New play gets Remembrance Day reading by Saskatoon theatre company
Matt Olson
Delft Blue is based on playwright Andrew Kooman's family's experiences during the Second World War.
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In a year when Remembrance Day ceremonies are waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic, a Saskatoon theatre company is using a new show to commemorate the day.

Burnt Thicket Theatre connected digitally for a reading of the play Delft Blue by Albertan playwright Andrew Kooman. It focuses on a family from Holland dealing with the Nazi occupation of the country in 1940, and strongly features Canada’s role in the war.

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A video of the reading is set to go online on Wednesday and remain available until the end of the month. Artistic director Stephen Waldschmidt said they wanted to find a place for this production in their season, and using it to reflect on Remembrance Day seemed like the perfect opportunity.

“As we looked at where would this story fit in a season, sometime around Remembrance Day made the most sense,” Waldschmidt said. “It’s a story about remembering, and tells of the sacrifice and courage of those who stood up to the Nazis.”

Instead of a live-streamed reading, Burnt Thicket Theatre went for something a little different in an effort to keep the connection between actors more authentic. All seven of the performers involved in the reading were together in the same space, socially distanced per COVID-19 protocols, with their own microphones and cameras.

Waldschmidt said that way they would be able to play off each other in scenes more, and they’d be able to avoid any audio or video lag caused by video chats and streaming.

“It’s going to feel like an online reading, but we wanted to do it in a way where the actors could be present together,” he said. “We’re hoping that it will feel as immediate and present as if (the audience) was in the room.”

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Delft Blue is based on Kooman’s family’s experiences during the Second World War. As Waldschmidt puts it, Kooman’s grandfather was a police officer in Holland when the Nazi occupation occurred. He was forced to work for the new regime, eventually working with the underground against the Nazis before fleeing with his family.

This is not Kooman’s first collaboration with Burnt Thicket Theatre; the company has also produced and toured Kooman’s plays We Are the Body and She Has a Name.

Burnt Thicket Theatre’s reading of Delft Blue goes online on Nov. 11 and will be available until Nov. 30 for free. It can be found through the company’s website.

maolson@postmedia.com

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