Imagine not being able to be intimate with your husband because his semen burns the both of you. Or watching your partner slowly, painfully, pull on a diaper because he cant contain his bodily waste and bodily wasting.
These are just two of the harrowing symptoms reported by sufferers of Gulf War Syndrome, and presented in People Like Us a Firehall Arts production about the human costs of war.
Written by Salt Spring playwright Sandi Johnson, People Like Us was inspired by an unnamed but very real Nova Scotia couple who suffered loss of health, intimacy, financial security, and faith in the military.
Told from the solo perspective of Kate Rourke, the wife of a military policeman who becomes an advocate for veterans rights while battling bureaucracy on behalf of her dying husband, the play coincides not only with Remembrance Day and Veterans Week, but with a vitriolic period in veterans affairs in Canada.
Just last month, Canadas veterans ombudsman warned that current legislation is failing some of our most severely wounded and disabled soldiers, and that the government must address its urgent shortcomings. In his report, Guy Parent highlighted serious issues with the level of financial support given to veterans, especially those who were permanently disabled in combat.
Set in 2001, 10 years after the first Gulf War, Jessie-nominated performer Sarah Louise Turner tackles the most trying years of Rourkes life alone on stage. But Gerry, her husband, is never far from thought.
While struggling to secure an official diagnosis for Gerry, who she suspects is suffering from the multi-symptom syndrome, and afford basic necessities on a fixed budget, Rourke becomes a champion for other families whose complaints of medically unexplained illnesses were being ignored.
It was really thrust upon her. It wasnt something she chose, so youve got, on one hand, the desire to survive, and protect her husband and her family and herself, explains Turner, and then her journey of discovering that she can be this support for a huge community of people for whom there is no support.
Following the 2pm performance on Sunday, Nov. 10, there will be a free panel discussion on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Canadian veterans featuring Oliver Thorne from the Veterans Transition Network, and BC-based documentary filmmaker Judy Jackson who made War in the Mind, a film about PTSD and the Canadian Forces.
Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino had announced, just prior to Parents damning report, that the government would launch a comprehensive parliamentary review of the New Veterans Charter.
People Like Us runs until Nov. 16 at the Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tickets $20-$30 at FirehallArtsCentre.ca.
