19 - Wednesdays, Januars 17, 1990 - North Shore News

Hopkins is flying high
in Billy Bishop role

A FTER GOING AWOL from the theatre world for two

op’s autobiography, He saw the
1942 film Cowboys of the Clouds,
in which Bishop makes a cameo
appearance us himselt, and at-
tended the second run of Gray's
musical starring Cedric Smith.

Without the war, Bishop would
have been a good-for-nothing
sureet kid, says Hapkins. “He
joined military school because he
could ride a horse and was a good
shot — but he hated it.

“Then he joined Britain’s Royal
Flying Corps and was just about to
be thrown out when he got his
first kill, That kind of thing kept
happening to him. It’s incredible
to think every time he came across
an obstacle he kept on.”

Driven by a fiercely competitive
spirit, the fearless aviator gunned
down enemy planes at an
unbelievable rate and quickly shot
up to “top gun” at the Allied air
forces.

years, Nonh Vancouver's Mark Hopkins has return-
ed with 3 vengeance.
15 and 20 characters: each one is
portrayed through Bishop's eyes as
he remembers them,

“When [first got the script I
was amazed at the amount of ma-
terial would have to memorize —
20 pages of small print,” says
Hopkins. “But then [ started

Tomorrow night the UBC BFA
theatre grad will fly deep into
enemy territory as Canadian
fighter ace Billy Bishop in John
Gray’s high flying musical, Billy
Bishop Goes to War.

Hopkins, who long romanticized
about playing Canada’s most
celebrated combat hero, says his
latest part as the star in a one-man
show (accompanied by piano
player Lawrence Kagan), is the
best role written for a man in Ca-
nadian theatre.

“There’s nothing !'ve ever
heard of that comes close,”’ says
Hopkins. ‘Just the level of per-
formance that has to be sustained
throughout the play is incredible
— Gray's play covers every level

EVELYN
JACOB

spotlight feature

breaking it down and started say-

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman
LOCAL ACTOR Mark Hopkins has returned to the stage as Canadian
fighter ace Billy Bishop in John Gray’s musical Billy Bishop Goes to
War.

Joe has romance

of theatrical performance —
there's storytelling, one-on-one
talking to the audience. Every song
has a different musical genre:
there are anthems, bar songs.
quiet ballads — it runs the
gamut.”

in addition to playing himself,
Gray has Bishop playing between

ing, ‘yah, but this is the other
guy.” Then it didn’t seem so dif-
ficult."

To prepare for the Presentation
House production Hopkins did
ample research exploring the
Bishop story. His father-in-law, an
aviation buff, loaned him a 1918
edition of Winged Warfare, Bish-

4,

Bishop earned numerous awards
for his victories, including the
coveved Victoria Cross (which the
National Film Board contested in
the highly controversial documen-
tary, The Kid Who Couldn't Miss).

See Bishop
Page 20

From page 18
demonstrators and America seems
to have deserted their boys in
uniform. He’s lost most of his
ye friends and his parents act like a
sss shell-shocked Ozzie and Harriet.

vo This is one of those long movies
where each step forward is
another step down. From a Leave
it to Beaver suburb to bloody
paddy fields to rat-infested hospital
back to suburbia to Club Dread ...
; and that’s only the half-way point.
! ees For Tom Cruise fans, this offers
mS to his best acting. individual mo-
; : ments are heart-breaking, par-
* ticularly the hospital scenes and
oe his reunion with his family. The
. whole is less than the parts, how-
. ever, and it has an overly familiar
boos : : breast-beating quality.
ere As ghastly as it sounds, it’s true
; ; — we've seen it before.
A Guy Named Joe *** 4%

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