THE ART OF WAR – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

There is a story about the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Following the performance, an audience member inquired about the meaning of the dance. Pavlova replied that “if I could say what it meant, I would not have danced it.” This story came to mind while watching The Art of War, a new play by Yvette Nolan that premiered at the Stortford Festival’s Studio Theatre on August 20, 2025.

The Art of War does not refer to strategy and tactics to help soldiers kill people and achieve conquests. It is about painting scenes of conflicts to communicate the brutality and horrors of war on canvas. The main character is Nick, an artist from Nova Scotia, who is with the Canadian army in World War II and is an appointed army artist. He believes that he can capture and communicate the suffering and terror of war by painting it better than photographs and films.

The photographer is called simply Nick (Josue Laboucane), a simple soldier with a love of painting and the conviction that a painting can be a powerful and deeper portrait than any other form. We believe him when he says that.

His friend Newman (Jordin Hall) visits him on the otherwise empty stage of the Studio Theatre. Nick sketches a painting of Newman in a heroic pose, but his friend is shot by the enemy and dies. His death is temporary because Newman appears several times after that alive, but not remembering the past, and he is “killed” again. We are not sure about what is happening, but Nick may be imagining his friend as still alive. If there are other clues about Newman’s fate and Nick’s imagination, I did not get them.

A woman named Magda (Jenna-Lee Hyde) limps into Nick’s space. She is hungry, fearful and desperate. Nick gives her a chocolate bar and later more food. He sketches her as well and she is a perfect example of the fate of innocent civilians in times of war. She probably ends up in a concentration camp and we see a horrifying image of her in the end.    

Eva (Julie Lumsden), a singer who entertains the troops, appears. Perhaps she represents the lighter side of military life but in war it is hard to find a lighter side. 

From Left: Jordin Hall as Newman and Josue Laboucane as 
Nick in The Art of War. Stratford Festival 2025. 
Photo: David Hou.

Dennis (Rylan Wilkie), a professional photographer and film taker appears, and he defends that what he does is the best way to represent and store the images of war. Nick argues that the camera is an inadequate means of communication compared to the feeling that an artist can add to a painting.

Matthaeus, (played by Wilkie), a German deserter appears, and he adds to the horrors we imagine with the knowledge of someone on the other side. 

The play is introduced by a woman whom we see only in silhouette. She informs us that members of the Group of Seven artists painted images of war in World War I and II but their work was ignored. In the late 1960’s someone catalogued some 5400 war paintings and Canadians started paying attention to the art form. Eva (played by Lumsden) appears at the end of the play and repeats the information from her introduction. She shows war paintings by the Group of Seven and meets Nick in old age who tells us that only two of his paintings are displayed anywhere with the rest being stored somewhere.

The problem with The Art of War is that it “says” things about war paintings, and about how they helped Canada understand itself as a nation through that art. It is as if Pavlova explained her dance, “the inexplicable dance” without actually doing it. We see a few paintings from the Group of Seven quickly around the theater with no chance to appreciate what they represent and how they help us understand Canada and its contribution to the wars.

Pavlova may not have been able to describe what she did on stage, but the people who asked what it meant had seen it and formed their own opinions. We did not see anything like that in The Art of War. The descriptions by Nick are of little help and the fate of the characters in the play does not tell us anything about the effectiveness of art.

Kudos to Laboucane as a simple soldier with a passion, to Hyde as the eternal image of the innocent victim of war, to Wilkie as a photographer who believes in his profession and Hall, the faithful friend who stays in Nick’s subconscious forever. All done under the careful tutelage of director Keith Barker. But they represent people and not works of art.
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The Art of War by Yvette Nolan opened on August 20 and will run in repertory until September 27, 2025, at the Studio Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press