The War Brides are Coming

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – The War Brides Are Coming

Playwright – P. Gail Whiteford

Production Company/Theatre space – (community) The Unicorn Collective; Theatre 1308.

Length – 2 Acts (2 hours including one intermission)

Genre/s – Billed as a love story – technically it’s a drama.

Premise – Two women arrive by train in Olds, Alberta on VE Day setting off the ire of two locals who don’t support strangers in their midst and reuniting one with her husband much to the dismay of the young woman who thought she would be his wife.

Why this play? Why now? – The playwright wrote this as a tribute to Phyllis Whiteford, English war bride for her 90^th birthday. November is a suitable time for such a production.

Curiosities – I had many questions about the script. If these two women have been traveling together for weeks, would they have to explain so much to each other about their backgrounds? Why do the two remark about the landscape, have they not seen it from the windows of the train? Why don’t they know about VE day? Who packs a suitcase mangling all the clothes? Why does the one character react so strongly to the soldier marrying another when she is in love with another man? Do characters change 180 degrees that easily? Why is one character wearing fur when the visitors have no coats…

Notable Moment – The bit with the sugar cubes.

Notable writing – Whiteford’s last show was about the women in the war and clearly, she is passionate about it. As with most playwrights, she gets better with each script. The story is stronger and feels less like a history lesson.

Notable performances – The cast is the “collective” part of the Unicorn Collective as all of these actors have worked with each other on many previous shows. Greg Spielman has the best written character as the angry father who blames others in an effort to discharge his grief; he does a splendid job. Accents aside, war brides Chelsea Howell-Fellows and Sara Mattsson are endearing. Bryan Smith and Anne Hodgson round out the troupe with Lana Borrell playing the xenophobic busybody.

Notable design/Production – There are minimal lighting instruments to work with in this venue, and Lighting Designer Dean Howell-Fellows manages to light the stage adequately.  

Notable direction – Whiteford directs her work again. In a theatre with no rake in the audience, having characters sit at the table or on the stage became a sightline issue.

One reason to see this show – The War Brides are Coming to Olds which is the setting for the play so it will be interesting to see if this impacts the audience. Having a relationship with the Royal Canadian Legion I’m sure has helped build an appreciative audience for this work.