Drama

I - '264 THE (TNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY Toronto, Smithers and Bonellie, 224 pp., $3.00). Perrot (Irene), Trees grow tall: a·novel (Boston, Chapman and Grimes; ·.Toronto, Ryerson, 250 pp., ~3.00). Raddall (T.-H.), Pride's fancy (Toronco, McClelland and Stewart, viii, 308 pp., ~2.75). Seaford (Caroline), They grew in beauty (London, Eng., Jonathan Cape; Toronto, Clarke Irwin,·290 pp., $2.50). Stoddard (Charles), Killer of Sheep River (New York. Arcadia; Toronto, McLeod, 1945, $2.35). Sullivan (Alan), Catiboo road ·(Toronto, Nelson, vi, 312 pp., $3.00). Thomas (L. B.), New secret (Toronto, Thos. Allen, vi, 214 pp., $2.50). Tomkinson (Grace), Welcome wilderness (New York, Ives Washburn; Toronto, Smithers and Bonellie, vi, 290 pp., $3.00). Wood (:E. M.), Salvage (Victoria, Vi~toria Printing and Publishing Co.; Victoria, the nuthcir, 956 Wisting Rd., 1945, 54 pp., 50c.). III. DRAMA VINCENT M. TovELL For pe~fectly obvious reasons it is to the radio producers that most Canadian dramatists turn for recognition and opportunities. Through that· medium they find a responsive national, even international audience. In' the field of radio drama Canadian direc~ors,. actors, m~sicians and writers have earned international honours, and the C.B.C.'s annual series, for instance, which is produced and directed by Mr. Andrew Allan, the Stages 44, 45, 46 and 47, has placed such script-writers as Len Peterson, Lister Sinclair, Fletcher Markle and Tommy Tweed in the forefront of their profession. The best of their work, which has pointed to new directions in thought and technique for radio -writing merits publication and serious consideration. Mr. Peterson's plays, "They are All Afraid," "Maybe in a Thousand Years," ((Burlap Bags" or "White Collar~'-to name a feware clearly the work of an important and rapidly maturing writer. Within the confines of the one-dimensional medium,. he has treated realistically them.es of general importance to Canadians : (and not only Canadians), creating in each script more fully deve~oped Fharacters and situations than are usual in radio drama. Indeed the scope and developing technical complexity of his plays suggest that before long radio will 'prove a medium too restricting to his purposes and ability. Mr. Lister Sinclair's entertaining satiric fantasies, ccA Play on Words, or "All about Emily," and the controversial "We All Hate Toronto," _display a keen, refreshing wit, and an astringent critical mind. But the more developed "One John Smith,', derived from a, stage piece of his own, and particularly the hour-long serious play "Socrates," which is perhaps his most finished work to date, show an extension of his range, a considerable gain in ·technical assurance and a disciplining of his obvious verbal powers. Keenly interested in the ·theatre, _ he has written a new full-length play, "The Man in the Blue Moon," which was performed in Toronto this spring by the New Play Society. Had we space we· might go on to speak of Markle, Tweed, Ray Darby, Elsie Park Gowan, Bernard Braden, Alan King, Joseph Schull, Gerald . Noxon, Hugh Kemp, Earle Grey, and a number of others who have written -a good deal for radio. Our dramatists are 'not all e~clusively preoccupied with radio assign- LETTERS JN CANADA: 1946 265 ments however. Besides her series Jot the C.-B.C., "The People Next Door," centring on the .personal'and family problems of adjustment in the post-war world, and .''This is Our Story/' whose subject is the background of the modern West, Mrs. Elsie Park Gowan has written a new three.:.act comedy entitled "The Last Caveman," which has been toured this s~ason in reper- , tory by the newly formed Everyman Theatre·, under the direction of Sydney Risk. This company was established, on a professional basis, to provide - an outlet for young Canadians who want to work in the Canadian theatre, and to bring the performances of ''round actors" to as many large and small cent~es as possible in the'Western provinces. It is the intention of the company's directo~s - to present Canadian plays along with the standard classics of rep~rtory, and Mrs. Gowan's script ·was prepared for this inaugural season. That the play has been well received...