Rave: Three Plays

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

All three plays in this collection, whether watched in performance or
just read, will be hits with adolescents, especially those with a social
conscience, for the plays’ themes all speak to concerns with which,
sadly, today’s teens can too readily identify.

“The Other Side of the Closet” deals frankly with homophobia,
particularly as it finds expression in schools among adolescent males,
but playwright Edward Roy demonstrates its extension to some parents as
their children “come out.” Carmen Aguirre’s “Chile Con Carne”
initially appears to be an odd choice for a young-adult collection since
the central character is Manuelita, an eight-year-old girl who, along
with her family members, is a 1970s Chilean political refugee. However,
Manuelita’s very youthfulness provides a clarity of vision that might
not be found among older, cynical adolescents. While the adults around
Manuelita are concerned with political activities in Chile, Manuelita
finds her own cause—saving a tree from developers’ bulldozers. Like
Dennis Foon’s New Canadian Kid, “Chile Con Carne” offers a picture
of the prejudice exhibited by some toward new Canadians.

Beth Goobie, whose name will be familiar to many teens because of her
excellent young-adult novels, exhibits the same high standard of writing
in “The Face is the Place,” wherein she portrays the violence and
peer pressure found in schools as well as the value the larger society
places on physical beauty. What makes Goobie’s play so unusual is that
the violence is perpetrated by females upon females.

Rave is a must-buy for all schools serving Grades 7 and up; its
contents should become class-room materials. Highly recommended.