A family affair
A medium-busting mash-up of play, film and opera, adapted from a work of literature, The Book of Water ingeniously portrays Geiser's mental decline by splitting the role in two: an older actor (Timothy West) plays Geiser as he is now in a film projection, while a younger actor (Samuel West) appears on stage, playing him at the age he thinks he is. They're accompanied by string quartet the Esmé Quartet, which appears live on stage, while British soprano Mary Bevan appears in the film, playing Geiser's daughter.
Using two actors to portray the same character, says Van der Aa, "gave me a theatrical tool to show the audience an internal dialogue". But it could also have made it quite a challenge to cast the show. Fortunately, Van der Aa had an ace up his sleeve, having previously worked with British actor Samuel West, known for TV and film roles from Howard's End (1992) to All Creatures Great and Small (2020), who also has a long history in the theatre, including as a director. West's father, Timothy, aged 88, happens to also be a star of stage and screen, long ubiquitous in his native UK.
Samuel West found it a challenge to play the same character as an immediate family member. "The difficult thing about working with my father on this is not to think 'That's my dad'," he tells FestMag. "In the piece, it's me."
Both his and his father's performances were influenced by the experience of seeing his mother suffer from dementia in recent years, he says. "My mother at one point said, 'I don't always know where I'm going but I always enjoy getting there'. It's a good philosophy for anyone, whether they have dementia or not. Geiser has things that matter to him: an attentive daughter, the smell of lavender, the warmth of the sun."
Van der Aa says he had wanted to do something with Frisch's novel for some time, but recent events brought it to the forefront. "Someone gifted me the book about 10 to 15 years ago and it really struck a nerve. I decided I'd use it for a piece, but I didn't have a concrete idea. Then a couple of years ago I found myself locked down in the Netherlands, isolated from friends, and it felt like very much the same atmosphere as the book."
