At-Large

• Published in: Canadian Theatre Review
• Main Author: Rubin, Don
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1974
• Subjects: Visual Arts and Performing Arts; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/ctr.3.009; https://ctr.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/ctr.3.009

There are at least four areas of original theatrical and dramatic activity in Canada at the present moment worth looking at. Three of them are reasonably well-known — British Columbia (George Ryga, Beverly Simons, Herschel Hardin, Eric Nicol, Sharon Pollock); Ontario (James Reaney, David Freeman, David French, John Palmer, Carol Bolt, John Herbert); and Quebec (Michel Tremblay, Robert Gurik, Jean-Claude Germain and Marc Gelinas). But one area which has been virtually ignored and which is now proving to be of real interest is Newfoundland where writers such as Michael Cook, Al Pittman and Tom Cahill along with sympathetic directors such as Chris Brookes and Dudley Cox are developing a theatre which is at once rooted in the realpolitik of the Newfoundland social structure and yet which is also theatrically-rich enough to make its statements to audiences outside. That, in fact, is one of the problems at the present moment. Funds to make their statements are rather scarce in Newfoundland and there is a distinct danger that Newfoundland artists will be making their statements to audiences in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto instead of to the people to whom they’re addressed. But the awareness of that problem is obviously there and when the newly-organized Newfoundland Arts Council officially comes into being in the coming months some of this danger may be eased.