Snowglobe, though an independent theatre company, casts actors from a wide diversity of backgrounds and experiences – from emerging talents to seasoned professionals, as well as gifted community theatre actors. This is where Lars Lih (Polonius) and Clive Brewer (Player King) come in.

Neither of you are native Montrealers – can you tell us what your journey has been to end up here?
Lars: Our family moved to Montreal 25 years ago and we are all now Canadian citizens. Montreal is the most wonderful city there is, and my amazingly bilingual daughters are just one outcome of this showcase of multiculturalism. I had always loved language and loved theater, but Montreal is the place where these passions became much more concrete—that is, I actually starting performing and singing on stage.

Clive: I was born in the UK, and visited Canada a couple of times. I loved Montreal so much I ended up choosing to emigrate here in the mid-1970s when things in the UK seemed not very encouraging. I’ve been here ever since.

What is your favourite Shakespeare play?
Lars: Even though I grew up in a small town in Washington State, I had early access to world-class Shakespeare performances at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival in Oregon, where we went most every summer. Some of these performances became family legends, especially Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, and the funniest Bottom I have ever seen (that doesn’t sound quite right, but you know what I mean). But Hamlet is indeed in a special case, a world unto itself. There was a period when this play was something of a special bond between my daughter Emelyn and myself—that is, we would debate whether or not Laertes was a jerk, or play the game of calling out a line and seeing if the other person could name the act and scene. And yet, after all that, the play remains totally mysterious!
Clive: I’ve been fortunate enough to perform roles in several Shakespeare plays.  Always challenging, but so worthwhile.  So much can be expressed, often in different ways, by those words. Any production of Hamlet would draw me to audition.  The problems that are raised for and within Hamlet, and the multiple ways in which the relationships between Hamlet and all the other characters can play out, are always relevant, and fascinating.  
How do you relate to a character like the Player King?
Clive: The Player King is the leader of a group of players, and as such he is a mentor and a sort of father-figure to them. I find these are elements that I can easily relate to.  
And what about Polonius?
Lars: Polonius is close enough to me that I have to take him as a serious warning: if you say, “I have a daughter that I love passing well” (and I have two!), then put that love into action and protect them; don’t be so cocksure you have “found where truth is hid” — and don’t make so many lousy puns (now, good puns, they’re still OK).
Any dream roles?
Clive: Malvolio in Twelfth Night – and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest!
Lars: If someone had asked me this a couple of years ago, I undoubtedly would have said Polonius – so I’m living the dream! But there are a lot of other “dubious father” roles: Juliet’s father Capulet, Hero’s father in Much Ado, and indeed King Lear – all unstable mixtures of affection and tyranny. And thinking beyond the Bard, I also relate first of all to the same kind of roles: the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe (OK, he doesn’t know he’s a father for most of the show), Mr. Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer. And dubious fathers abound in Greek tragedy, from Agamemnon to Oedipus. So maybe I could make a career of this kind of role.