University of Windsor Presents “The Metropolitan”, Tuesday

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The Centre for Studies in Social Justice, the Department of History, and the School of Dramatic Art Present at the University of Windsor present The Metropolitan. This is a play about gender politics and sexual scandal in the world of Windsor nursing.

Written by Steven Palmer, an experienced playwright and the Canada Research Chair in History of International Health, this is a provocative, dark comedy about a modern school of nursing founded by feminist professionals at the Metropolitan Hospital in the late 1940s. It is also the story of how their project got sideswiped by sexual harassment and dirty politics. Based on a real historical incident, the play features a formidable cast of characters: young nurses pursuing dangerous dreams in a border-crossing culture coming into conflict with the new moral conservatism of the Cold War; tough, sophisticated and vulnerable leaders of the Canadian nursing profession; and a progressive but ethically dubious Windsor mayor, the controversial Art Reaume. Follow them as they make risky deals and mount an edgy outing to the Press Photographers Ball at Detroit’s glamorous Book-Cadillac Hotel. Watch them party hard and unchaperoned in suites rented with municipal tax dollars – then pay the price for their transgressions before Judge Eric Cross at the 1948 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Metropolitan Hospital.

This play is said to touch on complex and disturbing issues that continue to resonate in Windsor and beyond, sexual harassment in the hospital workplace, resistance to gender equality in the health professions, and political corruption.

The Metropolitan will be read and lightly staged by students from the University of Windsor’s superb School of Dramatic Art, under the direction of Professor Lionel Walsh.

Following the reading of the play, there will be a discussion by Dale Rajacich and Debbie Kane, from the Faculty of Nursing, University of Windsor and a question and answer session where the playwright and director will also be on hand.

You an catch the The Metropolitan Tuesday evening at 7pm at the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre on the University of Windsor campus.