A Regina production group is revisiting a critical time in Saskatchewan and Canada’s history, the 1962 Saskatchewan doctor strike, through a new play.
The group, known as the Curtain Razors, are tackling the topic that had national implications on Canada’s healthcare system through a fictional conversation between two Saskatchewan icons, former Premier Tommy Douglas and “Pere” Athol Murray of the college of Notre Dame.
The two men had roots in Scotland and Christian faith and ended up in Saskatchewan during a tumultuous time: finding themselves on opposite ends of the 1962 strike, as they were steadfast in their visions of a greater future.
“There was respect and admiration even though on a pretty fundamental level they disagreed,” director of Tommy & Pere Judy Wensel said.
The doctor strike came about as the provincial government sought to establish the foundation of universal healthcare. The strike began on July 1, 1962, the same day the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act took effect that provided residents with a range of publicly-funded medical services. Doctors of the day were concerned over the repercussions of such action, calling on then-premier Woodrow Lloyd to change course and subsidize voluntary private medical insurance for those who couldn’t pay.
When the government refused, most doctors in Saskatchewan went on strike. The job action lasted 23 days in total. It’s now considered one of the most significant doctors’ strikes of the 20th century, and was designated as a national historical event in 2024.
As the play’s art director Lee Henderson said, both Douglas and Murray felt that democracy was being threatened by the other.
“I don’t think I realized how highly charged and vitriolic that had become,” Henderson said.
“Neither are evil, they’re both just trying to do something good and they disagree on how to do it,” actor and artistic associate Jayden Pfeifer added.
The play goes back more than 60 years with the performance itself sandwiched between a tour of the historic installation and a post show discussion.
“As we dug into researching it sort of expanded out and exploded into this tumultuous kind of cyclone of information and socio-politics,” Henderson said.
Along with the fictional conversation, the play’s script depicts the themes of faith, fairness and fear of societal collapse that remain real decades later.
“I think it’s an interesting provocation for us in this day and age of what it is to disagree in real time and space with another human,” Wensel said.
“What do you do when you disagree with somebody, do you then dislike them, can you find a way to have a more complicated conversation with somebody who holds different values than you do. All of that was really present in our process,” Pfeifer said.
-With files from Cole Davenport
