Magnificent Voyage of Emily Carr

Cecily M. Barrie is a graduate drama student at Mount St. Vincent
University in Halifax.

This expressive play describes one meeting ground between Canada’s
Native and European cultures: figuratively, the spiritual, creative
world of the artist; and literally, the mystical verdure of the ancient
West Coast forests where Emily Carr lived and painted.

Marchessault’s play is a biographical interpretation of Carr, a woman
of “excessive expectations” who felt that true art vibrates and
calls others to it through a strange world of inner visions. Carr’s
affinity with the natural world, and consequently her respect for First
Nations people and their culture, sets her apart from “civilized”
society (represented by her sister Lizzie in a rather stereotyped
characterization). The play’s structure consists of three voyages to
the Old World and 10 scenic tableaux. The voyages mark Carr’s
transition into spiritual planes where Native spirits speak to her.
These phantasms appear on stage as real; palpable and vocal, they guide
Emily through stages of spirituality with the intercession of an
aboriginal woman character.

The author handles the transitions between physical and spiritual quite
well in her dialogue. Overall, the play’s language is poetic and rich
in metaphors, but occasionally there is a discordant, formal tone that
checks the flow of dialogue (a consequence, perhaps, of translation).
The play reads well, but at times the poetic language becomes overly
abstract and the plot is sidetracked by a confusing foray into magic
realism.

Although the play is regional in setting and historical in context, it
has qualities reminiscent of Lescarbot’s progenic theatre in
17th-century Nouvelle France, which used elements of sympathetic magic
to reconcile the obvious differences and sometimes hostile relations
between Natives, Europeans, and nature.