Meredith Hambrock’s dark satire She’s a Lamb! chronicles the story of a musical theatre worker who aims to be a star herself — partially based on the author’s own experience working as a theatre usher in Vancouver.
Hambrock is a novelist and television writer from Saskatoon. Her story You Should Go Over There was longlisted for the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize. She is also the author of the novel Other People’s Secrets, and her latest book, She’s a Lamb!, released last week.
It follows Jessamyn St. Germain, who’s tasked with supervising the children playing roles in a theatre production of The Sound of Music.
But St. Germain has much loftier ambitions, and the novel chronicles her journey as she tries to present herself as a star on the rise, with her desire for something more coming up against people who are trying to put her down.
North by Northwest14:04Author Meredith Hambrock on her new novel She’s A Lamb!
Vancouver writer Meredith Hambrock joins us to talk about She’s A Lamb!, her darkly comic new novel that follows a struggling actress and her delusional dream to lead in a production of The Sound of Music.
For Hambrock, the journey of St. Germain parallels some of her own experiences when she worked as an usher for the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver during a production of The Sound of Music.
“It’s a really great place to work,” the novelist told Margaret Gallagher, the host of CBC’s North by Northwest, on Saturday.
“But I was sort of besieged by this fear that I would never be able to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish as a writer, that I wasn’t capable of it.”
Hambrock says she saw during her time there how actors could be rejected for roles over things beyond their control — such as their voice, body or where they come from.
The writer adds that her protagonist really wants to elevate other people’s lives and experiences, and sees herself as a beautiful woman who can make it happen — and she yearns for others to recognize that.
While writing St. Germain, Hambrock says it was enjoyable to dip into a character who was desperate to be seen, though she said the book was not a diary.
“I think I am a very polite person, I think, or at least I try to be kind,” she said.
“Descending into the mind of somebody who has sort of let their ambition rule over everything, who has really kind of retreated into their ego, and is letting that kind of take the wheel — I think [it] was very, you know, sometimes fun for me, sometimes very dark.”
Parallels to The Sound of Music
Hambrock, who works as a comedy writer for TV productions, says she is able to scratch an itch for writing big, dramatic plots through her books.
She also acknowledges the parallels her main character has to Maria, the protagonist of The Sound of Music. The title She’s a Lamb! refers to a line from one of the movie’s songs.
In that film, starring Julie Andrews, Maria is sent to be a governess for the children of a naval officer, a role she initially resents.
“Also for [St. Germain], she sees this as a downgrade,” Hambrock says of her character’s theatre job.
“You know, she wants to be the star. She doesn’t want to be, like, picking up granola bar wrappers and, like, telling kids where the bathroom is and stuff like that.”
Hambrock also says the novel explores the role of patriarchy, and taking control of one’s quest for fame.
She’s a Lamb! is out now and is published by ECW Press.
