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Billy Bishop Goes To War (revised edition)
Billy Bishop Goes To War (revised edition)
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Author: John Gray with Eric Peterson Publisher: Talonbooks Format: Softcover # of Pages: 128 Pub. Date: 2012 ISBN-10: 88922689X ISBN-13: 9780889226890 Cast Size: 2 men
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About
the Play:
NOTE: this is the revised edition of the 1982 Governor General's
Award-winner for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)
Billy Bishop Goes to War is a full-length drama written by
John Gray in collaboration with Corner Gas star Eric
Peterson. A hapless military school student becomes a hero of
World War I in this two-man play with music. This Canadian classic
was inspired by the life of Canada's World War One flying ace Billy
Bishop – credited with seventy-two victories and billed as the top
pilot in the British Empire. In this revised second edition war is
still a terrible thing, but some men say it was the greatest time of
their lives. The play format is deceptively simple with a solo
narrator who assumes multiple roles while his piano-playing sidekick
offers sardonic musical comments.
Billy Bishop Goes to War is the same play it always was –
the difference is in the telling. Billy Bishop now appears in his
later years, reflecting on his wartime exploits, and on the business
of war and hero making. By his own admission, William Avery Bishop
was the Royal Military College's "worst student ever." But
before he can be expelled, he enlists for service in the First World
War. Before his wartime days are over, this colourful young scrapper
from Owen Sound, Ontario, will become a hero and a lightning rod of
new confidence for a young Canada. Bishop's reminiscence is not so
much about the horror and death of war as it is about being young and
intensely alive. It's about the ironies and the price of survival.
Billy
Bishop Goes to War premiered in 1978 at the
Vancouver East Cultural Centre (affectionately called "The
Cultch") and has become one of the most popular and
widely-produced plays in Canadian theatre. The recipient of many
honours including a Governor General's Award, Chalmers Award and Los
Angeles Drama Critics Award, it has been staged on and off Broadway,
in addition to runs at the Edinburgh Festival and in London's West
End, among other locations.
Cast: 2 men
What people say:
"Thirty years on, Billy Bishop
still soars." — Globe and Mail
"[The play has] reasserted its
right to be called one of the great works in the Canadian theatre
canon." — Toronto Star
"It's very interesting, it's
less about war and more about life now." — The Tyee
About the Playwright:
John Gray is a Canadian writer-composer-performer for the
stage, film, television, radio, and print. He is the recipient of
many awards, including the Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for
playwriting, a Silver Hugo, and a gold at the New York Film and
Television Festival. His musical play Billy Bishop Goes to War
appeared on Broadway and subsequently became one of the most produced
shows in North America. |
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