Vimy Ridge, the 1917 battle considered by many the crucible that made Canada a nation, is the subject of a drama opening Saturday on Edmonton's Citadel stage.

It's the first time this defining First World War battle, which claimed the lives of 3,598 Canadians, has been the subject of a play, said director James MacDonald. 

Playwright Vern Thiessen, whose new play, Vimy, has its official opening Oct. 25 at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre.
(The Citadel Theatre)

"We don't, as Canadians, necessarily mark our own stories. We don't understand, always, where we came from," he said.

"We cannot band together as a country, we can't be recognized as a strong country from within, we won't feel we are a unified country, if we don't understand the stories that are in our past," MacDonald said.

Vimy, opening for previews Saturday with official opening night set for Oct. 25, has been written by Citadel Theatre's playwright in residence, Vern Thiessen.

Thiessen, who won a Governor General's Award for Einstein's Gift, based his script on the diaries and journals of those who were actually there.

"It's been documented to death and there's been some fiction written on it, but nobody had written a play about it," he said.

Thiessen said he tried to create a picture of what Canadians were like at that time, with characters from different cultures coming together and reflecting on their own past in Canada, as well as their experiences in battle. 
 
"I'm curious how memory operates in our lives. Does it heal us? Does it give us nightmares? And as a nation, why do we have to mythologize things in order to remember them?" Thiessen said.
  
The play is set after the main action of the battle, in a field hospital where a Nova Scotian nurse is tending to four wounded soldiers — a Québécois butcher (Vincent Hoss-Desmarais), a First Nations scout (Sheldon Elter) from Alberta, a Winnipeg labourer (Mat Busby) and a canoe-maker (Phil Fulton) from Ontario.

"There were 100,000 people involved in that battle, 100,000 Canadians. That's bigger than the population of Vancouver at the time," said Thiessen, emphasizing the significance of this battle.

So the production explores both the national memory and personal histories of the time, he said.

Thiessen said he was not thinking about Canada's role in Afghanistan when he wrote, though some may draw parallels.

"It's not even about war, as far as I'm concerned. It's not a play that discusses whether war is good or bad," he said.

The play runs to Nov. 11 at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

 

With files from the Canadian Press