On March 23, 1915, George Joseph Smith was charged with the murder of three women: Bessie Williams, Alice Smith and Margaret Lloyd. He had married them, insured them, had wills drawn up, and then they turned up dead in the bath, with minimal signs of struggle. In the summer of 1999, three university friends, Daniela Vlaskalic, Beth Graham and Charlie Tomlinson, collectively known as Bent Out of Shape Productions, presented The Drowning Girls for the first time at the Edmonton Fringe, a performance piece with a bathtub, two actors and a loose concept based on the idea of drowning.
“It was kind of a mishmash. We kind of pulled it out of our asses,” says co-creator and actress Beth Graham of the original piece. When Vlaskalic came across the story of Mr. Smith and his victims, it seemed like a great opportunity to revisit the piece with a stronger focus. The result of this reworking, still titled The Drowning Girls, will prèmiere at the Big Secret Theatre March 1 as part of Alberta Theatre Projects’ (ATP) playRites Festival. As well as the changes to the text, the scale of the production has also changed.
“The production value is a lot higher than it was at the Fringe, that’s for sure,” says Graham. Now we have three bathtubs instead of one! There’s just way more support, so it can be more fully realized.”
Traditionally, ATP’s annual festival of new Canadian works has focused on texts, workshopping scripts exhaustingly, then creating performances after the kinks have been worked out between director and playwright. With The Drowning Girls and with other mainstage shows like Train, it seems that this year’s playRites is embracing more organically created pieces that have alternative theatre roots. With three credited writers, a collaborative style of creation for The Drowning Girls was inevitable.
“I think at the time none of us considered ourselves writers,” says Graham. “We approached it with a collaborative sense. This time, when we rewrote it, it has changed tremendously. We’ve given the three women [Williams, Smith and Lloyd] a voice to tell the story of how it all happened.”
For Graham and Vlaskalic, historical events provide a very fertile ground for creation. Past productions by Bent out of Shape include other plays with historical roots, including Comrades and their most recent play about drug smugglers, Mule. “We’re both fascinated by history, and that was the leaping-off point for a number of our plays — finding an interesting story that we wanted to revisit, reinvent and have our own take on.”
Of the three co-creators, Graham is the only one you’ll see onstage. Vlaskalic has retreated into a writer’s role, as she is currently working at the Stratford festival. Tomlinson has taken over the directing duties. However, Graham won’t be alone in the tubs — local actress Natascha Girgis and fellow Edmontonian Vanessa Sabourin will be joining her for the show’s latest incarnation.
When the invitation to submit for ATP arose, Graham and Vlaskalic jumped at the chance to revisit their watery opus, and help it live up to its full potential. After a few more workshops were arranged, The Drowning Girls has finally started to come together for Graham, who no longer feels it is something quickly pulled out of their collective nether regions. Her enthusiasm for the project and its new direction is hard for her to disguise. “It’s great, because we are able to have Bretta Gerecke and Narda McCarroll, who are fantastic designers, and Peter Moller, doing sound design — another aspect that we didn’t have before, which is great. It fleshes it out even more.”
All of this work isn’t just for playRites, however. There is another full-scale production planned in Edmonton after this run. So it seems three women who were drowned by their husband almost a century ago will get yet another chance to say their piece, thanks to three women who like bathtubs and a good story.
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