the five eight ~ Muse's Bomb Girls

Cast / Character Bios

Meg Tilly
Lorna Corbett

Lorna Corbett (43) has one twisted heart but if she can clear out the thickets of her past struggles, it just might blossom. She met her husband Bob at age 18 before he shipped out to the Great War, and married after their affair left her pregnant. Upon his return, Bob was left a broken man, shell-shocked and paralyzed, and their dream of a happy life vanished. Lorna quietly relishes her new job as it’s a chance to escape an oppressive home. While secretly fascinated by the women around her with their blossoming sexuality, and expanding horizons — Lorna’s jealous of their happiness, and determined not to let them make the same mistakes she did. Lorna is especially resentful Gladys and seeks to break the spirited girl, even though she recognizes her own long-lost exuberance.

JODI BALFOUR
Gladys Witham

Gladys Witham (22) is a wild child. The only daughter in a wealthy Rosedale family, Gladys’s privileged life has made her fearless with an appetite for life. Gladys always got what she wanted; only what she wants is now changing. Although a privileged life has many advantages, it can also can be suffocating. While her father works to expand the family's empire, her mother lives by her wealth and liquor. Given these silent and oppressive pressures, Gladys considers the war an escape and eagerly takes up an office job at Victory Munitions. After seeing what the other women do on the factory floor, Gladys insists on getting her hands dirty, and is drawn to this most difficult and dangerous work as a way to feel alive and connect with “real women”.

CHARLOTTE HEGELE
Kate Andrews

Kate Andrews (24) lands in Toronto on a raft of secrets. She’s eager to please and gifted at lifting spirits — in a large part due to a staggeringly talented singing voice. Beneath her smile is a sheltered, insecure girl beginning to find her way in the world. She’s on the run from her abusive street-preaching father and she needs this job.

While she’s fascinated by the wealth and confidence of Gladys, it’s her friend Betty who unexpectedly becomes Kate’s best friend. Cobbling together a new identity, Kate appears to have evaded detection and punishment...so far.

ALI LIEBERT
Betty McRae

Betty McRae (28) is a recent arrival from rural Saskatchewan who moved to Toronto for work. An early arrival to Victory Munitions, Betty quickly rose through the ranks to be a well-regarded worker who doubles as Blue Shift’s on-floor trainer of the new workers. She fled her troubling past to live and work in a more “female” milieu, with fewer of the men she mistrusts. Yet she struggles to connect within this new sisterhood. Among her new trainees, she finds Gladys frustratingly naïve, but in time discovers a grudging respect for her. Her hard attitude doesn’t apply to Kate. Kate inspires her to be a kinder, better person, to show the patience and understanding she lacks with others. Betty doesn’t have the words to explain it, but we know... it’s love.

ANTONIO CUPO
Marco Moretti

Marco Moretti (35) is Blue Shift’s materials controller, responsible for the raw materials coming into the factory, and the export of every finished bomb. He gained his experience from his family’s fireworks factory, and now supports his mother, sister and nieces as the sole breadwinner — his father’s been locked away in an internment camp alongside hundreds of other Italian immigrants.

While he considers himself Canadian, he has found that since the war, he’s seen as a potential enemy, which is why he’s unable to enlist. Before the war, he and Lorna would have never met — spaghetti is still a foreign food — but at the factory, their fiery rapport that starts with a clash, shifts into a growing attraction.

SEBASTIEN PIGOTT
James Dunn

James Dunn (24) is smart, attractive, monied, and poised to take the world by storm. He’s a decent man, one whose wealth and refinement haven’t resulted in snobbery. Still, having been largely sheltered from the world’s harsh truths, he’s woefully innocent about matters of the heart — and the body. While he is drawn to Gladys (his fiancé, with her free-wheeling spirit and is usually patient with her intensity), her exuberance often threatens to overwhelm him.

In a world of soldiers, James chooses his battles carefully, preferring the fray of the men’s club to skirmishes in the trenches. As an American before Pearl Harbor, James has yet to feel that the war is truly his to fight.

LISA NORTON
Edith