Burgandy Code & Dan Bray On Deepwater: A Murder Mystery 8 Years in the Making

Dan Bray is the Artistic Director of The Villains Theatre and the playwright of over a dozen plays, most of which have been performed at either The Bus Stop Theatre, Halifax Fringe, or both. He is known most for writing zany comedies that pastiche the worlds of popular culture, such as Zomlet, Shakeaspeare’s Time Machine, The Return to Baker Street, and Knight of the Bat. His newest play, however, Deepwater, which opens at The Bus Stop Theatre March 13th, 2024, is a more serious murder mystery-type play, that Bray has been referring to as a “surreal procedural,” that tells the story of an RCMP Inspector trying to solve the mystery of a missing six year old girl. Bray has been working on this play for eight years, a real labour of love, going through so many drafts that he says when he pasted all the previous versions of the script into one single Word document, it was over 700 pages long. 

He started writing the play while working at the Neptune Theatre Box Office waiting for patrons to arrive. “I was really interested in writing a story that was about someone living after something unknowable has happened- like a mystery where someone disappears, and they’re just never found. How do you go on after that? It’s a huge fear of mine. I think there’s something really terrifying and endless about losing someone and never knowing what happened. How do you ever go on with your life?” Over the last eight years it has become a story that explores the complex themes of grief and parenthood, the ways that people process trauma, and the way that memory works. 

The parents of the missing girl are both marine biologists and deep-sea imagery is used as a metaphor in the show. Director Burgandy Code says, “How [the parents] see the world is definitely shaped by their specialty. Casper studies octopuses and is really drawn to that kind of mystery. What can they do? Why do they need three hearts? How can they reproduce in captivity? Those are other kinds of mysteries- scientific mysteries- so, there’s definitely kind of this echo of mystery through [the play], and trying to get information.” “But some answers just aren’t possible,” says Bray. “Questa is a Missing Person’s Specialist,” adds Code, “and it just drives her bonkers when she can’t find the people that she’s been assigned to find. It really weighs on her.” May, the mother, is a deep sea specialist. “I think she is prepared to accept that some things will be unknown,” says Code, “and then their kid disappears, so it’s like: can you accept what’s unknown, or can’t you?” 

“I’ve always felt this deep dread whenever I think of the ocean,” says Bray, “even when I’m swimming in the shallow part. I don’t mess with the ocean. There’s just something about the unknowableness and that anything could be beneath you…. And the deep, deep ocean, which is what most of the play talks about, you can’t even really explore super effectively yet.”

Yet, he also stresses that the play is not without its comedy. “Dan’s put some zingers in there,” Code promises, alluding to Bray’s penchant for clever wordplay. “I find it hard to turn that part of my brain off when I’m writing,” says Bray, “The imagery is also about these creatures who live in the dark but can produce their own light for certain motives, and I think the comedy in the play, or the lightness, or the moments of warmth, sort of echo that imagery as well. You’ll be going through the dark, and then there will be this glimpse of light, and then that keeps you going. So, my hope is that people don’t feel depressed or anything when they leave the show, but rather engaged by the mystery. After we read it for the first time everyone had a different take away, and everyone has their own theories about what happened, and I’m really excited to see what other people think. …But they’ll never know for sure!” He adds playfully. 

While, thankfully, the experience of having a child who is missing isn’t one most of us have personal experience with, the feeling of absolute dread of just momentarily not knowing where a child you love is is much more common, and can give us a tiny glimpse into the nightmare that Casper and May are experiencing. Code tells a family story about how as a toddler her mother was once accidentally locked in the chicken coop on the family farm. “My mum followed her mother, behind her, probably in a long skirt because it was the turn of the century, and then my grandmother (not seeing her) collected the eggs, left the chicken coop, and locked it from the outside.” Her mother fell asleep in the straw, completely unaware that outside everyone was looking everywhere for her. “Because the coop was locked on the outside, they thought she couldn’t be in there,” says Code. Thankfully, her story had a happy ending. 

