Theatre in Atlantic Canada by Linda Avril Burnett (review)

Volumes in the Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English series collect together previously published essays and a few newly commissioned pieces on a specific theme or region of the country. This new volume, edited by Linda Burnett, is an excellent primer on the theatre of Canada’s east coast, dealing with its complex history and the eclectic styles of its artists and companies, as well as the professional and institutional challenges it continues to face today. The essays in the volume fall mainly into three categories: overviews of the theatre in a specific area (Michael Devine on Newfoundland; George Belliveau, Josh Weale, and Graham Lea on PEI, and Glen Nichols on New Brunswick), a perspective on a specific writer’s body of work (Brian Parker on Michael Cook and George Elliot Clarke on George Boyd), and analyses of the mandate and work of theatre companies (Ric Knowles on Mulgrave Road Co-Op Theatre, Denise Lynde on Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Roberta Barker on Zuppa Circus Theatre Company, and Alan Filewod on the Mummers Troupe). The essays, variously descriptive, analytical, historical, and anecdotal in approach, together demonstrate how passionately critics and artists feel about creating their work in (and about) Atlantic Canada, even if they often face a scarcity of resources.

But while the complaint about resources first seems as though it will be the volume’s focus (it is a discussion point in Burnett’s introduction and it is the central lament of Bryden MacDonald’s essay), the focus thankfully shifts to a celebration of its many successes, whether the substantial achievements of artists such as George Boyd or Chris Brookes; successful festivals such as the Gros Morn Theatre Festival in Cow Head, Newfoundland, or One Light Theatre’s Prismatic Festival in Halifax; or the unique dramaturgical approaches of new and innovative companies such as Moncton Sable, Zuppa Circus, and Artistic Fraud. A lot of artists are discussed in the book’s seventeen essays, though there remain notable absences as well. Burnett notes in her introduction that some successful playwrights such as Daniel MacIvor and Wendy Lill have received little to no attention from critics and scholars, and while Lill’s play Sisters gets a brief treatment by Jerry Wasserman, MacIvor still gets none. The one newly commissioned essay for the book, Len Falkenstein’s good piece about first-time playwright John Barlow’s Inspiration Point, does fulfill one of the book series’s mandates of giving some voice to marginalized communities, here aboriginal artists in Atlantic Canada. But an opportunity to address notable absences seems to have been lost (other volumes in the series feature more new essays). Personally, I would like to have seen more about PEI’s Kent Stetson, a member of the Order of Canada who in 2001 won a Governor General’s Award for Drama for his fascinating poetic drama Harps of God about the Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914. There is also Nova Scotia’s under-recognized playwright Catherine Banks, whose powerful plays Bone Cage and It Is Solved by Walking were recipients of the Governor General’s Award in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

Perhaps the most useful essays for educators and students are those that provide substantial historical and cultural context. Glen Nichols’s excellent piece about English and French theatre in New Brunswick, for example, takes advantage of the author’s deep knowledge of both – unfortunately too separate – theatre communities and is especially notable for the insight it provides into French Acadian theatre, which, while quite unknown in the rest of Canada, is doing fascinating work and boasts no less than three professional theatres. Likewise, Michael Devine’s essay about the Gros Morn Theatre Festival goes way beyond its immediate subject to give its reader a sense of the broad range of theatrical activity in Newfoundland historically and in the present. By considering performance beyond the narrow confines of professional, traditional theatre as important cultural activity worthy of critical consideration, Devine does something that more critical work about the region ought...