Maja Bannerman and This is Anne — Older and Wiser

Anne, of Green Gables fame, is not the young, curious girl in Maja Bannerman’s most recent iteration of the beloved series. Rather, she is a woman in her 60s who is looking through her journals and letters, reflecting on her life, and the concept of change.

This is Anne — Older and Wiser, is a 50-minute play created, compiled and performed by Bannerman and her musician partner, Rusty McCarthy.

Bannerman has always loved Lucy Maud Montgomery’s novels about the intrepid Anne. The success of Montgomery’s first novel, simply titled Anne of Green Gables, written in 1908, was so successful that Montgomery penned seven more novels for the series, which has since then been the inspiration for countless other books, TV shows, movies and even a musical.

The title character, Anne, an 11-year-old orphan sent to live with middle-aged siblings, is known world-wide for her long red hair, curiosity and loquaciousness.

“I identified with her,” said Bannerman. “When I was young, I had bright red hair, just like her. I wanted to be her.” Bannerman admired Anne’s lively spirit and imagination. “My parents took me to see the homestead, the house that inspired the description of Green Gables. I saw that when I was 16, and it was a very emotional experience. I think they were quite worried about me because I broke down in the car,” she said.

The idea for Bannerman’s play began in 2008 when Elaine Anderson of the Pelham Library celebrated the 100th anniversary of the novel. Montgomery’s granddaughter, Luella MacDonald Veijalainen, was in the area, and Anderson invited Bannerman to the afternoon tea event with Luella.

“At that point, I decided to look at the older Anne and re-read all the books,” said Bannerman. “Then I created this theatrical reading which I did off and on for several years, and about three years ago, I decided to make it more of a play and add some set pieces.”

Bannerman and McCarthy will perform This is Anne at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m.

This particular performance is dedicated to Bannerman’s friend, Gerda Molson, who passed away last August. Molson was the chief librarian at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Library for 35 years. “I had just moved here in 1996, and in 1997 the library started a storytelling festival. She asked me to be on the committee, not knowing that I was a writer and performer.”

“We ran that committee for 10 years,” Bannerman continued, “and during that time she became a very good friend. Last year she had wanted to do a garden party and have Rusty and I perform the play for her friends that had helped her through her illness. She passed away two weeks before we could do that. This performance is dedicated to her.”

The older and wiser Anne “is more balanced,” said Bannerman. “She is very aware that things change, and I think that’s the strongest personal message I get from her and Montgomery’s words. It is how she speaks about change and how we have to let things go from our heart, and take new things in and learn to love them.”

Anne maintains her curiosity and her forthrightness, she notes, but “I don’t think she speaks so bluntly.”

Most of the play uses Montgomery’s words. while Bannerman added a necessary introduction, segues and an exit.

She and McCarthy performed in Prince Edward Island over five nights this August. Bannerman said there are moments of poignancy, reflection and laughter and “it’s made grown men cry. The second half of it deals a lot with World War I and the way Montgomery wrote about the war from the perspective from home is very subtle.”

“People loved it. I have a guest book that I bring out and people write their comments in there, and it’s been great. We’ve had Montgomery scholars come and write their opinion, and they were supportive. And some people don’t know Anne at all and have never read the series and were still touched by the play.”

Besides the play at the museum, Bannerman has two more performances scheduled in Toronto on Sept. 17.

She is hoping to return to PEI to perform at the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute’s 16th biennial conference in 2024, and she is looking for a place in Niagara to do a run of shows next summer.

Bannerman and McCarthy have also created a CD called This is Anne — The Music, featuring Beth Bartley and Mark Clifford of Vox Violins fame, and Doug Wilde on keys. It highlights music from the performance plus some additional music that Rusty composed. “Right now, it’s a rough draft, but we are going to add some text in the sense that I will set up each piece with excerpts from the script. It won’t be a telling of the performance, it will be something a little bit different.”

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