BILLY BISHOP GOES TO WAR

DRESS REHEARSAL

Saturday October 21st at 2:00 p.m.

 

This Canadian musical won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. 

It pays tribute to Owen Sound’s iconic hometown war hero and flying ace, Billy Bishop.

 

Two acts with a short intermission

Like many Canadian “history plays,” Billy Bishop Goes to War critically examines its
protagonist, questioning the nature of heroism and the reasons for and
consequences of war. It shows how values are compromised and changed; and how
heroes are constructed. It considers Canada’s relationship to its colonial past, and its
attempts at self-assertion and independence – the formation of national values. In
this funny, sad story of the Canadian WWI flying ace, his feats of daring and his
tribulations, the myth of the man is parsed as he tells of crossing swords with
commanders, the Germans, the British in general (who treated him as a colonial
inferior) and all those who saw war as a good time.

Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, 2020

 

A Good-will offering will be collected.