The Heart as It Lived

David E. Kemp, a former drama professor at Queen’s University, is the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

During the Great Depression, the Canadian government established work
camps in which thousands of young unemployed men labored under appalling
conditions for 20 cents a day. In June 1935, hundreds of these men
boycotted the camps (which they dubbed slave camps) and began a journey
that came to be known as the On to Ottawa Trek. Through this act of
civil disobedience, they intended to confront the Bennett government
with the demand for better working conditions and fair wages. However,
the trek was halted in Regina, when RCMP officers attacked a gathering
of the men, sending dozens to hospital.

For the purpose of Mansel Robinson’s play, two RCMP officers died in
the riot. One was Annie McBride’s fiancé, whose ghost pays her a
yearly visit. Embittered by her memories of that dreadful day 60 years
ago, Annie believes that all people who don’t want to work are
slackers—especially the young. Annie’s state of mind is further
poisoned by her knowledge that her sister had an affair with one of the
marchers and bore his child. Alone now in the family mansion, Annie
carries on a guilt-filled dialogue with the ghosts of her lost love and
sister. Her solitude is broken by the sudden intrusion of a real-life
burglar, who turns out to be her 22-year-old grandnephew, Zack. As the
play unfolds and Zack and Annie get to know each other, they discover
that there is a curious bond between them, despite their philosophical
differences.

In this play, Robinson, the author of six plays and currently
writer-in-residence at Northern Lights Theatre in Edmonton, uses the
1935 riots to comment on present-day politics and, more important, to
throw his characters into sharp relief.