Premiered October 2014 at Theatre Calgary, in co-production with Western Canada Theatre (where it ran in January, 2015). Directed by Daryl Cloran. Theatre Calgary Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum.
Subsequent productions at Two Planks and a Passion Theatre (Canning NS, July 2016) and the Capitol Theatre (Nelson BC, March 2016).
Two acts, approximately 110 minutes. 3F, 4M with one character doubled.
It's May 1945, liberated Holland. The war is over, but because of a shortage of troop ships the Canadian Army remains in the Netherlands. Emma, an independent Dutch woman, meets Alex, a young Canadian private from rural Alberta. Emma has lived through five harrowing years of German occupation that ended in the 'hunger winter' of 1944-45, and wonders how she can put her life back together after everything she's experienced and everything she's lost. Emma sees in Alex the chance for a new life, to leave the expectations of her mother, the village and the church, to leave the horrors of the war. But she has to make a choice--to make peace with what's happened in the past, or to flee to a future in Canada.
Photos by Trudee Lee. Featuring Byron Allen, Lindsey Angell, Valerie Planche, Kelsey Gilker, Garett Ross, Jonathan Seinen and Duvall Lang.
Costume design by Cory Sincennes, lighting by Gerald King, video by Jamie Nesbitt.