The Fighting Days by Wendy Lill, at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Feb. 9, 2012
Reviewed by Stephanie Adamov
Six years of pinning my blue tartan pleated kilt in place as an Academy girl instilled great reverence for female strength and feminine spirit in me. As December 6th approaches each year, roses are placed in every classroom to remind students of the Montreal Massacre and the fourteen women who were slain at École Polytechnique. St. Mary’s Academy constantly reminds young ladies that we all have a spark to kindle into a flame and to hold our torch high.
As the tides of Heritage Fair begin to roll in during the next few weeks, the story of the Women’s Suffrage movement will be researched and revisited again at the Academy. Poster boards will display Nellie McClung’s image and discussion will ensue about Manitoba being the first province to allow women the right to vote.
Wendy Lill’s play The Fighting Days, first produced at Prairie Theatre Exchange in 1984,discusses the suffrage movement of Manitoba’s early twentieth century through a different lens. The play, like the set in RMTC’s new production, revolves around the determined Francis Beynon. She has been known as the forgotten suffragette. She was often in the shadow of her mentor Nellie McClung, who is usually the representative figurehead for the women’s rights movement in Manitoba.
Richard Clarkin and Sarah Constible in The Fighting Days. Photo by Bruce Monk
The play focuses on the outspoken Francis, played by Sarah Constible, and the passionate Lily Beynon, portrayed by Daria Puttaert. The sisters are members of the women’s suffrage movement where Nellie McClung, strikingly played by Marina Stephanson Kerr, is speech writer and orator for the group of women.
Director Robb Paterson orchestrates this four-person play that works to expose the humanity beyond the politics. While the focus of the first act remains an optimistic view of getting votes for women, there is an undercurrent of hypocrisy that is unveiled and extrapolated in the second portion of the show.
The crude but honest character of George McNair played with boastfulness but hidden kindness by Richard Clarkin opens Francis’s eyes to some of the insincere deceptions of her cause and movement.
This is the story rarely told in history books.
The exclusivity of the women becomes unavoidably present. There is a clear divide between ‘foreign women’ and women of British stock. Elitism starts to become more and more evident to Francis. Despite a confrontation with Mrs. McClung, Francis strives for ‘equality and justice for all, including the foreigners.’
Questions arise such as the rights of immigrants in Canada, conscription, and national responsibility and duty. The answers are not clear.
The symbolic words displayed through the set design create an intriguing landscape for the characters. Words are prominently displayed at the top of the proscenium such as: Justice, Peace, Suffrage, and Tolerance. As the play unravels, words begin to disappear, and the vision of the characters is suddenly not as clear.
The actors must move as the set, which is positioned on a turntable, rotates to expose one of four settings. The passage of time as well as the urgency of the situations is reflected in the speed of the set change. This creates an intriguing storybook quality to the piece.
On the magnificent earth-toned set designed by Brian Perchaluk, words such as Women, Votes, Equality are displayed as the background to the various settings, creating interesting metaphors. The word Votes is present at the Suffrage meetings; Women is the background of Francis’s office space. That space is where she answers questions forwarded by women in response to her column in the “Rural Review.”
Francis dauntlessly questions the necessity of war but is silenced by her peers. The Great War in Europe takes precedence and distracts the nation’s focus from domestic matters. This is characterized by the giant Union Jack upstage where the largest word of all, War, is illuminated by the reflected light of the flag.
Through conscription, women must surrender their husbands and sons to fight on foreign soil. McClung has difficulty not supporting a war where her son carries her photo in his cap.
Notably, Richard Clarkin creates an incredibly comedic balance between being Francis Beynon’s straightforward and quick-tongued editor and being a romantic realist. Just as flint hits stone he and Sarah engage in well-written, colourfully choreographed dialogue.
Just as St. Mary’s Academy uses the metaphor of a torch, so Nellie inspires Francis to join the cause with the notion that they are all called to be “bright lights in a dark room.” Nellie and the ladies strive to not pass through life like “a string without a knot, but rather to leave something behind for their daughters.”
Wendy Lill wrote this historical and monumental play with intelligence and integrity in the 1980s. She presents these women as soldiers in petticoats, who have walked many of the same streets we Winnipeggers pass by daily. Robb Paterson has directed a piece of international and contemporary importance with local historical heroes.
The Fighting Days by Wendy Lill at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, 174 Market Avenue, Winnipeg. Showtimes Feb. 10 to March 3, 2012.
