Duncan McGregor's 'The Streamliners' sells out run at Goderich's The Livery

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

If you’re hoping to catch one of the final performances of The Streamliners at The Livery Theatre in Goderich this weekend, you better have your tickets already, because every show is already sold out! It’s not hard to see why - Andy Sparling and James White have written a play that’s sure to please theatre fans and history buffs alike. 

 

The subject matter is compelling enough stuff on its own - The RCAF Streamliners Band started out in St. Thomas as a few musically-inclined young soldiers and went on to tour all over Europe, which would have been a truly glamorous experience, if not for the deadly throes of World War II that raged all around them. The Streamliners, some of whom hailed from Huron County, became known as one of the best dance bands in all of Europe, dodging death more than a few times and even attracting the attention of the legendary Glen Miller shortly before he went MIA over the English Channel.

 

But The Streamliners isn’t content to merely relate a straightforward chapter of local history to its audience. One of the members of The Streamliners Band, Phil Sparling, was the father of playwright Andy Sparling, who has written himself into the play as a sort of semi-omniscient narrator. Andy, who is portrayed by Rob Bundy with empathy and gentle humour, brings us the story of The Streamliners as a son longing to connect with his father, and, in doing so, the carefully researched wartime vignettes of this play become more complex.

 

There are a number of smart choices on the part of director Duncan McGregor that really bring this story to life. To give the play that dance hall feeling, he positively packed The Livery with festive swing dancers, which makes the surprisingly dark tone of the opening scene even more impactful. The sound design is overly loud at times, causing the actors to have to really shout to be heard - just as the real band would have had to when flying over combat zones during the war. Phil Sparling is ably played by Graham Howard, who manages to walk the line between courageous and terrified with aplomb. There is a stark and poignant joy in seeing this young local actor dressed in a costume and pretending as though he is at war, instead of wearing a real uniform and experiencing the true horror of war. The band of brothers is filled out with panache by Ben Hustis as Don Hilton, Steve Cook as Jake Perdue and Art James as Billy Carter.

 

The Streamliners is the story of a story - one of a son as he believes his father was, as he never got to know him. The story both draws us closer to history and gently reminds us that there is a distance caused by death. The distance is underscored by the choice to use real recordings of the actual Streamliners in the show. Andy is not hearing his father’s music the way those wartime dancers heard it - all he has are a few imperfect BBC recordings, once thought lost.

 

You may have missed your chance to catch The Streamliners during its debut run, but this historical gem will most certainly be staged again in the near future.