Billy Bishop Goes to War 2nd Edition

By John MacLachlan Gray

Book Overview

One of Canada's most successful and enduring musical plays, Billy Bishop Goes to War was first published in 1982 and went on to win the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award and the Governor General's Award for Drama. In 2010, the celebrated story of the World War I flying ace - credited with seventy-two victories and billed as the top pilot in the British Empire - was revised to frame the original play as a retrospective. It is the same play it always was - the difference is in the telling. Billy Bishop now appears in his later years, reflecting on his wartime exploits, and on the business of war and hero making. Bishop's reminiscence is not so much about the horror and death of war as it is about being young and intensely alive. "The prime of life / The best of men," Bishop sings, "It will never be / Like this again." A memory play about war, Billy Bishop has been going into battle onstage for more than thirty years. The Canadian classic is revisited in this second edition, where war is still a terrible thing, but some men say it was the greatest time of their lives. It's about the ironies and the price of survival. The play format is deceptively simple with a solo narrator who assumes multiple roles while his piano-playing sidekick offers sardonic musical comments. Cast of 2 men.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088922689X
• ISBN13: 9780889226890
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Timeless Musical Play Provides Unique Profile of Famous Ace

John Gray's play, a musical tribute to Canada's famous WWI ace Billy Bishop, VC, first performed in the 1970s, has become a classic of the Canadian theatre. It is still being performed in many places in North America, as well as other parts of the world, by theatre groups, and John Gray and Eric Peterson recently (within the past year or so) reprised their roles in "Billy Bishop Goes To War" on stage for a new generation of Canadians. The play is not only entertaining but also reasonably historically accurate, and the music is excellent. The play is sophisticated in its treatment of the subject, hilarious in places, and rather moving. When it was first performed, quite a few World War One flyers were still around to see the play, and many of them gave it high marks. It would have been fun to know what Bishop would have thought of it, had he lived into his eighth decade. The book is recommended, but make sure to see the play if it comes to your neighbourhood. By the way, Gray has also written a musical on the life of woman flyer Amelia Earhart.