A Winnipeg Monument
Columns
The Fighting Days by Wendy Lill, at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Feb. 9, 2012
Reviewed by Stephanie Adamov
Six years of pinning my blue tartan pleated kilt in place as an Academy girl instilled great reverence for female strength and feminine spirit in me. As December 6th approaches each year, roses are placed in every classroom to remind students of the Montreal Massacre and the fourteen women who were slain at École Polytechnique. St. Mary’s Academy constantly reminds young ladies that we all have a spark to kindle into a flame and to hold our torch high.
As the tides of Heritage Fair begin to roll in during the next few weeks, the story of the Women’s Suffrage movement will be researched and revisited again at the Academy. Poster boards will display Nellie McClung’s image and discussion will ensue about Manitoba being the first province to allow women the right to vote.
Wendy Lill’s play The Fighting Days, first produced at Prairie Theatre Exchange in 1984, discusses the suffrage movement of Manitoba’s early twentieth century through a different lens. The play, like the set in RMTC’s new production, revolves around the determined Francis Beynon. She has been known as the forgotten suffragette. She was often in the shadow of her mentor Nellie McClung, who is usually the representative figurehead for the women’s rights movement in Manitoba.
Richard Clarkin and Sarah Constible in The Fighting Days. Photo by Bruce Monk
The play focuses on the outspoken Francis, played by Sarah Constible, and the passionate Lily Beynon, portrayed by Daria Puttaert. The sisters are members of the women’s suffrage movement where Nellie McClung, strikingly played by Marina Stephanson Kerr, is speech writer and orator for the group of women.
Director Robb Paterson orchestrates this four-person play that works to expose the humanity beyond the politics. While the focus of the first act remains an optimistic view of getting votes for women, there is an undercurrent of hypocrisy that is unveiled and extrapolated in the second portion of the show.
The crude but honest character of George McNair played with boastfulness but hidden kindness by Richard Clarkin opens Francis’s eyes to some of the insincere deceptions of her cause and movement.
This is the story rarely told in history books.
The exclusivity of the women becomes unavoidably present. There is a clear divide between ‘foreign women’ and women of British stock. Elitism starts to become more and more evident to Francis. Despite a confrontation with Mrs. McClung, Francis strives for ‘equality and justice for all, including the foreigners.’
Questions arise such as the rights of immigrants in Canada, conscription, and national responsibility and duty. The answers are not clear.
The symbolic words displayed through the set design create an intriguing landscape for the characters. Words are prominently displayed at the top of the proscenium such as: Justice, Peace, Suffrage, and Tolerance. As the play unravels, words begin to disappear, and the vision of the characters is suddenly not as clear.
The actors must move as the set, which is positioned on a turntable, rotates to expose one of four settings. The passage of time as well as the urgency of the situations is reflected in the speed of the set change. This creates an intriguing storybook quality to the piece.
On the magnificent earth-toned set designed by Brian Perchaluk, words such as Women, Votes, Equality are displayed as the background to the various settings, creating interesting metaphors. The word Votes is present at the Suffrage meetings; Women is the background of Francis’s office space. That space is where she answers questions forwarded by women in response to her column in the “Rural Review.”
Francis dauntlessly questions the necessity of war but is silenced by her peers. The Great War in Europe takes precedence and distracts the nation’s focus from domestic matters. This is characterized by the giant Union Jack upstage where the largest word of all, War, is illuminated by the reflected light of the flag.
Through conscription, women must surrender their husbands and sons to fight on foreign soil. McClung has difficulty not supporting a war where her son carries her photo in his cap.
Notably, Richard Clarkin creates an incredibly comedic balance between being Francis Beynon’s straightforward and quick-tongued editor and being a romantic realist. Just as flint hits stone he and Sarah engage in well-written, colourfully choreographed dialogue.
Just as St. Mary’s Academy uses the metaphor of a torch, so Nellie inspires Francis to join the cause with the notion that they are all called to be “bright lights in a dark room.” Nellie and the ladies strive to not pass through life like “a string without a knot, but rather to leave something behind for their daughters.”
Wendy Lill wrote this historical and monumental play with intelligence and integrity in the 1980s. She presents these women as soldiers in petticoats, who have walked many of the same streets we Winnipeggers pass by daily. Robb Paterson has directed a piece of international and contemporary importance with local historical heroes.
The Fighting Days by Wendy Lill at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, 174 Market Avenue, Winnipeg. Showtimes Feb. 10 to March 3, 2012.