HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-07-07, Page 27THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2011. PAGE 27. Entertainment Leisure&Vimy brings authenticity to centre stage at Festival
If a play about the battle of Vimy
Ridge is going to be produced in
Memorial Hall, a building first
erected to honour the community’s
fallen soldiers of World War I, it
better be good.
The building still serves as Blyth’s
cenotaph, and never before has that
fact been felt so deep in your heart
than when the house lights slowly
begin to glow after a performance of
Vern Thiessen’s Vimy .
Vimy is a grueling journey taken
with the soldiers and nurses who
were there first hand for the
offensive and its aftermath. And
from the first scene, Vimy achieves a
gritty authenticity.
It starts with Thiessen’s words and
the direction of Artistic Director Eric
Coates and it’s furthered by the look
Gillian Gallow achieves with the set
of a World War I field hospital and
the minimal dressing she gives to the
soldiers.
However, as is the case with so
many stage productions, it is the cast
that takes touching words on a page
and reaches out to the audience with
them.
The play opens with field nurse
Clare making four beds in the
hospital regaling herself with
memories of the sights, sounds and
smells of her native Nova Scotia.
Earlier this year Smith, a Nova
Scotia native, said as soon as she
read those words describing sights
she knew from her childhood, she
needed to be a part of Vimy .
It’s that authenticity that drives
Vimy from start to finish. As an
authentic Nova Scotian, Smith’s
Clare is heartbreaking when she
needs to be and flirtatious when she
wants to be as Vimy toggles between
life on the front lines and the
character’s lives leading up to being
fitted for a uniform.
Through Clare and eventually
through their interactions with one
another, we meet the soldiers
occupying the hospital’s four beds.
There’s Sid from Winnipeg (Mark
Crawford), Jean Paul from Quebec
(Sébastien David), Mike a First
Nations Canadian from Alberta
(Meegwun Fairbrother) and Will
from Ontario (Gil Garratt) and they
are all broken in their own way.
Sid was blinded at Vimy Ridge
while Jean Paul is shell-shocked,
Mike can barely breath due to a
poisonous gas attack and Will was
shot in the arm and chest. Clare is
charged with their care and “putting
them back together” as she puts it.
Each soldier has his story. Jean
Paul enlisted with a friend, Mike
with his brother, while Will and Sid
found work together in Winnipeg
before being shipped overseas. Their
stories all play out over the course of
the play.
In the beginning, Thiessen takes
the audience into the hospital with
the soldiers and back to their
hometowns, but it’s when the play
approaches its intermission that he
brings the audience into the trenches
with the soldiers.
The soldiers go back to the hours
leading up to their role in the battle
of Vimy Ridge it’s one of the most
dramatic, hear-a-pin-drop quiet,
emotional sequences you will ever
witness on a Canadian stage.
Hours and minutes are counted
down while the soldiers prepare.
They tunnel and make their way to
the frontline where they’re brought
to dead silence, smoking quietly and
waiting for their turn to join the
attack.
“One minute,” Jean Paul declares
and all that’s left is the heavy
breathing of the soldiers in the final
60 seconds before they begin their
assault. In such a tense and
transcendent moment, the silence
says more than words ever could and
with every breath knuckles whiten
throughout Memorial Hall’s 500
seats.
Leading up to the premiere of
Vimy on Canada Day, Coates,
Garratt, Fairbrother, David and
Smith all said they had been reading
up on the realities of the battle of
Vimy Ridge extensively. That
research, the sobering reality of what
Canadians were charged with and
what they accomplished is written
on the faces of those involved with
Vimy .
The actors have read the literature,
Coates went to France and visited
the Vimy Ridge Memorial, as did
Thiessen years ago. This story truly
inspired all involved to dig even
deeper, to do their homework so to
speak. And the homework pays off.
Coates brings a tense cadence to
the performance, ratcheting his
actors as tight as a drum so
Thiessen’s words are rattled off with
a military-like precision.
Simply put, the cast has no weak
links.
David makes his first-ever English
performance a memorable one. As
the physically smallest of the
soldiers, he displays a touching
vulnerability, but he can also be a
feisty one when his back’s against
the wall.
Speaking before the performance,
David expressed some nerves about
performing his first-ever English
language play. The nerves are
nowhere to be found as his
performance is smooth and intense.
Fairbrother’s portrayal of Mike is
harrowing and intimidating.
Standing well over six feet tall, when
stomping his boots at attention, his
impact literally reverberates through
the seats.
He is a big guy, but he too has his
demons. In playing Mike,
Fairbrother spoke about the emotion
Mike shows, a wide range of
emotions Fairbrother executes with
ease.
Garratt is expectedly great.
Festival audiences have watched him
for over a decade now and his
performances seem to mature every
season. The dynamic between
Garratt and Crawford is tense and
touching as only two friends with
haunted pasts can be.
The battle is made real by these
four men.
Opening on Canada’s birthday,
Vimy is a play about a country
finding its voice and its place in the
world. It’s the same journey each
character takes on his/her own, all
the while Canada hurtles down that
same road. And just like Canada, the
characters have no idea what was
waiting for them at the finish line.
Some felt they had it bad, others
felt they had it worse, but no one was
the same after that battle; and neither
was Canada.
Vimy runs at the Blyth Festival
until August 6.
‘Vimy’
From left: Mark Crawford, Sébastien David, Meegwun Fairbrother and Gil Garratt prepare for
war during Vern Thiessen’s Vimy, the second world premiere to hit the Blyth Festival stage this
year. (Terry Manzo photo)
55th Wedding
Anniversary
Janis and Brock Vodden
celebrated their 55th wedding
anniversary on July 3, 2011.
Janis Ann Louise Morritt,
daughter of William and
Gertrude (Marshall) Morritt
married Harold Brockest Vodden,
son of Harold and Myrtle
(Turvey) Vodden in Blyth
on July 3, 1956.
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2011 – 8 PM
CENTENNIAL HALL - LONDON
Tickets at The Centennial Hall Box Office. Call 519-672-1967
or online at www.centennialhall.london.ca
Graduation Announcement
Grant Sparling, son of Steven and
Laurie Sparling, graduated from
St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary
School, June 26, 2011. Grant
received the Goderich Community
Credit Union Scholarship for
students pursuing studies in fields
of business or healthcare, was
named Outstanding Senior Boys
Athlete, and an Ontario Scholar.
He has been recognized by Youth
in Motion as one of Canada’s Top
20 Under 20, and by The National
Society of High School Scholars
(US). Grant will be studying
Human Biology at Dartmouth
College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
Congratulations, Grant.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Oops..
In the June 30 edition of The
Citizen, the parents of Mabel
Glanville were incorrectly
identified. The article should have
identified them as William and
Eileen Westlake.