Meadows of Stone pays tribute to loss, courage, and camaraderie of First World War, to November 7
Playing at the Firehall Arts Centre and Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, new musical draws on research into volunteer nurses
Meadows of Stone
The Firehall Arts Centre presents Meadows of Stone from November 3 to 6; the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts presents Meadows of Stone on November 7
HOW OFTEN DOES a new Canadian musical come along?
In the case of Meadows of Stone, the timing couldn’t be better: in honour of Remembrance Day, the moving new work by local stage performer Amy Lee Newman, with music and lyrics by Jim Hodgkinson, pays tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in World War I—and the family members who loved them.
Inspired by true events, Meadows of Stone focuses on an older Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse who has come to France to search for her brother. He’s missing in action at the front. Along the way, she meets a bandmaster who promises to help. Together, they bond over an old piano in the back of a canteen, sharing their grief over a futile war but also finding a form of hope and connection through music.
The tiny cast features Newman, Brendan Bailey, and Hodgkinson, with Larisse Campbell directing.
The piece draws on deep research into the families who went looking for their fallen sons and brothers, and into the unpaid work of the VADs, who had little preparation for the horrors that awaited them in First World War hospitals, including the real No. 2 General Hospital in Le Havre, a setting in Meadows of Stone. 
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