reviewvancouver: Metro Theatre-Billy Bishop Goes to War, John Jane

Metro Theatre
Billy Bishop Goes to War by John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with Eric Peterson

Where & When Thurs to Sat November 9 - 30, 2024 evenings 8pm + Sun matinees at 2pm | Metro Theatre, 1370 Marine Dr SW, Vancouver

Director Gerry Mackay Music Director Gordon Roberts Lighting Design Stephen Bulat Stage Managers Ella Bulat & Veda Maharaj
Performer Damon Calderwood Piano & vocals Chris Robson

Reviewer John Anthony Jane

Billy Bishop Goes to War is a first person account of the life and times of real life flying ace William Avery Bishop. It was written by composer John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with actor Eric Peterson as seen from Bishop’s own perspective. Its first public performance was at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre – nowadays, popularly known as The Cultch. Peterson himself took on the role of Billy Bishop in addition to seventeen other roles of people who had a direct influence on Bishop’s life and career (Eric Peterson is probably best known for his ‘against type’ role as Oscar Leroy in Corner Gas). Gray accompanied at the piano in the same production.

This Metro Theatre production is actually the 1998 revision to the play that features Damon Calderwood as an older Billy Bishop reflecting back on his life. Piano accompaniment and supplementary vocals are ably provided by Chris Robson.
Damon Calderwood delivers a tour de force performance as Bishop through half dozen stages of his life starting with his time as a very average student at Strathcona Senior Public School. The actor may be at his comedic best when describing his subject’s training at the Royal Military College.

In the second act, Calderwood takes the audience through his early career as a junior officer in the cavalry before joining the Royal Flying Corps. Bishop may have been below average academically and hardly regarded as a particularly stalwart soldier, but as Calderwood vicariously illustrates, he had three qualities that would serve him well as a fighter pilot: he was an excellent marksman, he was interest in all types of aircraft and he appeared to have a total disregard for his own safety.

Over the course of a two and a half hour show, Calderwood brings charisma and a degree of pathos to the myriad of characters that even includes Bishop’s benefactor Lady St Helier. Calderwood manages to exercise his dramatic range effectively, but his vocal range suffers somewhat from the occasional distraction of Robson’s piano. When he lowers his voice to close to a whisper he becomes inaudible. This may be an issue with the theatre’s sound system.

The set is pretty minimal. A small kitchen table and a couple of chairs and a grand piano draped in the Canadian Red Ensign (Canada’s national flag prior to the Maple Leaf). The uniforms worn by the two performers are appropriate for time and place.
While the show has many highlights, it isn’t without its low points. At times, Billy Bishop Goes to War appears to glamorise war. Certainly, the audience can share the adrenaline rush of Bishop’s sorties in European skies, but these are juxtaposed with the futility of war and its heavy toll on human suffering.

The play ends with Calderwood exiting the stage, leaving the performance in the hands of Chris Robson. When the lead actor returns, he delivers a final soliloquy in an air marshal’s uniform.