Synopsis

While visiting the Saskatchewan Summer School for the Arts in the Qu'Appelle Valley, the authors learned of the site's history as a tuberculosis sanitarium before the provincial government had refashioned it as an arts retreat in 1967. Their play provides a moving fictional account of "Fort San" set at Christmas and New Years in 1944, just as trials of the antibiotic streptomycin are being introduced to treat and cure the disease. The play follows four patients - Johnny, Lorene, Nan and Michael - through personal interactions and fevered hallucinations. We learn that Nan is doing well and may soon be released if she passes the usual tests: fluid from her lungs is injected into a guinea pig; if there is a negative reaction - that is, no infection - for ten successive tests, she could be free to go. Her hopeful news comes as she is falling in love with an air force pilot, Michael, who faces a long stay in the sanitarium. As well, small-town girl Lorene is smitten with Johnny, a "pig-sticker" from a meat-packing plant. A fifth patient, Mariana, conveys the devastating impact of TB on First Nations people.