Spotlight

In Flanders Fields by Robert Gontier and Nicky Phillips runs at

Lunchbox Theatre through Nov. 13. Tickets: 403-265-4292 Ext. 0

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Musicals can be born just about anywhere. The Drowsy Chaperone was launched as a birthday party event in the backroom at the Rivoli in Toronto. Urinetown debuted at a Fringe festival. Stomp was inspired by street buskers, like the man who plays electric guitar while in-line skating on the boardwalk in Venice Beach, Calif.

But as far as anyone knows, In Flanders Fields is the first musical that had its debut on the senior (centre) circuit.

The musical, created by Robert Gontier and Nicky Phillips, tells the story of the legendary John McCrae, the author of one of the most iconic Canadian poems ever written. The play originated as a commission from Smile Theatre, a Toronto company whose mandate is to tour professional theatre to senior citizens, so that residents who are unable to make it out to a theatre have the opportunity to see some of it.

For Gontier, the experience of creating a war story for people who had first-hand experience with one of the world wars, was profound.

“It’s fantastic to write a story about something that Nicky and I weren’t alive for, and seeing how it touched these seniors who had loved ones in at least the Second World War,” he says. “It was really touching, in a way that affected us as writers to really want to continue to explore the project.”

While there have been several dramas that explored McCrae’s life produced over the years, it’s thought that In Flanders Field is the first musical to explore the topic.

The show is set during the First World War, in 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres, where McCrae was a doctor and witnessed the events that inspired him to write In Flanders Fields. It also flashes back to his years growing up, where he struggled between pursuing a career as a writer or as a physician.

Lunchbox’s artistic director Pamela Halstead was immediately interested in the script — it clocked in under an hour — but the Toronto production featured only two male actors, which seemed a little self-defeating, since there were a number of women who played prominent roles in McCrae’s life.

“The songs were gorgeous and the writing was good,” Halstead says. “But there were only two actors in it and . . . there are all these women at these pivotal moments in the journey that affected him, and yet we never meet them.”

Halstead wanted to do the show a different way: with a female part, which would involve adding scenes, dialogue and even songs.

Luckily for Lunchbox, Gontier and Phillips leaped at the opportunity to do revisions. It turns out adding a female character was right at the top of their list of things to do, too.

“We were so thankful,” Phillips says. “When Pam was interested and brought forward the idea of adding a female (part), we were very excited, because we knew we eventually (wanted) to expand it to have the women in the show, so it’s been amazing.”

For Gontier, whose next collaboration with Phillips is a musical for young audiences inspired by a true story of two Central Park penguins who tried to incubate a rock, having the chance to write about an authentic Canadian hero like John McCrae was perhaps the biggest pleasure involved in the creation of In Flanders Fields.

“It was an honour to look into his life in a detailed manner,” Gontier says, “and really uncover some highlights. He really is a Canadian hero in many ways, not only because (of) his poetry, but (also) he was a major doctor.

“He really had some major sort of obstacles to overcome in his life,” he adds. “Not only was he a poet, but he was a fantastic man.”

shunt@calgaryherald.com

Review

Lunchbox Theatre presents In Flanders Fields through Nov. 13.

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On the face of it, a new musical about the author of the most famous First World War poems sounds about as much fun as, well . . . never mind.

Truth is, Lunchbox Theatre’s In Flanders Fields turns out to be one of the best musicals the company has ever produced, with expressive music (Nicky Phillips), concisely descriptive lyrics (Phillips and Robert Gontier) and tight direction (Gail Hanrahan).

Topping it off is wonderfully realized multiple performances by the show’s three actors — Kevin Rothery as army surgeon-poet, John McCrae; Tory Doctor as Mc-Crae’s father/brother Tom/friend and trench companion, Alexis; and Julain Molnar as McCrae’s mother/true love, Alice/poetry club student Jenny.

The story takes us back and forth between the front lines of Ian Martens’ impressive sandbag set and McCrae’s formative years as a budding poet in his native Guelph (flashbacks that make good use of the trench walkway portion of the set).

The show hits the boards running with both Rothery and Doctor offering the sunny side-up variation on the theme of young men going off to war ( “Kiss your mom goodbye, boys/No more pumpkin pie, boys/You’re leaving home”).

Then reality sets in, with Mc-Crae wanting to go beyond merely saving lives ( “I’d rather die fighting/ Than see the casualties die”) in an effort to gainsay an acquired lifelong sense of failure (a real life leitmotif for Mc-Crae, apparently) — and Alexis wanting him to remain where he does the most good.

After that we’re back home with mom at a time when the young McCrae pens a poetic tribute to his recently deceased dog, which nicely segues into rhapsodizing about a future life in literature ( “The world is my blank page/Waiting for the poems I create”).

Along the way we learn of young poet McCrae’s fundamental problems with his overbearing, disapproving and favouritist father (Dad likes older son Tom better), whose musical adjuration, “Be a man, son/ Be a man,” gets cleverly reprised throughout the show in changing contexts ( “He never understands the way he makes me feel,” McCrae later sings of him).

Under Hanrahan’s direction the show never lets up, yet never feels rushed in covering considerable back-and-forth tracts of McCrae territory that, even from the midway point, stretches all the way from first asking Alice to dance ( “Finding the words”), and McCrae-initiated poetry club readings (where Alexis first meets his Jenny), to the final moments ( “Time is running out”) that inspired the beloved poem we all learned by heart in grade school.

The piano accompaniment by Brent Rock gives the trio of well-voiced actors all the musical coloration they could wish to complete their portraits, which are all surely and swiftly drawn in credible detail — without sentimentality, and to the point.

As played by Rothery, Doctor, and especially Molnar, the characters of In Flanders Fields make for a compelling (true) story of a poetic man whose heart beat strongest at the memory of those he loved and lost.

bclark@calgaryherald.com