Drama

DRAMA 269 A final word - the books mentioned here cover a bit more than 10 per cent of the books received for review, a mere seratch on the surface. In some ways, a selection such as this has to be arbitrary, and the fact that other books aren't here is certainly no reflection on the quality of their writing. As the diversity and quality of this work indicates, the writing of poetry is alive and well in Canada. Unfortunately, publishing is not alive and well. The recent demise of Coach House Press is a serious setback, notwithstanding the fatuous and ignorant comments of Mike Harris, the Ontario premier, especially considering that it's only a presage of what's coming. Most of the presses publishing the work reviewed here are under the same extreme financial pressures that doomed Coach House. The inevitable result will be fewer and fewer books published, so while the writing will undoubtedly go on, we won'tbe able to read it. This won't be a problemfor those like the premier who don't read anyway. It will be a disaster for Canada, which will be a world without The Holy Forest, Aurora, The Floating Garden, and Asphalt Cigar, to name only the books mentioned here which were published by Coach House. ' Drama RICHARD PAUL KNOWLES In 1994, declines in arts funding for Canadian theatre resulted in the production and publication of a proliferation ot"solo and small-cast plays, together with an unusually large number of (comparatively low-budget) plays for young audiences. Many of these plays were economically published in specialized and specially targeted collections and anthologies. In 1995, the same or worsening funding situation, particularly as it applies to play publishers, has led to the folding of the magazine Theatrum, which has for years served as a print outlet for some of the most adventuresome of alternative and avant-garde scripts. In 1995, the magazine's final two issues included onlyStewart Lemoine's innocuous but clevercomic adaptation of the apocryphal Book ofTobit, in two parts. The economic situation in 1995 also led, it would seem, to the publication of a significantly reduced number of scripts by new or experimental playwrights, and a higher percentage than usual of published plays by proven or established writers, playwrights, and others. The result, to generalize shamelessly, is a review package with perhaps more competence than usual, on average, but with significantly less excitement. This year's is also a package withthe fewest collections in recent memory. The first is a serviceable and soon-to-be-popular follow-up of audition pieces to Playwrights Canada's 1990 volume, The Perfect Piece. Another Pe'rfeet Piece (Playwrights Canada, 230, $19.95) is sure both to compete with 270 LETTERS IN CANADA 1995 and capitalize on the success of the earlier volume, and it is full of small gems, one hundred in all, that bear witness to the health of Canadian playwritingbyhundreds of talented people, most ofwhom livebeneath the poverty line for lack of public support. . The other collections, apart from a welcome first assemblage ofscripts by the iconoclastic Sky Gilbert (reviewed below), are also purpose-built: both B01'leman: An Anthology ofCanadian Plays, edited by Gordon Ralph Oesperson , 346, $19.95) and Canadian Mosaic: Six Plays, edited by Aviva Ravel (Simon and Pierre, 256, $22.99) are intended for school use. Both volumes suffer from the educational syndrome parodied by AlanSinfield in the title of his article, 'Give an accotmt of Shakespeare in Education, showing why. you think they are effective and what you have appreciated about them. Support your comment with precise references/ in that both include 'helpful' questions for the use ofstudents and teachers. The questions range from the inane to the offensive: what possible educational value, in a drama classroom, could there be in posing the question, with reference to a character's choice of girlfriends, 'does forbidd.en fruit taste twice as sweet? If so, why?' Both collections also include a more or less equal mix ofpoorly chosen and ploddingly predictableplays selected and organized for 'issue'based coverage in the classroom, and well-crafted theatrical explorations of concerns and, yes, issues, that are less...