Bob's Hats

Bossin’s Home Remedy for Nuclear War

In the early 1980s, the advent of a new generation of nuclear weapons - Pershing, Trident and Cruise missiles – re-aroused the nuclear disarmament movement that had begun in the late 1940s. In Vancouver, tens of thousands marched in the annual Walk for Peace. The Vancouver East Cultural Centre commissioned me to write a peace-themed show to coincide with the 1986 march. The arms race was never going to be stopped by the politicians; it would only be stopped by the collective activism of ordinary citizens. The cure had to be a “home remedy”. Bingo!

So I decided to write a medicine show, a sales pitch for Bossin’s Home Remedy for Nuclear War (guaranteed to prevent nuclear war or your money refunded). I loved writing and then performing “Doctor” Bossin, a fast-talking flim-flam man, part organizer, part evangelist, part charlatan who believed in “peace with a little piece on the side.” I remember a conversation with my friend and dramaturge Peter Froehlich, when I was first developing the character. Peter said, “If it was a movie, who would play him?” As one, we both exclaimed, “Jack Nicholson!”

BHR was first directed by Jackie Crosland, and then, in subsequent stagings, by Colin Thomas, Peter Froehlich and Simon Webb. Home Remedy had some 200 performances in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. It sold over 9000 bottles of Dr. Bossin’s elixir. One of these days, I will dig out the VHS tapes of the show and put up a couple clips. It remains a piece I’m proud as punch to have done.