A Public Nuisance: A History of the Mummers Troupe

• Published in: Canadian Theatre Review
• Main Authors: Brookes, Chris, Knowles, Richard Paul
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1989
• Subjects: Visual Arts and Performing Arts; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/ctr.61.015; https://ctr.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/ctr.61.015

In the early pages of A Public Nuisance, describing his tour of Punch and Judy shows around Newfoundland before the founding of the Mummers Troupe and disputing the social value of Aristotelian catharsis (“a kind of projected anguish”), Chris Brookes comments that “if Punch and Judy had met Aristotle, they would have beaten the shit out of him.” If you find this as refreshing and entertaining in a work of theatre history as I do, and your name isn’t Donna Butt, you’ll like this book. Like the Mummers themselves, the comment is much more than irreverent, provocative and witty; in fact it contains the seeds of the book and the kernel of the Mummers’ history.