman's voice that fed, and fed off, her owner Archibald Twill, a destitute watchmaker living on the Downtown Eastside.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the flea circus was rife with exploitation, and that the tiny performers, or "fleaks," were being forced to perform acts that threatened their little lives – until Caprice developed a different course. The building's landlord also got in on the act, demanding that the spectacle continue or they would all be shown the door.
Along the way, the play touches on intergenerational conflict, exploitation and transformation – and wittily echoes the process of becoming an actor.
"She begins to have an alternate version of what her fleas can do, and it's not to perform demeaning circus tricks, but to essentially learn to be," says Mr. Young, who is himself a Studio 58 alumnus. "And it parallels that ethereal process of becoming an actor, and also becoming an authentic human being."
Co-written by Mr. Young, David Hudgins and Peter Anderson, Flee stars veteran artists Lois Anderson, David Peterson, Kathryn Shaw (Studio 58's artistic director) and Mr. Anderson, as well as 12 senior students from the school.
It also features live music by inimitable Vancouver improvisers Peggy Lee, JP Carter, Ron Samworth and Dylan van der Schyff, whose improv-heavy score threads through the entire piece and adds another layer to the drama.
So what becomes of Caprice? Mr. Young, who went on a Kafka binge while working on the story, says Flee is filled with tricks – not all of them the circus variety – that keep the audience itching for answers.
"It's a big little story, and it's a bit of a labyrinth," he says. "We say it's a story that will leave you scratching your head – but that's actually the ultimate goal, that people will leave with questions. And they're the same questions the characters in the play have, too."
Flee is at the Fox Theatre until Dec. 6.