Rita Deverell at the Fringe

As a young actress, just starting her career in Saskatchewan, Rita Deverell was practicing a part when she heard a loud voice in the back saying "Speak up". It was Florence James.

Florence and her husband Burton moved west to Seattle in the 1920s, and several years after their arrival started the very successful Seattle Repertory Playhouse theatre.

In 1948, Florence was brought before the Washington State Committee on Un-American Activites chaired by Representative Albert Canwell. Florence was blacklisted, and over the next several years, the lives and fortunes of Florence and her husband Burton were ruined. Burton died of a broken heart in 1951.

Florence came to Saskatchewan where she found a new life and had a huge influence on many up and coming actors and actresses, and on theatre in Canada. Rita tells the story of Florence James with passion. Last night in the hot, not air conditioned, venue 21, the sweat dripped from Rita and from the audience as the play built to a climax and our outrage grew at the treatment Rita received in Seattle.

It was not until the late 1990s that the state of Washington apologized to the descendents of the Seattle Repertory Playhouse founders who were ruined.

This play - McCarthy and the Old Woman - is a fitting tribute to Florence and Burton James and to those in Vancouver, in Banff and in Saskatchewan who provided the James's with an alternative and with hope.