When I first read the play Yellow Bellies it made me think of political historian Benedict Anderson’s book, Imagined Communities. Written in 1983, Anderson’s book depicts a nation as a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. We often think of a nation being ‘born’ through remarkable events in history: wars, revolutions, and so on, but Anderson gets us to consider how media – language, imagery, and other forms of communication – are equally important to the process of defining nationhood. Imagined Communities makes clear that nationhood is made as much in the imagination of its citizens, in response to communication, than in response to any act of national pride or heroism. 

In a similar way,Yellow Bellies demands that we reconsider how Canada has been formed in our imagination, and it does so by sharing an under-represented narrative from our past. In stories of Mennonite Conscientious Objectors, who have requested from the Canadian government that they be allowed to serve our country doing alternative service during World War II, we discover the kind of values that most of us would like think are truly Canadian; in particular, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality, peace, and justice. Yet, in a world besieged by war, the accomplishments made by Conscientious Objectors are overshadowed by the narrative of the war hero overseas. But what about those who refused to fight, and instead chose to build our provincial parks, tend to our forest fires, and construct our roads? Sadly, these Canadians have been mostly lost in our imagination of who we are, and what we stand for in the world.

My involvement with Yellow Bellies began in 2017, when I was welcomed by Theatre of the Beat to be a co-director, alongside Rebecca Steiner, who is also a co-writer of the play. She began work with the actors and I took over, finishing the staging of this story thanks to the generous collaboration of the original cast: Johnny Wideman, Benjamin Wert, Kimberlee Walker; the band: Fred Martin, Dwight Steinman, Dave Neufeld, Brent Klassen, Jim Bender, Bruce Bechtel, and Leah Harder, our steadfast stage manager. As the project has evolved over a couple of years, we have waved goodbye to Rebecca, Ben, and the band, but we have been lucky to welcome Joseph McLellan, Cedric Martin, and Fran Barker to the project. Together we’ve worked hard to challenge the way we all imagine a potential community called Canada.