Emrys' Dream: Greystone Theatre in Photographs and Words.

Ian C. Nelson is Assistant Director of Libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan.

The University of Saskatchewan has the distinction of having established the first degree-granting drama department in Canada and the British Commonwealth. Emrys Jones, an esteemed adjudicator for the now legendary Dominion Drama Festival, was the man with the vision to initiate this program and in its wake to affix a cachet of quality to the subsequent productions of the university’s Greystone Theatre. Thistledown Press has published a suitable memoir and photographic record of these accomplishments.

Notable and oft-cited productions include Shaw’s Candida (1946), which included Frances Hyland in the cast (a chapter is dedicated to her), W.O. Mitchell’s Royalty is Royalty, commissioned in 1959 for the provincial jubilee, and David Freeman’s Creeps, which won a 1979 Fringe First Award in Edinburgh (another chapter is given to this experience). A specific chapter also covers the fate of the (in)famous and flood-prone Second World War Hangar Building, which for decades housed the Greystone Theatre and the drama department.

Current department head Dwayne Brenna acknowledges that the major section about Jones is based closely on Victor F. Whitbread’s unpublished manuscript “Act One,” but then goes on to provide anecdotal chapters on various periods of activity under subsequent department heads, such as Tom Kerr and Ronald Mavor. The phrase “was to become” abounds as prominent or interesting figures make their appearance in a wide variety of productions. The volume is replete with black-and-white stills of performances and rehearsals where these figures are usually identified. Others are inconsistently noted—unfortunate, given the generous white space surrounding these photographs and the text, which is more alumni-centred than strictly historical. Likewise, the index of names is not quite as thorough as it might be. Occasionally quotations from newspaper reviews accompany a photo, giving a taste of the contemporary perception of the piece. While noting that the attribution of photo credits was particularly difficult, Brenna pays adequate tribute in his introduction to the photographers themselves, whose work comprises a major part of the attractiveness and interest of this book.