#1
Posted: 2/2/10 at 10:37am
This play was first performed in 1978, starring its authors Eric Peterson (in the title role) accompanied by John Gray as the pianist/narrator. Thirty-two years later, they’ve reunited to reprise their performances in a play that has become a landmark of Canadian Theatre
This is the first time I’ve seen it onstage (bad Canadian, bad!). In this revised iteration, Billy Bishop (played by Eric Peterson) is now, like the authors, an old man. He reminisces about his days in the Great War. Peterson has the stage mostly to himself, populating it with a cast of characters from the title role to the lovely Helene, a French chanteuse.He loathes the butchery of the war but also relishes it. He’d damn good at what he does, shooting down 72 enemy planes and becoming the unlikely hero of the war and a young nation.
John Gray, at the piano, provides a “Weil/Brel-ish” accompaniment; some of the songs (there are lots of songs) are so wistful and melancholy they brought tears to my eyes; “It didn’t seem like war at all” is belied by the fact that most of Billy’s buds are killed by it.
The play, like an old man, rambles on a bit too long. But, in the end it's a wonderful study of war, its cost and the ambivalence around it.
http://www.soulpepper.ca/
This is the first time I’ve seen it onstage (bad Canadian, bad!). In this revised iteration, Billy Bishop (played by Eric Peterson) is now, like the authors, an old man. He reminisces about his days in the Great War. Peterson has the stage mostly to himself, populating it with a cast of characters from the title role to the lovely Helene, a French chanteuse.He loathes the butchery of the war but also relishes it. He’d damn good at what he does, shooting down 72 enemy planes and becoming the unlikely hero of the war and a young nation.
John Gray, at the piano, provides a “Weil/Brel-ish” accompaniment; some of the songs (there are lots of songs) are so wistful and melancholy they brought tears to my eyes; “It didn’t seem like war at all” is belied by the fact that most of Billy’s buds are killed by it.
The play, like an old man, rambles on a bit too long. But, in the end it's a wonderful study of war, its cost and the ambivalence around it.
http://www.soulpepper.ca/
