War-time French plays
Kevin Ramzi Nasir

This past weekend the students of a French drama class staged a refreshing and contemplative piece on women in the Second World War.

Set in July and August of 1942, Du Poil Aux Pattes Commes Les CWACs depicts the war-time journey of four women who enlist in the Canadian Women Army Corps, (CWACs).

Franco-Canadian playwright Maryse Pelletier paints an initial picture of four unique women who have never been in the army, have had no exposure to army discipline, and hold no idea of what they are getting themselves into.

Professor Catherine Black, who directed the production, had always wanted to stage this play because of its artful tragi-comedic humour.

Each of the characters enlists for their own reasons. Charlotte Leclerc, played by Kesone Chanthanakone and Diana Shepard (different nights), is your typical, snobby, "little miss perfect." Her fiance, already with the army, was positioned in London, England, and she decides to join as an act of mutual faith.

Madeleine Saint Amand, played by Kathryn D’Aoust, arrives from upper-class Montreal. Her father, an influential newspaper editor, always wanted a son, and she wants to prove herself capable and her father. But she also wants to prove her father wrong in his belief that women have no place in the army.

Jenny-Lynne Emmett plays down-to-earth Antoinette Ducharme, who enlists to escape from her five brothers and rural farm maid lifestyle.

Rounding out the quartet is ditz Jeanne Berube, played by Heidi Bender and Sarah Bonneville (different nights). Even in war-time, her ultimate dream is to be a singer and enlisting as an army entertainer is the only way to get there circa WWII.

A particularly humourous moment was when she arrives at the barracks and asks if she has the correct room number, as if she were checking into a hotel.

The woman without a first name, Le Capitaine Clark is sent in to break the recruits. She forces them to face the reality of their positions, but near the end of the play we catch a glimpse of her humanity.

Thrust into the heart of the Second World War, the girls share their struggles with each other and grow together. The production speaks a lot of truth about the army and the reality of war, issues we fail to appreciate in our sheltered modern Canadian times.

What made the production especially enjoyable was how the play ended. The play did not leave the audience to their own assumptions, but instead shows where the characters are twenty-five years later, reminding us of the immense impact the war had on the life paths of all whom it touched.

The energy of the show progressed as it developed. Consequently, as the actors got into it, the audience was sucked in to the character’s lives. Some of the actors clearly identified with their characters and really put their hearts into depicting their roles, while others were still themselves on the stage.

The class made a particular effort to perform in an accurate French-Canadian dialect.

In fact, they went so far as to get a linguistic specialist to work with the class, in order to ensure a clear depiction.

Despite some stumbling over lines, the production held strong. The yearly introduction of French theatre to the Laurier scene is more than welcome as a refreshing escape.

How the play was chosen is a story unto itself. Given that it is always difficult to know class numbers ahead of time, M. Black assumed that the seven girls enrolled in the class would almost perfectly fit the five (female) character play. On the first day of class John Rapp showed up. Refusing to play a woman, he presented a monologue before the main attraction, fitted head to toe in Musketeer-ish attire, equally outrageous to dressing in drag. His monologue was an excerpt, "the nose tirade" from the play Cyrano de Bergerac, written by Edmond Rostand.

FR 460, Oral Expression Through Drama, is offered every year, taking an unconventional theatrical (as opposed to textbook) approach to promoting verbal linguistic development.