Répertoire des œuvres de la littérature radiophonique québécoise, 1930–1970 by Pierre Pagé, Renée Legris, Louise Blouin, and: Robert Choquette, romancier et dramaturge de la radio-télévision by Renée Legris, and: Répertoire des dramatiques québécoises à la télévision, 1952–1977 by Pierre Pagé, Renée Legris, and: Le Comique et l’humour à la radio québécoise: aperçus historiques et textes choisis, 1930–1970 by Pierre Pagé, Renée Legris, and: L’Eglise et le théàtre au Québec by Jean Laflamme, Rémi Tourangeau, and: Théàtre québécois II: nouveaux auteurs, autres spectacles by Jean-Cléo Godin, Laurent Mailhot, and: Le Rideau se léve au Manitobaby Annette Saint-Pierre (review)

Archives quebtkoises de la radio et de la television Vol I: Pierre Page, Renee Legris, and Louise Blouin. Repertoire des ceuvres de la litterature radiophonique quebecoise, '930 -'970 Vol II: Renee Legris. Robert Choquette, romancier et dramaturge de la radio-television Vol III: Pierre Page and Renee Leglis. Repertoire des dramatiques quebecoises ala television, '952-'977 Fides. '975; '977; '977· 826; 287; 252. $22.50; $12.95; $10.00 Pierre Page and Renee Legris. Le Comique et thurnour d la radio quebecoise: aper~us historiques et textes choisis, 1930- '970 Vol I: La Presse 1976; vol II: Fides '979· 677; 736. Each $'4·95 Jean Laflamme and Remi Tourangeau. L'Eglise et Ie theiUre au Quebec Fides '979· 356. $'3·95 Jean-Cleo Godin and Laurent Mailhot. Thedtre qutbecois II: nouveaux auteurs, autres spectacles Hurtubise HMH. 248. $9.50 Annette Saint-Pierre. Le Rideau se leve au Manitoba St Boniface: Editions des Plaines. 318. $25.00 Over the past decade the stage arts in French Canada have attracted more, and generally more competent, attention from researchers than in the entire previous history of the craft in this country. The wait seemed a long one between Jean Beraud's still useful 350 ans de theatre au Canada franfais (1958) and the successive, complementary studies of the '970s: Baudoin Burger's seminal Activite theatrale au Quebec, '765-,825 ('974); E.-G. Rinfre!'s monumental Theatre canadien d'expression franfaise: repertoire analytique des origines tl nos jours (4 vols, 1975-8); the rich collection of critical and historical essays and interviews offered by vol 5 of Archives des lettres canadiennes, entitled Le Theiltre canadien-franfOis (1976); the chronicles and analyses dealing with the contemporary period: Michel Belair's Le Nouveau Theatre quebecois (1973), Martial Oassylva's Un theatre en effervescence (1975); the thematic studies, such as Jacques Cotnam's Le Theiltre quebecois: instrument de contestation sociale et politique (1976), Pierre Gobin's Le Fou et ses doubles: figures de la dramaturgie quebecoise (1975), E.-F. Duval's Anth%gie thematique du theiltre quebecois au Xlx' siede (1978). The wait has been worthwhile. The research and publication - archival, historical, synthetic - continue at high pace, as the eight additional volumes reviewed here clearly testify. What is perhaps most striking about these recent publications is their reliance upon collaboration: all but two of these eight volumes proceed from partnerships. For sheer dedication, displayed in the quantity and originality of their output, no team compares with that of Pierre Page and Renee LegriS, whose labours in an area little known and less appreciated, the 'paratheatre' of radio and television, have opened up the most promising new perspectives upon the evolution of theatrical forms in 178 LETTERS IN CANADA 1980 Quebec. Their Repertoire des CEuvres de fa fitterature radiophonique quebecoise, '930-'970, the first in a thIee-volume series entitled Archives quebecoises de la radio et de la television, appeared in '975. It represents a true pioneering undertaking, the culmination of more than five years of systematic perusal of newspapers, periodicals, and private papers, often in difficult conditions and in the face of academic reaction ranging from lukewarm approbation to disdainful hostility. Page, Legris, Louise Blouin, and their helpers have managed to assemble and classify an astounding collection of original scripts, some 2000 titles, representing well over half a million pages of original material. Incredible as it now seems, the principal disseminator of these spoken texts, Radio-Canada, had preserved scarcely anything before '955: one had to seek out the authors themselves, the performers of the scripts, their technical assistants , or their families. Despite this, Page affirms that the Repertoire represents something over 95 per cent of the textual material (practically no recorded materials have survived) actually broadcast in the categories included in its purview: original fictional creations written for radio, exeluding all adapted or imported works. Moreover - and the fact bears underlining - the titles listed represent not merely programmes identifiable from programme notes in newspapers and periodicals but the texts themselves. This first volume is thus a guide to a potential source of cultural information of incalculable significance. For the forty years in question the majority of the population of Quebec could react on a daily basis...