First Stage: The Making of the Stratford Festival by Tom Patterson and Allan Gould (review)

HUMANITIES 151 the only avenue left. As Mullaly points out, their end is in one sense the inevitable result of a star-popularity system that brought wealth and fame to a few while failing to reward those whose support made it possible. A peripheral theatre-figure, Hill is in a different category. Seen through the events of a scandal-touched life and the passionately held views poured forth in his editorials and, apparently, in his satirical play, he is a colourful personality, his grand gestures reminiscent of the swashbuckling styles of many a melodramatic stage-character - hero or villain depending largely on where one stands in the WhiglTory debate. From Preston's and Freer's point of view, the stages were indeed 'desperate,' especially by the end. From the point of view of New Brunswick's theatre history, however, the two canbe seen to have made a contribution that Mullaly ignores. Preston achieved a fair measure of success in Saint John during 1839, 1840, and 1841, despite the usual financial outlay to renovate the theatre, the theatre's location in an unfashionable part of town, and the onset of economic depression. He, like others including the more perspicacious J.W. Lanergan a decade and a half later, certainly preferred to avoid competition, but in so doing he introduced theatre where none had existed except sporadically since 1839 (aside from Deverna's season in 1838). He thus helped to foster a tradition : he did bring stars such as Junius Brutus Booth, the Vandenhoffs, G.H. Hill, and J.H. Hackett. Freer, in Saint John in 1839, was judged 'a clever actor though not an astonishing one' (Commercial News); while undoubtedly 'mediocre' in comparison to Kean, Macready, and Cooke, he was probably a solid actor (drunkenness aside), typical of many anchors for stock companies on which so many provincial centres depended. Desperate Stages is nicely produced, illustrated with portraits of Freer and two of his handwritten letters, and enlivened with selections of contemporary verse. Although Mullaly has published much of the material elsewhere, it is convenient to have it within two covers. (MARY ELIZABETH SMITH) Tom Patterson and Allan Gould. First Stage: The Making of the Stratford Festival McClelland and Stewart. 224· $24.95 As the Stratford Festival enjoys its thirty-fifth season, one welcomes this account from the man who started it all. As a memoir of those heady days leading to opening night the book is engaging and delightful. It helps us to recapture the 'flavour' of Ontario in 1952, from the 'pretty dreary' view of the main street (72) to the response of Mayor Simpson to Patterson's dream: II don't know anything about Shakespeare, except that its the name of a school on the east end of town. But if it's good for Stratford, then I'm all for it ...' (33). . 152 LETTERS IN CANADA 1987 The story is chronological and largely anecdotal: Tom Patterson includes his own portraits of the main players involved, but he also lets them speak in their own persons~-'(}uoting liberally from letters, notes, and speeches. Personalities are the centre of the account, from Norm Freeman (Patterson's milkman turned house-manager) to Skip Manley, the 'Toscanini of tent makers' (152). The experience of living through those days of meetings, worries, consultations, rehearsals, parties, and so on comes to life in this account. 'How, then, did our "miracle" happen?' asks Patterson (4); to this question we might add two others. How did the way it happened affect the development of the Festival? What has been the nature and the importance of that 'miracle,' which has now survived thirty-six years? There is serious history here, and answers would help us think aboufthe history,of the stage in Canada. Patterson's account, by treating this event as 'miracle,' delivers only limited inSights. The picture that Tom Patterson produces of 'Tom Patterson' is ingenuous and engaging - while you can take the boy out of the small town, you can't take the small town out of the boy. There is a constant emphasis upon the 'small town,' people of importance are called 'bigwigs,' Guthrie becomes 'the great director,' and we are told such...