Joe Beef (A History of Pointe Saint Charles)

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

Following the huge theatrical success of Balconville (still one of the
best half-dozen English-Canadian plays) Fennario moved to a far more
conscious form of political theatre, turning his back on the trappings
of commercial theatre success and writing plays for his own group of
“nonactors” in the Montreal community where he lives and works.

This play was written to be performed in clubs, schools, and small
halls as well as theatres; the simple staging and flexible casting (the
actors, except for Joe Beef himself, play multiple roles) serve this
intention well. Some will doubtless consider Joe Beef a Marxist polemic,
but to make this judgment is far too simplistic. The play is certainly a
tough political satire that, in its merciless attack on Quebec’s
privileged classes, leaves no doubt as to where Fennario’s sympathies
lie; but it is also a theatrical tour de force of considerable skill,
energy, and imagination. Fennario’s characters really live on the
stage, and his depiction of the struggle between Montreal’s ruling
families and the working classes is cogent, reasoned, enthralling, and,
ultimately, completely fair.

When a final analysis is made of 20th-century Canadian theatre, the
most significant political playwright will undoubtedly be David
Fennario.