Written and co-directed by Aidan Rowlingson (with Nadine McDonald-Dowd), Capricorn marks this playwright’s mainstage debut.

The play centres on long term couple Sam and Ally as they navigate the breakdown of their relationship and untangle their shared life into separate threads. This personal and emotional story is set against the sudden and mysterious disappearance of all of the world’s goldfish; the stock market crashes and citizens begin to riot as their beloved pets vanish all at once.

Jazleen Latrise in Capricorn, La Boite Theatre. Photo © Farley Ward

The key message of the play seems to be the value of loving, feeling, and being vulnerable without fear. Capricorn is not just a love story about Sam and Ally, but about the ways in which we all love and hurt and heal each other.

While the two humans are the protagonists, their uncoupling is narrated and commentated by their pet goldfish, named Here Fishy Fishy Fishy, who they can sometimes see and communicate with.

When the play had concluded, I still felt a lack of clarity around the significance of its title, and a lack of resolution relating to the humanised Here Fishy Fishy...