Les Canadiens

by Rick Salutin, Ken Dryden (Preface)

Les Canadiens begins on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 when a French-Canadian soldier throws his rifle to his son and it becomes a hockey stick. It ends in the Montreal Forum on the night of November 15, 1976, when Montreal Canadien fans turn a hockey game into an election victory rally for the indépendantiste Parti Québécois. In between, it is a play about Quebec and Canada using hockey as a metaphor―and a play about hockey using Quebec and Canada as its setting. Les Canadiens was commissioned by and first performed at Centaur Theatre in Montreal in February, 1977. The book contains a preface by Ken Dryden, former goalie for the Montreal Canadiens, and an introduction on hockey, politics and theatre by Rick Salutin.

Genres: Plays, Sports, Hockey, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Rick Salutin is a playwright, novelist, and journalist who has received awards in all these areas. He wrote a weekly column for the Globe and Mail for 20 years and now provides weekly columns and videos for the Toronto Star.

Reviews

[Brandon Wicke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always love seeing playwrights tackle hockey, and especially our relationship to it as Canadians and Canadiens.

An interesting piece that, perhaps necessarily, feels anchored very firmly to the time and space of its publication (Quebec in the late 70s.) With the changes in Canada, Quebec, and the Canadiens over those 40 years, I wonder if this can still be as poignant an exploration for us of hockey and quebecois identity.

Not one that I’d leap to produce in any way, but one that’s worth reading and including in a library of plays with a uniquely Canadian identity.