Waiting for the Parade at Cambridge Arts Theatre: A story of five women on the home front

John Murrell’s Waiting for the Parade is being held at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Feb. 16. The play is set in Calgary’s home front during World War II, exploring the lives of five different women. 

When Canadian playwright Murrell was commissioned to write a Canadian history play, he interviewed various people who lived through the war. Among the stories, he liked best the ones of women, waiting through the war. Published in 1980, the play remains a glimpse into a time of tension, despair, and hope.

Director of the play Rachel Kuipery has been involved in community theatre in the Waterloo region over the past few years. With a minor in theatre studies from Western University, this show marks her first time directing since 2018. Kuipery first read Waiting for the Parade in school, then later revisited the play and found herself drawn to the strength of the monologues. “There’s a lot of really great pieces where you get to meet each of these characters on a really intimate level,” she said. Kuipery felt that the story of World War II resonated closer after the pandemic. “We can really understand a lot of these things [about World War II] on a different level than we might have been able to before. Living through a pandemic and some of the emergency measures that were taking place during that time… [even] some of the language is similar — one of the characters refers to her husband as being part of an essential service and that’s, you know, something that feels very familiar to us, but in a different context.” Decidedly, she went through a process of submission with the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and began auditions. The cast began rehearsing at the end of November 2024. 

Jackie Mahoney has been doing theatre since she was 15 years old. She is an alum from UW’s theatre program, playing one of the five women, Eve. Now a public historian and library assistant, Mahoney has been able to use her research background to influence her performance. She recalls another historical play she did during her time at UW: “When I was at UW, I did a show called Unity (1918). It was kind of my foray into doing historical performance. And it’s funny, the character that I’m playing in this show [Eve] is basically the same character that I played in Unity, just in the Second World War instead of the First World War.” 

Confidence was one of Mahoney’s greatest takeaways from UW. “UW instilled a confidence in me and a confidence in myself, knowing that I’m good at acting and I can do things,” she said. She also recognized “the importance of being able to do a little bit of everything.” She found that a varied background was important for this project where help was sometimes needed in other unexpected areas, like costumes. 

When asked about what drew Mahoney to Waiting for the Parade, she said: “Honestly, the first thing that drew me to it is that she [Eve] sings a song in the show that my late father-in-law sang a lot. It was one of his favourites. He had dementia towards the end of his life, so he had a hard time remembering a lot of things, but that song was one of the one things he did remember. It’s called ‘Wish Me Luck’.”

As I watched the dress rehearsal, the incorporation of music and dance was an endearing addition. “Sometimes [the characters are] singing alone and sometimes they’re singing with each other. [It finds] the ways that music is a connecting force for them, but also how it shows their individual differences and how they use it to relate to each other,” Kuipery said. 

Each character brought their own emotionality and perspective to what waiting on home front could look like. Kim Godfrey, who plays Catherine, described the emotional aspect to be most difficult to portray: “Because of the nature of the show where her [Catherine’s] husband’s at war and she is uncertain of her husband’s fate… portraying that vulnerability is a challenge every night — every rehearsal that we do — but I’m very excited to try to portray that as best as I can. It is the most challenging, but I think it’s also the most rewarding.”

Personally, I loved how the play didn’t force a dramatization. The lives of the five women felt real and honest. Each had their struggles and flaws that meshed to create a dynamic between each character. Whether it was despair, anger, anxiety, or offbeat humour, the show depicted an aspect of war that is often overlooked in history. 

“I think that this play has a number of different potential audiences that would be interested in seeing it. People that are very interested in history and in World War II certainly can take a lot from it. But also, people that are drawn to really character-driven stories and stories that feature women very prominently. I think oftentimes when we talk about the war, we talk about soldiers, [but] there are so many other perspectives that aren’t considered, so if you have an interest in seeing women’s perspectives represented on stage, I think this show does a really good job of that,” Kuipery said. 

Godfrey’s hope is that the audience can better understand the other side of the war after seeing the show. “It’s not something that I think is very commonly spoken about. This is a very unique show, I don’t think we get a full understanding of what it was like when you weren’t at war and when you were just waiting. It’s a very different perspective to have, and I hope the audience really resonates with that.”

Mahoney shared the same sentiment: “I hope they take away a better understanding of the things that often get forgotten about. When we talk about history and specifically of war, women’s stories and people who aren’t in the traditional historical narrative are often swept to the side. I hope audiences take away a better understanding of broadening their historical lens and really incorporating diverse histories into what they know about the past.”

Show details:

Cambridge Arts Theatre at 47 Water St. S., Cambridge, ON 

$20 for students at https://galtlittletheatre.thundertix.com/events/231249 

Starring: 

Rachel Kuipery as Janet 

Victoria Curran as Margaret

Kim Godfrey as Catherine

Jackie Mahoney as Eve

Sara Morrison as Marta