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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.