Surrounded by the rest of the cast of “Where Once They Stood,” the two women were playing the role of mothers of soldiers in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, marching from Pleasantville to the harbourfront in the spring of 1916 to board the Florizel and head off to war. It was a scene taken from the history books: the mothers waved and called out to their sons while the crowds behind them sang the British patriotic tune “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” a song the soldiers themselves would later sing while marching through French fields in the days before the Battle of the Somme.
“I don’t know about this,” Neville’s character says. “I’m really scared.”
“No — they’ll be back,” Williams’ character replies.
“But what if —”
“No, don’t say that, Darling. No, because we have to be strong. Half of them are frightened to death. We have to be their support. The face that they see from us now will have to hold them through all those lonely nights, so you push through the tears, Darling. You push through and you smile and you wave. We’ll see you real soon, darlings! Real soon!”
Most of the men who left that day never returned. The regiment was all but decimated at Beaumont Hamel on July 1 of that year. Of the 801 men who had charged the German lines, only 68 made roll call the next day, the rest having been killed or wounded.
The CLB has partnered with Spirit of Newfoundland, the province and the City of St. John’s to create “Where Once They Stood” in honour of the 100th anniversary of Beaumont Hamel and Newfoundland and Labrador’s involvement in World War One, and gave a preview to members of the media Tuesday afternoon.
The show begins at a meeting of the Newfoundland Patriotic Society at the CLB Armory, who arches the first 500 soldiers who volunteered for duty during the war marched (the arches are currently all that remains of the original building, which was destroyed by fire in 1992). One hundred of those men were members of the CLB, and the armory became the recruitment centre and regimental headquarters during the war.
The production follows the soldiers right up until the Battle of the Somme, which is depicted through narration and archival photos, rather than recreated.
“It was a daunting thought at the beginning,” Spirit of Newfoundland’s Peter Halley said of creating the show. He wrote the script along with Keith Power and John Williams over a year and a half, working with historian David Mercer and communications director Helen Escott of the CLB. “We learned so much through rewriting the story. When we brought the script to the cast, they were like, ‘Here we go, another process. But when we started reading it was really emotional for everybody. I was delighted to see that, because I had been having that same response through the writing experience. In the scene where the soldiers march to the Florizel, we haven’t been able to get through it without crying. As singers, we can feel that in our throats and we’re fighting to keep our throats open.”
Lighter moments
The show is not without its lighter moments; much needed in a production with such a serious and heavy topic. Williams and Neville switch to seamstresses sewing soldiers’ shirts in another scene, performing a dizzying tongue-twister of a tune with laughter and incredible ease. Another scene shows the regiment’s arrival in England, where the men were mistaken for Canadians. “That actually happened,” Halley said. “Our take on it is probably entirely different from how it happened, but the facts are all there. They start to play ‘The Maple Leaf Forever’ and the boys say, ‘We’re British colonists, we’re not Canadians.’”
“Poppycock,” says an English girl on the pier.
“Do you understand their language?” asks her companion.
“Oh, the language of the colonies is so charming,” the first one replies.
Lt.-Col Gail Dick, regimental commander of the CLB, sat in the audience Tuesday morning as Spirit of Newfoundland performed a few scenes from “Where Once They Stood,” taking them in for the first time. For her, a mother with a son in the Armed Forces, it was a particularly poignant experience.
“I’ve kind of gone through that,” Dick said of the going-away scene. “Just knowing that those boys were so young and they thought they were going over there to fight and would be coming back in no time, how brave they were. (The scene) was very emotional. It probably exceeded my expectations. That was fabulous.”
“Where Once They Stood” will premiere at the CLB Armory March 16 and 17 as a dinner theatre. Seats or tables can be booked by calling the armory at 722-1737. After that, it will run at the Masonic Temple, Spirit of Newfoundland’s usual venue, during the summer. The proceeds from the show will go back to the CLB to be used for cadet programs.
