Play brings out heyday and horrors of World War II

BY BARBARA LAVOIE



Once again, as it should be, it’s time to remember those who served Canada, some sacrificing their lives, and those who continue to fight so we may live in peace.

Hudson-based Theatre Panache, in perfect timing with Remembrance Day, is remounting Till We Meet Again, its popular production of the new Canadian musical set during the Second World War, from Thursday to Nov. 12 at the D.B. Clarke Theatre in downtown Montreal.

Giving it a true north identity, author David Langlois based the musical play on archival research and veteran interviews recreating the heyday and the horrors of wartime by borrowing the format of another all-Canadian cultural icon, CBC Radio.

The show, staged as three 35-minute radio broadcasts that take place in 1940, 1942 and 1944, is directed by theatre founder Heather Margraf-Lowe.

“I don’t feel it’s a subject that is dated, not with our Canadian forces serving in Afghanistan,� said Margraf-Lowe. “From an educational point-of-view, for those who weren’t living at the time, I personally feel it is important to keep telling these stories. There aren’t many veterans left, many are entering their 80s.�

Margraf-Lowe describes how easy it is to be pulled into the show because “everyone becomes the live radio audience, that’s how it was done then.�

Each act contains such wartime classics as songs from the era choreographed into dance numbers, commercials or ‘jingles’ with live sound effects, news of the day, reports from the front, letters from home and sadly the traditional lists of the war dead.

Adding to the realism, those mentioned in the lists are actual people who lived in the Hudson area. “The relatives who attend are usually very touched. It makes it all very real and personal,� she added.

Intended to lift the spirits of soldiers listening abroad on short-wave crystal sets and those keeping the home fires burning, you’ll hear the popular jingles of the day advertising Pepsodent toothpaste, Lifebuoy Soap and Lucky Strike.

Songs featured include such wartime classics as It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, We’ll Meet Again, The White Cliffs of Dover, Lille Marlene, A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square, Doing the Lambeth Walk, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and Bei Mir Bist du Schön.

New character content is added with each production. For example, a story they recently heard and hope to incorporate is about a soldier who wrote to three sweethearts at the same time as a way to get more overseas mail.

Fictionalized as Gordon Watkins, the life of a bona fide Canadian veteran, Maj. Harold W. Elliott is celebrated. A graduate of McGill University, Elliott served five consecutive years overseas as a medical doctor. After the war he settled in Como, QC with his wife and two sons.

Well-received wherever it goes, the first draft of the musical was presented in November 2001 as Music of the Stars at a public reading, then as a stage production at Hudson Village Theatre.

Till We Meet Again enjoyed a tremendously successful run at the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa last year at this time.

In recognition of the play’s value as an educational tool, Veteran Affairs Canada purchased 200 tickets to be given to local area students. “I have at least four schools that have confirmed attendance,� Margraf-Lowe said.

This production’s cast of seven multi-tasking actors, singers and dancers includes: Graham Cuthbertson, Adrian Marchuk, Amanda Leblanc, Kathleen McAuliffe, Stephanie McNamara, Marian Siminski and Pierre Lenoir who take on the roles (not in order) of news anchor, reporter, society columnist, cue girl, master of ceremonies and Lt. Watkins.

Siminski, a longtime Ste. Anne de Bellevue resident, who doubles as musical director while also acting, singing, dancing and playing piano, sums up the play as “a fabulous night of entertainment…nostalgia, drama, dance, music…it’s all in the show.�

“If the audience isn’t laughing, they are crying,� she said.

Tickets range in price from $22 to $31 for evening and matinee performances, student, seniors and group rates are also available.

To order tickets call 514-231-5084 or purchase online from www.tillwemeetagain.ca">www.tillwemeetagain.ca">www.tillwemeetagain.ca (at no extra charge).