Amy Reitsma, who plays May, and Liliona Quarmyne, who plays Questa, are both parents, as is Code, which makes the emotions explored in this work especially visceral. “If we stop and think about it too much we’re like,” Code whimpers to demonstrate an emotion that goes beyond words, “it’s really accessible.” While Bray doesn’t have children of his own, he has a niece and a nephew, similar in age to the daughter in the play. “My niece and nephew actually drew some of the artwork that has been incorporated into the projections because the daughter’s drawings feature into the story from time to time, so it’s a little way to have them involved.” Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, the play’s Assistant Director, has been bringing their young baby, Wren, to the rehearsal hall, so the presence of a real child has really been woven into the work. 

“At first I was like, ‘how is this going to work?” admits Bray, “Essentially a newborn? And it was the best thing. We all take turns holding the baby. It was just like gathering around the fire- it would just bring us back out of the world [of the play].” “I recommend a baby in every rehearsal, whenever possible,” Code agrees. “When I started writing this play I was in my twenties, and these characters had kids, and were older, so writing them, I found challenging. And now,” Bray laughs, “I’m like OH, I’m older than these characters, so now my relationship with the characters has also changed. My life has changed a lot.” “That’s something else with all the different versions,” Code adds with a twinkle in her eye, “they definitely reflect where your life is- and now it will be a perfect mirror to your life,” she laughs, “… except for the murder and the mystery part.” 

Bray says that the design elements for this play feel more collaborative than other plays he has written in the past, as many of the elements (projections, lights, set, and costumes) were developed in tandem with one another and the evolution of the script. Similarly, he mentions working with Code, and the company of actors: Chris George, Liliona Quarmyne, and Amy Reitsma, all having a kismet quality. “I write a lot of things with people in mind, but this play, which I’ve been working on since 2016, I’ve never known who was going to be in it, and then these three, it’s like they stepped out of my brain- it’s like I was just waiting to meet them. It’s been really, really incredible to see them bring [these characters] to life.”

As for the staging, the audience sits in horseshoe around the blackbox theatre, experiencing bits of the action taking place all around them. “It’s my favourite kind of theatre,” says Code, who often works this way as an actor in Ken Schwartz’s By Fire plays at Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, “I love the pressure it creates within the audience. Actors don’t actually feel it because, you know, you build up the fourth wall, and it’s there for us. Sometimes you’ll get to look across the space, past the people in the audience facing you, at what is happening behind them, and sometimes it happens the opposite, and you’ll have to turn.” Code, who is well known to audiences here as a powerhouse character actor, has previously directed twice in Toronto, but this is her first time directing in Halifax. As far as stepping into this new role Code credits her experience as being a motivating force. Because I’m older,” she says, “I think I’ve just done enough theatre that now I’m like, ‘ooh… let me try! Let me try! Let me try!’ It’s a great company to work for because I’ve also done enough theatre that sometimes I’ve been in rooms that I’d rather it not be like that, I’d rather it be like this. The idea of trying to create that atmosphere from a different position in the room has been super empowering,” she laughs, “I really like it.”

“My big goal, Code continues, “is that the work is in the air between all of us. That would be my goal if I had a goal. That there is as little sense of ownership- If we’re all working on this thing, we’re all sort of holding it up together- like a balloon- then it instantly disconnects the ego. It’s harder to try to own it, or need it to BE something. Then the play really gets to live. 

It’s been a fantastic experiment.” 

The Villains Theatre’s production of Deepwater runs at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) March 13th to 17th, 2023. Many shows are already sold out but there is availability Saturday March 16th at 2:00pm, and Sunday, March 17th at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are PWYC and available at this website. There is also a streamed performance on Sunday March 17th at 7:30pm. Free child-care is available for all performances. Click here to sign up or email info@villainstheatre.com for more info.

Content warning: This production is recommended for ages 14+. It contains subject matter including death, illness, missing children, and abuse. A vape (with unscented water vapour), Fast moving Projections, Patterned holes in set design, and UV Light. A full content warning list is available here. 

Note: This production takes place at 2203 Gottingen Street and is wheelchair accessible with gender-neutral washrooms. For access notes for the venue please click here. The audience seating is in a semi-circle on the floor in one row – if you need a seat near the exit for accessibility purposes please email us at info@villainstheatre.com and we will reserve one for you!