Review: Workshop West's Stars on Her Shoulders a stirring portrait of women at war

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So much of war’s trauma is seen through the eyes of men — the soldiers, medics and officers whose lives are irrevocably altered by bloody battle.

To see the war experiences of women portrayed on stage or screen is rare, and so Stephen Massicotte’s Stars on Her Shoulders feels ferociously fresh, particularly in the lead-up to Remembrance Day.

But Massicotte’s creation is more than an act of representation. The play, on until Nov. 17 at Gateway Theatre, is an invitation to truly feel what it was like for women to endure trauma on the battlefield during the First World War. The story is also set against another battle — the actual fight by Canadian nurses, who served as officers, to receive the appropriate war medals for heroism.

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But you needn’t fear a dry rehashing of women’s suffrage (all of this takes place at the same time as Canadian women were seeking the vote). There’s a queer love story, a lot of witty repartee and a striking set that puts you virtually side-by-side with characters in the tiny black box of the Gateway Theatre.

Stars on Her Shoulders is a world premiere some eight years in the making, inspired by work that the playwright (a former Calgarian now living in New York) did for Canadian Heritage Minutes back in the mid-2010s. Tasked with writing a short vignette about Canadian nurses Meta Hodge and Eleanor Thompson, both Lieutenants in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, Massicotte realized there was more to the story than could be squished into a tiny television spot. The two were honoured for rescuing the injured during a German bombing of a Canadian hospital in Doullen, France, in 1918. But they also petitioned the military higher-ups to allow nurses to receive the Military Cross for heroism that normally went to officers, instead of the proposed Military Medal that went to enlisted soldiers.

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Massicotte deliberately avoided a lot of research on the nurses in the play in order to free him up to fictionalize the story. Whether or not any of them were involved in a real-life romance matters not in this moving tribute to lost love. The story feels like the truth and packs a hefty emotional punch.

The play opens as nurses Emma (Meegan Sweet) and Helen (Hayley Moorhouse) are recovering from injuries suffered in the bomb strike, which killed many medical staff. Emma dug through flaming wreckage to unearth colleagues and has the burns to prove it. Helen’s wounds are less visible; she can’t sleep, she is irritable, anxious and gets mixed up in ways that point to something sinister. A nursing assistant named Enid (played with sensitivity and a comic touch by Gabby Bernard) is there to be cheerfully helpful. When a new nurse, Georgina (Dayna Lea Hoffman) arrives at Doullen, combative chemistry between her and Helen hints at more to come.

Both Emma and Helen are chomping to get back into the field and work with the wounded. But the tersely-in-charge head nurse Maude (Dana Wylie) won’t allow it.

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“Take the rest,” she advises the women in her care. If only rest was the answer.

Stars on Her Shoulders is a tidy period piece, traditionally constructed and grounded in intellect. Though it is pushing two hours in length — cheeky for a one-act — the play never seems slow. If you have seen Massicotte’s popular and oft-produced wartime tale, Mary’s Wedding, feel confident that this latest piece is just as worthy of your trust. Massicotte’s writing is smooth, clever and occasionally startling.

“It’s not her dying, but how she insists on staying dead,” says Helen at one point. Anyone who has lost a loved one recognizes the shocking finality, and it catches in the throat.

The choice by director Heather Inglis and set/costume designer Brian Bast to place the set at an angle within two banks of seats in the Gateway is genius. Patrons walk into the theatre as if wandering directly into the quarters of its main characters. The iron beds, oil lamps and hoop back chairs anchor the date in history, but to be in the very bedroom of the women at the heart of the story is bracingly present and personal.

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If I had a complaint, it’s that there are a couple of transitions that happen too quickly to accept. In one, Emma goes from having an argument with Maude to sharing a touching moment in what feels, head-shakingly, like mere seconds. Also, the love story between Helen and Georgina needs more steps toward intimacy.

But the show sticks with you. For one thing, it features a catchy ditty. (“Any little girl that’s a nice little girl is the right little girl for me” has been going around my head since I left the theatre.) It also contains uniquely feminine details not often seen in war stories but that are part of the female experience of battle.

Women at war still sing, giggle together and share hand cream. Then, with those same bare hands, they dig bodies from the rubble.

REVIEW

Stars on her Shoulders at Workshop West Playwright’s Theatre, by Stephen Massicotte

Where Gateway Theatre 8529 Gateway Blvd

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When Through Nov. 17, tickets pay-what-you-will throughout the run available at tickets.workshopwest.org

Director Heather Inglis

Featuring Haley Moorhouse, Meegan Sweet, Gabby Bernard, Dayana Lea Hoffman and Dana Wylie

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