Steven Greenfield in Billy Bishop Goes To War, Edmonton Repertory Theatre. Photo supplied.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Here’s a question that threads its way through our whole history, and feels especially up front, feet planted, elbows up, at the moment: What’s different about us Canadians anyhow?

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Billy Bishop Goes To War, the bona fide Canadian theatre classic that launches Edmonton Repertory Theatre first season Friday at the Biederman Theatre, wonders about that. For the last half century or so its quizzical perspectives on heroism and a distinctly Canadian cultural identity have alighted at moments that always seem like exactly The Right Moment.

The much produced 1978 two-hander musical by John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with the actor Eric Peterson, its original performers, chronicles the unlikely career of the World War I fighter pilot from Owen Sound, Ont. to international star status. And the Edmonton Repertory Theatre production, starring Steven Greenfield (as Billy Bishop and 17 other characters) and Cathy Derkach at the keyboard), actor-musicians both, reunites this seminal piece with a distinguished director whose passion for getting Canadian voices onstage has been recognized across the country. Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre, the Edmonton company Gerry Potter started 47 seasons  ago when he emerged from the U of A directing program, is all about that, developing a distinctively Canadian repertoire and nurturing its creators.

Jennifer Kreziewicz, the artistic director of Edmonton Repertory Theatre, dedicated to creating theatre that’s “accessible for multi-generational audiences and artists” as she puts it, first saw Billy Bishop Goes To War in the ‘90s at the Citadel, she recalls. “And it really stuck with me as a young theatre-goer…. A fun show, and so impactful.” And she’s discovered a new venue, the 185-seat Biederman Theatre in the west end (in the Lifestyles Options Retirement Community, with parking!) in which to present the two-hander musical. “It’s our little nod to Elbows Up” she says of the Canadian-ness of the classic that launches the company’s first season, which will, if all goes well, include two more productions. “Maybe this is the year I’ll get my first grant!”

She picked a play that’s savvy about nationalism and the cost of war, and paired it with director Potter, who first directed it in 1983. His Workshop West production, starring David LeReaney and Jan Randall, toured around the West at the time. And he’s long thought about re-mounting it. So the invitation from Kreziewicz was welcome, he says.

Steven Greenfield and Cathy Derkach, Billy Bishop Goes To War, Edmonton Repertory Theatre. Photo supplied.

“When John and Eric (created) it in the ‘70s, it was a time of cultural nationalism — and not the kind of nationalism that Trump and cronies promote,” says Potter, reflecting on the positioning in time and place of a piece inspired by William Avery Bishop’s memoir Winged Warfare. The cultural nationalism of the time didn’t have anything to do with  right-wing populism; “it was protesting the war in Vietnam, a very anti-war time, a liberal leftist movement. And the thought that maybe we could get a few of our own voices onto stages. That was the movement that Workshop West came out of. And it was new at the time….”

Steven Greenfield in Billy Bishop Goes To War, Edmonton Repertory Theatre. Photo supplied.

As Potter says, the heroes of boyhood were American, and Disney-fied at that: Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone and their ilk. This country’s heroes were unknown to him, and to most Canadians. “And this seems like a good time to reflect on how we’re different and if we’re different.” He he points to Margaret Atwood’s 1972 survey of the Canadian cultural landscape, Survival: A Thematic Guide To Canadian Literature. “She looks at Billy Bishop as the product of a northern environment,” says Potter. The prevailing theme she discerned? “Survival, as distinct from the niceties of protocols, traditions, nice manners” that thread their way through the Brit repertoire.

And there were controversies at the time of the National Film Board film,” Potter recalls. The idea that Canada’s flying ace, who’d cheated at military college and inflated his own record to get ahead stuck in the craw of Senators. “Books were written; ‘the NFB should be cut off!’” Says Potter genially, “it’s an interesting issue…. John (John Gray) wanted to explore ‘what’s a Canadian hero?’”

Skepticism about heroism, war, and the co-opting of the colonies for participation on distant battlefields, pulse through the scenes of Billy Bishop. And, as Potter has been re-discovering in rehearsal, there’s a lot of humour in the piece. “The culture of the colonies” is treated in funny ways, Potter points out. Billy is a kind of renegade spirit. “He liked having fun; he doesn’t like to be told what to do by British officers.” How Canadian is that?

““This is not just a history lesson. There’s a bit of that. But mostly it’s a theatrical good time!”

PREVIEW

Billy Bishop Goes To War

Theatre: Edmonton Repertory Theatre

Created by: John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with Eric Peterson

Directed by: Gerry Potter

Starring: Steven Greenfield and Cathy Derkach

Where: Biederman Theatre, Lifestyles Options Retirement Community, 17203 99 Ave.

Running: Friday through Nov. 8

Tickets and full schedule of performances: eventbrite.com