Modern Canadian Plays:

by Jerry Wasserman

In Volume II, Wasserman shows us Canadian drama from 1985 up to 1997, during which we see women playwrights rise to greater prominence, along with Native, gay and lesbian, and Quebecois playwrights. But, continuing on from Volume I, this selection of plays not only takes us farther into the annals of the lives of the marginalized; it also provides a revealing cultural and philosophical cross-section of late-20th-century life in Canada.

In one way or another, we are shown ourselves as we are, and not in the critically-neutral, determinedly naïve terms of the contemporary mainstream in which we are all represented as gloriously enmeshed in a world of cybernetic stringency—the uncomplicated aesthetic of a never-ending stream of zeroes and ones.

If the plays presented in these two volumes are the contours of an “indigenous Canadian drama,” they outline anything but a norm.

The plays in this fourth edition of Modern Canadian Plays: Volume II date from 1985 to 1997:

Bordertown Café by Kelly Rebar

Polygraph by Robert Lepage and Marie Brassard

Moo by Sally Clark

The Orphan Muses by Michel Marc Bouchard

7 Stories by Morris Panych

Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing by Tomson Highway

Amigo’s Blue Guitar by Joan MacLeod

Lion in the Streets by Judith Thomson

Never Swim Alone by Daniel MacIvor

Fronteras Americanas by Guillermo Verdecchia

Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears

Problem Child by George F. Walker

Genres: Drama

408 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2000

Reviews

[Phillip]

Bordertown Cafe, by Kelly Rebar: The first half of this play didn't interest me that much, but I thought the second half was much more engaging. The play centers of the interplay of the US in Canadian culture, particularly the draw exerted by an ostensibly glamorous and opportunity-filled US in contrast to the dreary and bleak Canadian prairies. Set is a run down cafe just on the Canadian side of the border, the play pits the American side of a family against the Canadian side, with the draw of adventure in the US being pitted against the steady home of Canada. There are also interesting elements of generational conflict, especially as the son, Jimmy, comes to learn that his mother and even his grandfather were once young and foolish, and once much like him.

Polygraph, by Robert Lepage and Marie Brassard: There's a lot of technical play in this show, through the use of lighting, film, and scenic effects to create a cinematic effect. Sometimes this falls flat for me, but I think the mystery/noir style here would work really well. Using this technique for a murder-mystery works well, because the noir genre is already so constructed that it becomes a good basis for such a theatrically constructed (i.e., non-naturalistic) performance. Noir also inherently raises questions about truth, deception, guilt, etc. all of which are prominent themes in this play.

[Emily Andrews]

a pretty good selection of plays. they were easy to read (given that plays are meant to be seen, I wonder if they did this on purpose).