Take Five: The Morningside Dramas

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

“Morningside,” CBC Radio’s flagship program, is a Canadian
obsession. Every morning hundreds of thousands of Canadians tune in to
hear host Peter Gzowski’s intelligent interviews and the stories, big
and small, that pour in from every corner of this vast country. The
final offering of every “Morningside” is the radio play, an eclectic
and sometimes controversial presentation of comedy and drama.

This anthology brings us five of the most representative dramas from
the 1990-91 season. In “Once Upon an Island,” the tall tales of
Richard Keens-Douglas’s native Grenada come vibrantly to life. Timothy
Findley, a Governor General’s Award winner for The Wars and author of
Not Wanted on the Voyage (recently adapted for the stage) and Famous
Last Words, has adapted three Anton Chekhov stories, all of which deal
with fidelity gone drastically awry, and has collected them under the
title “Love and Deception.” Arthur Milner’s dry and witty “The
City” examines the crashing ideals and practical considerations of the
“thirty-something” set in their renovated big-city ghettos. “The
Skid,” by Thomas Lackey, displays the full potential of radio drama,
and what a superb medium it is, for evoking just about any environment
and event— even the creation of the world. Finally, Mary Burns has
adapted her tough, controversial stories on northern life into a
five-part play entitled “Northern Quintette.”

The plays in this anthology are as varied as “Morningside” itself.
As befits works broadcast on a national current-affairs show, these
radio dramas enhance our understanding of unfolding events without
having to be overtly typical. They present dramatizations of actual
events, and their issue-centred scripts explore such topical subjects as
the impact of urban gentrification, invariably highlighting issues of
race and cultural identity and always addressing the hopes and
aspirations of all Canadians.

Comedies, histories, dramatizations of fictional works, adaptations of
stage plays, and even musicals—the “Morningside” dramas are
populist theatre at its best. This collection is both representative and
excitingly fresh and new.