DRAMA IS COMING HOME
A Soldier’s War at Fringe fest
When Joshua Ramsden’s poignant drama, A Soldier’s War, premiered at Regina’s Globe Theatre in 2016, it played to rave reviews and standing ovations.
With its six-day run at the Calgary Fringe Festival, Aug. 4-11, A Soldier’s War will be coming home.
Ten years ago, when he learned his grandfather, John Ramsden, was frail, Ramsden came to Calgary for the man’s final six months.
Ramsden says, like so many veterans of any conflict, his grandfather rarely spoke about the experience, but he did open up in those final months and, more importantly, he left Ramsden a stack of his wartime letters.
Ramsden, a professional actor living and working in Saskatchewan, mulled them over, knowing there was a play somewhere in the letters.
Back in 2014, he approached Globe artistic director Ruth Smillie with the idea of turning his grandfather’s letters into a play for the theatre’s second stage season.
Smillie gave him the go-ahead to begin working on a script, which received its premiere in January 2016, written, directed and starring the young Ramsden.
“At times, it felt like I was wearing too many hats, but the story was a giant moving puzzle and it needed me in there arranging the pieces. “I liked being the director best because I was able to have a handle on the story.”
The play is currently on a mini tour of Canada.
“The inspiration for the play were my grandfather’s letters, and 60 per cent of the dialogue in the play comes from them, but I created a fictional piece based on his life,” says Ramsden.
The 70-minute play follows five men from their basic training in Nova Scotia to D-Day and their return to Canada.
“When I read my grandfather’s letters, I could hear five distinct voices and they became my characters, who I turned into archetypes.
“There is the innocent, the everyman, the rough-aroundthe-edges guy and the lover, who I play.
“There were passages in my grandfather’s letters where he talked about longings; the most pressing was the longing for the war to be over and for him to be home.
“I wondered what it would be like for a soldier to be longing for a loved one, and that’s who my character became.”
Ramsden admits the opening night performance in Regina was nerve-racking because his father and aunt were in the audience.
“It was a work of fiction but it was culled from their father’s experience.
“They told me their reaction was somewhere between pride and awe and they said it gave them a better understanding of who their dad was.”
Family members of veterans who have seen the show have said the same thing to Ramsden.
It gives them a better understanding of their loved ones because so few of them would talk about their wartime experiences.
“No matter what war or conflict people fought in, the stories and emotions are essentially about the survival instinct, the connections that are forged during battle and the desire to be back home.”
Most of Ramsden’s extended family live in Calgary, so he’s going to be a little on edge at the 3 p.m. performance on Aug. 6.
That’s when family members, including his 95-year-old grandmother, will be seeing the play for the first time.
“My grandparents had three children, and this will be the first time my uncle has seen the show.”
Ramsden, who has played central characters in such plays as Romeo and Juliet, Mary’s Wedding and Salt Water Moon, says there is a special exhilaration in speaking his own words.
A Soldier’s War runs in the Alexander Centre at various times on Aug. 4,5, 6, 8, 10 and 11.
Check out calgaryfringe.ca for more information on all 35 of the shows running at this year’s fringe festival, including venues, days and times.