New Canadian Drama 5 (Political Drama)

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

This book, under the editorship of Alan Filewod, whose Collective
Encounters: Documentary Theatre in English Canada is a seminal work in
the area, anthologizes four plays that represent some of the main formal
and thematic tendencies of political theatre in English-speaking Canada
in the 1980s. From its origins in the eighteenth century, anglophone
Canadian theatre has demonstrated a keen sense of its political
situation and has, indeed, engaged in political activism. The plays in
this excellent volume are representative of the contemporary dialectic
of political and popular theatre—which, though considered
“alternative” (as opposed to “mainstream”), is nevertheless a
vital, exciting, and innovative part of current Canadian drama.

“Learning to Live with Personal Growth” is written by Arthur
Milner, who has been resident playwright at Ottawa’s Great Canadian
Theatre Company since 1983. This satirical analysis of the
disintegration of moral values in avowedly socially committed
“yuppies” is an excellent example of a play written for a company
with a powerful left-wing political mandate.

Michael Riordon’s “A Jungle Out There” takes a no less left-wing
political stance. Through a maze of issues—post-AIDS gay affirmation;
women’s emancipation; Nicaragua, and fascism—in styles ranging from
parody to agitprop, Riordon not only shows us that the issues
confronting us have a common source, but also demonstrates how the voice
of individual conscience can transform personal experience into parable.


The final two plays in the collection—“No Xya” (Our Footprints),
by David Diamond, and “Straight Stitching,” by Sheila
Barrie—vividly demonstrate how the techniques of popular theatre are
used as effective instruments of social change. Although the process
here is more important than the final text, “Straight Stitching” has
had remarkable success with both “working-class” and
“mainstream” audiences, while “No Xya” is unique in that it
represents a collaboration between a mostly white theatre company and a
Native-Canadian Nation, exploring activism, Native spirituality, and
environmental consciousness.

This volume shows us the diversity of the Canadian political theatre
movement—a movement concerned about our national and economic future
and the marginalized communities within the Canadian social fabric.
These plays represent not only a truly popular art form but also a
theatre that is a vital instrument of cultural assertion and resistance.