Photos courtesy of Canadian War Museum
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
To usher in a new season – and also to observe the season of Remembrance in a special way – VOS presents Bluebirds at the Victoria Hall Concert Hall Nov. 3 and 4.
Written by Governor General award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen, the play reminds us that not all Canada’s heroes from World War I were the soldiers. Bluebirds introduces audiences to three Canadian nurses working in Field Hospital No. 1 in Etaples, France, in 1918.
It’s a point in the conflict where the pivotal battle of Vimy Ridge has taken place and the war has taken a change of direction, Director Florence Fletcher said. And at Field Hospital No. 1, the nurses – known as Bluebirds because of their blue uniform dresses – work courageously to save lives despite treacherous conditions and limited resources.
The three characters are based on the actual experiences of real Bluebirds, based on their letters home, their diaries, the photographs they took.
From their own conversations, Fletcher said, the audience learns where each has come from, what their life experiences had been up to then, their experiences in clinical work, their hopes, their dreams for the future.
They would be relatively young women, she conjectured, because Bliuebirds had to be between the ages of 21 and 38 to volunteer – and that’s a key word to remember. They were trained nurses, but they volunteered to serve in the war effort. And as members of the army, each was given the title Lieutenant, paid the same as the male lieutenants – which would have been extraordinary for the times. Even more extraordinary is that, when an election came up, that rank gave them the vote.
“Those were the first Canadian women to get the right to vote,” Fletcher said.
“There are so many nuances to this story.”
Hearing their stories opens one’s eyes to how hard-earned such a privilege was – nursing soldiers with devastating wounds, soldiers who have been gassed, sometimes having to nurse enemy soldiers, and the occasional soldier whose wounds were self-inflicted in hopes of a discharge because they just couldn’t take any more.
Another challenge is better understood if one remembers the old TV show MASH, which stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
“They are not at the front lines, obviously, because you wouldn’t want a hospital right at the front. But they are quite close to the front lines and, whenever the front line moved, it’s their responsibility to move the hospital and set it up in its new place,” Fletcher said.
There are lots of funny moments too, such as the Bluebirds taking delivery of their uniforms and discovering – at first to their horror, later to their delight – that there were no corsets.
It also strikes a chord to remember that 1918 was the year of the Spanish flu epidemic. It would be the first time doctors and nurses began wearing masks on the job – to operate or otherwise interact with patients – and many who went through the COVID pandemic remember what an adjustment that can be.
Publicist Micol Marotti thanks the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa for their help with this project. It was through this connection that she ran down a local Bluebird, Lt. Florence Finnie of Bailieboro, whose uniform is one of the only original ones remaining.
Lt. Finnie was also stationed in France in 1918, part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Nursing Sister Canadian Army Medical Corps.
“She would have experienced the same kind of conditions as the women described in this play,” Marotti said.
“While in France she was also one of the first women to get the vote! There is a picture here from the Canadian War Museum of her voting.”
The photo is from the George Metcalf Archibald Collection CWM 19930013-578, showing a group of nursing sisters voting at No. 16 Canadian General Hospital at Orpington in England. Among those lined up to vote, with Lt. Finnie, are Florence Sennett of Lindsay and Oda Weldon of Oakwood.
The good lieutenant returned from the war, settled in Peterborough, and survived to the ripe old age of 102.
Not all Bluebirds were so fortunate. While the play reminds us that not all Canada’s heroes from World War I were men, it also reminds us that these valiant women were among Canada’s casualties as well. Nurses lost their lives too, Fletcher said, not just when the occasional field hospital took a hit, but from whatever toll might result from disease and harsh conditions.
And they knew that all of these risks existed when they volunteered, she added.
“They are unsung heroes of WWI, whose stories of friendship and courage are still relevant today.
“Nurses are often on the front lines in our communities and in many cases are still fighting for resources just to do their jobs.”
Fletcher is backed by a talented crew that includes producer Jeff Halligan and the three Bluebirds – Nelia Amaro as Christy, Alexandra Borner as Maggie, and Louise Calnan as Bab.
There will be three performances – at 8 p.m. Nov. 3, and at 2 and 8 p.m. Nov. 4 – and tickets are now on sale at vostheatre.com and at the Victoria Hall Concert Hall box office (55 King St. W. In Cobourg or call 1-855-372-2210).
Tickets are $32.50 plus service fees, with cabaret-style seating (six to a table), and tickets include comlimentary charcuterie and dessert during intermission.
As for the draw tickets you may wish to purchase, proceeds support the VOS bursaries and scholarship programs, including the Ruth Harcort and Garth Watson scholarships that provide financial awards to local secondary-school graduates who have made a contribution to the local arts community.