The production stars Halley, Neville, Power, Sheila Williams, John Williams, and Claire Rouleau, with live musicians and appearances by CLB members, wearing original regimental uniforms.
tbradbury@thetelegram.com
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
Surrounded by the rest of the cast of “Where Once They Stood,” the two women were playing the role of mothers of soldiers in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, marching from Pleasantville to the harbourfront in the spring of 1916 to board the Florizel and head off to war. It was a scene taken from the history books: the mothers waved and called out to their sons while the crowds behind them sang the British patriotic tune “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” a song the soldiers themselves would later sing while marching through French fields in the days before the Battle of the Somme.
“I don’t know about this,” Neville’s character says. “I’m really scared.”
“No — they’ll be back,” Williams’ character replies.
“But what if —”
“No, don’t say that, Darling. No, because we have to be strong. Half of them are frightened to death. We have to be their support. The face that they see from us now will have to hold them through all those lonely nights, so you push through the tears, Darling. You push through and you smile and you wave. We’ll see you real soon, darlings! Real soon!”
Most of the men who left that day never returned. The regiment was all but decimated at Beaumont Hamel on July 1 of that year. Of the 801 men who had charged the German lines, only 68 made roll call the next day, the rest having been killed or wounded.
The CLB has partnered with Spirit of Newfoundland, the province and the City of St. John’s to create “Where Once They Stood” in honour of the 100th anniversary of Beaumont Hamel and Newfoundland and Labrador’s involvement in World War One, and gave a preview to members of the media Tuesday afternoon.
The show begins at a meeting of the Newfoundland Patriotic Society at the CLB Armory, who arches the first 500 soldiers who volunteered for duty during the war marched (the arches are currently all that remains of the original building, which was destroyed by fire in 1992). One hundred of those men were members of the CLB, and the armory became the recruitment centre and regimental headquarters during the war.
The production follows the soldiers right up until the Battle of the Somme, which is depicted through narration and archival photos, rather than recreated.
“It was a daunting thought at the beginning,” Spirit of Newfoundland’s Peter Halley said of creating the show. He wrote the script along with Keith Power and John Williams over a year and a half, working with historian David Mercer and communications director Helen Escott of the CLB. “We learned so much through rewriting the story. When we brought the script to the cast, they were like, ‘Here we go, another process. But when we started reading it was really emotional for everybody. I was delighted to see that, because I had been having that same response through the writing experience. In the scene where the soldiers march to the Florizel, we haven’t been able to get through it without crying. As singers, we can feel that in our throats and we’re fighting to keep our throats open.”
Lighter moments
The show is not without its lighter moments; much needed in a production with such a serious and heavy topic. Williams and Neville switch to seamstresses sewing soldiers’ shirts in another scene, performing a dizzying tongue-twister of a tune with laughter and incredible ease. Another scene shows the regiment’s arrival in England, where the men were mistaken for Canadians. “That actually happened,” Halley said. “Our take on it is probably entirely different from how it happened, but the facts are all there. They start to play ‘The Maple Leaf Forever’ and the boys say, ‘We’re British colonists, we’re not Canadians.’”
“Poppycock,” says an English girl on the pier.
“Do you understand their language?” asks her companion.
“Oh, the language of the colonies is so charming,” the first one replies.
Lt.-Col Gail Dick, regimental commander of the CLB, sat in the audience Tuesday morning as Spirit of Newfoundland performed a few scenes from “Where Once They Stood,” taking them in for the first time. For her, a mother with a son in the Armed Forces, it was a particularly poignant experience.
“I’ve kind of gone through that,” Dick said of the going-away scene. “Just knowing that those boys were so young and they thought they were going over there to fight and would be coming back in no time, how brave they were. (The scene) was very emotional. It probably exceeded my expectations. That was fabulous.”
“Where Once They Stood” will premiere at the CLB Armory March 16 and 17 as a dinner theatre. Seats or tables can be booked by calling the armory at 722-1737. After that, it will run at the Masonic Temple, Spirit of Newfoundland’s usual venue, during the summer. The proceeds from the show will go back to the CLB to be used for cadet programs.
The production stars Halley, Neville, Power, Sheila Williams, John Williams, and Claire Rouleau, with live musicians and appearances by CLB members, wearing original regimental uniforms.
tbradbury@thetelegram.com
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
