Critical Stages: Canadian Theatre in Crisis

David E. Kemp, former drama professor at Queen’s University, is the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

In this charming, witty, and deeply committed collection of criticism,
Gordon Vogt (1947–1985) never tries to teach us what to think or feel.
He also eschews “laundry list” criticism wherein the critic
addresses in methodical fashion the set, the actors, the lighting, the
direction, and so on down the list. In Vogt’s reviews, the critic took
a back seat to the subject at hand. The play or the personality he was
discussing always came first. There is not one review in this collection
in which Vogt sets out to prove just how clever he is.

I can think of no other critic who was more insightful about our
culture. In his excellent introduction to this collection, Rick Salutin
quotes Vogt as saying that what he strived for was an understanding of
“what it is to exist in the civilisation that has spread itself so
thinly across the northern half of the North American continent.” What
comes across so strongly in these reviews is the voice of a decent,
literate man whose perceptions and insights were matched only by his
humanity and his humility. Vogt had that rare capacity to admit he was
unsure, to urge the reader to think, and to reconsider at a later date
what seemed to be self-evident at the time.

There are superb assessments of entertainment figures (from George
Luscombe to Fred Astaire), as well as perceptive commentary on a wide
range of classical and modern plays. It matters not a jot that some of
the productions described have slipped into obscurity. This wonderful
collection is a memorial both to those productions and to Vogt himself.