VOICE CHOICE (Reviewer's pick) for master class acting performances grounded in believability and guided by sensitive direction."

Finely produced by Port Perry's Theatre on the Ridge (TOTR), its tent on the Scugog Museum Grounds inventively serves as the gathering place for Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen's heart-rending 'Bluebirds.'

The year is 1918, Étaples, France.  Christy (Alea Carrington), Bab (Justine Christensen) and Maggie (Shannon Pitre) are new nurses. They come from different parts of Canada: the West Coast, Winnipeg and Brantford. The girls have crossed the ocean to tend wounded Canadian soldiers in World War I and send them back to the battlefront. Maggie is the oldest of the trio and teaches Bab and Christy their duties and responsibilities as war nurses.  Training at school did not prepare the ladies for the realities of being on the front line. Throughout this constant fear of the war, the three ladies do their best to stay as positive as they can. As they become accustomed to each other and their responsibilities on the front, the camaraderie grows between the ladies. They reveal a great deal of their personal lives to one another and through letters written to loved ones at home.

Thiessen's script remains dialogue and monologue-driven for a reason. He wants the audience and actors to listen carefully. Iain Moggach is a perceptive director. He inherently recognizes the focus Thiessen places on listening as a connection in the script. Guided by Moggach's compassion, these three ladies give master class acting performances that made me smile one minute and on the verge of tears only a few moments later.

The theatre in the round setting allows for optimum sightline views anywhere you sit underneath the tent. The setting evening sun serves as appropriate lighting, especially for those moments on the battlefield off in the distance. Shania Scott's final lighting design at the end of the production heightens the emotional intensity. Minimal prop items – trunks at the four corners of the stage and a few items inside – generate a 'maximal' feeling of the emotional impact that will stay with the audience as it did with Moggach.

There is a moment of brief audience participation that works exceptionally well. At one point, three audience members handed each performer her nurse's uniform. Very clever to see this reaching out from the stage to connect the contemporary audience, even momentarily.

Brenda Thompson's costumes nicely convey why these three nurses are called bluebirds. I found it quite touching as the three of them don their uniforms in front of the audience.  The ladies dress with dignity and propriety. There's a respectfulness for the calling of what it means to be a nurse during the war.

Alea Carrington, Justine Christensen and Shannon Pitre tellingly embody what it means to work as a tight ensemble. They are the three reasons to see the production. They move with determined purpose, valid reason and remain still when necessary. They listen with keen interest and intensity to each other. That's one of the key elements of fine performances – listening to others and responding in kind.

Maggie appears to be the most experienced of the three nurses. At one point, the other two refer to her crusty edge, and Shannon Pitre stoically delivers this curt quality in her performance, most notably when the nurses must make quick decisions in the makeshift hospital on the battlefront. Yet, the audience sees an emotionally fragile Maggie when we learn about the character's concern for her friend back home, with whom she lived before the war began.  There is a strong emotional connection to this friend, and Pitre clearly shows her worry through her voice modulation and physical stance. It's never overacting or emoting, thank goodness, but one that the audience cannot help but feel empathy for.

Alea Carrington's Christy is described as sweet by the others. Christy continually writes to her soldier husband; however, there's some relationship conflict. Christy senses there's an understanding of the life she wants versus the life she's leading with her husband, and she's torn. Carrington succinctly reveals this conflict several times. Justine Christensen's Bab is tough as nails. Underneath that determined edge, Bab longs for what she can't have: her beloved grandfather, a married soldier and a child. Christensen's monologues of the letters she writes to her beloved grandfather are heartbreakingly genuine.

Once again, Moggach describes how 'Bluebirds' is more than just a war story. It's a reckoning with Time, with Loss, with Legacy, with Hope.

Reading this sentence repeatedly hits me hard.  The world struggles right now in its reckoning of conflict, trade wars, and the economic fallout many of us will experience. Where can we find the Legacy in helping us to deal with this global strife? It is with Hope that we pray for a conclusion to the universal unrest. Yet it's frightening to think that as Time goes forward, the Losses many will experience will only increase.

Ah, what good theatre can do for its audiences.

It gets us to think, to ponder, to consider, and to give a standing ovation when a live performance merits it.

I'm proud to say I led the standing ovation on this opening night.

Please see this production.

Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no interval/intermission.

'Bluebirds' runs July 11, 16, 18-19, 23-25 at 7 pm.  July 12, 17, 20, 26 at 2 pm.  July 13, 27 at 4 pm. 

All performances take place at the Scugog Shores Museum, 16210 Island Road, Port Perry. For tickets: theatreontheridge.ca, email the Box Office: boxoffice@theatreontheridge.ca or call (905) 242-9343.

THEATRE ON THE RIDGE presents
'Bluebirds' by Vern Thiessen

Directed by Iain Moggach
Stage Manager: Shania Scott
Production and Set Design: Iain Moggach and the company
Sound Design: Lyle Corrigan
Lighting Design: Shania Scott
Costume Coordination: Brenda Thompson
Technical Operator: Shania Scott
Props and Scenic Decoration: Ari Leroux and Carey Nicholson

Performers: Alea Carrington, Justine Christensen, Shannon Pitre