Doctor Thomas Neill Cream (Mystery at McGill)

David E. Kemp is chair of the Drama Department at Queen’s University
and author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

In 1876, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream graduated with merit from McGill’s
Faculty of Medicine. Cream was a backstreet abortionist who managed an
exclusive brothel called “The Elite Club.” His notoriety eventually
forced him to flee Canada for London, where he was hanged, in 1892, for
the murder of four prostitutes. There is speculation that Cream was the
infamous Jack the Ripper.

Fennario’s intention in this play is to juxtapose the story of Cream
with those of some of the “Illustrious Dead” of McGill
University—Sir William Osler, Lord Strathcona, Sir Hugh Allen, and Sir
Wilfrid Laurier—and by doing so to prove that the latter individuals,
as part of a ruling elite directly responsible for the gross
exploitation and oppression of the Québécois and Native peoples of
Quebec, were no better than the notorious Dr. Cream.

Fennario takes on this formidable task with panache, irreverent humor,
and total theatricality. His class consciousness is perceptive rather
than mannered or self-conscious. What the play is really about is the
need to break away from the past. As a Quebec anglophone, Fennario fully
supports Quebec’s right to self-determination. Whether or not you
accept Fennario’s politics, this play is an exhilarating (and
exhausting) exercise in cultural exorcism.