Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Writing a History of Literature in Canada
- I Beginnings
- II The Literature of New France, 1604–1760
- III The Literature of British Canada, 1763–1867
- IV From the Dominion to the Territorial Completion of the Nation, 1867–1918
- V The Modern Period, 1918–1967
- VI Literature from 1967 to the Present
- 21 Sociopolitical and Cultural Developments from 1967 to the Present
- 22 English-Canadian Literary Theory and Literary Criticism
- 23 The English-Canadian Novel from Modernism to Postmodernism
- 24 The English-Canadian Short Story since 1967: Between (Post)Modernism and (Neo)Realism
- 25 English-Canadian Poetry from 1967 to the Present
- 26 Contemporary English-Canadian Drama and Theater
- 27 Canons of Diversity in Contemporary English-Canadian Literature
- 28 Literature of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
- 29 The Quebec Novel
- 30 The French-Canadian Short Prose Narrative
- 31 French-Canadian Poetry from 1967 to the Present
- 32 Orality and the French-Canadian Chanson
- 33 Drama and Theater from the Révolution tranquille to the Present
- 34 Transculturalism and écritures migrantes
- 35 The Institutionalization of Literature in Quebec
- Further Reading
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
26 - Contemporary English-Canadian Drama and Theater
from VI - Literature from 1967 to the Present
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Writing a History of Literature in Canada
- I Beginnings
- II The Literature of New France, 1604–1760
- III The Literature of British Canada, 1763–1867
- IV From the Dominion to the Territorial Completion of the Nation, 1867–1918
- V The Modern Period, 1918–1967
- VI Literature from 1967 to the Present
- 21 Sociopolitical and Cultural Developments from 1967 to the Present
- 22 English-Canadian Literary Theory and Literary Criticism
- 23 The English-Canadian Novel from Modernism to Postmodernism
- 24 The English-Canadian Short Story since 1967: Between (Post)Modernism and (Neo)Realism
- 25 English-Canadian Poetry from 1967 to the Present
- 26 Contemporary English-Canadian Drama and Theater
- 27 Canons of Diversity in Contemporary English-Canadian Literature
- 28 Literature of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
- 29 The Quebec Novel
- 30 The French-Canadian Short Prose Narrative
- 31 French-Canadian Poetry from 1967 to the Present
- 32 Orality and the French-Canadian Chanson
- 33 Drama and Theater from the Révolution tranquille to the Present
- 34 Transculturalism and écritures migrantes
- 35 The Institutionalization of Literature in Quebec
- Further Reading
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH-CANADIAN playwrights articulate a diversity of voices and give expression to the country's many particular social and psychological spaces. They map its physical and mental terrain by dramatizing specific communities in terms of their histories, internal conflicts, and psychic landscapes. Since the 1960s regional history has continued to stimulate playwriting, providing local stories that inform the life of the community and the nation. These plays often revisit an apparently benign Canadian history from a critical perspective, and expose moral and political travesties. More recently, English-Canadian playwrights have been engaged in mapping specific communities in terms of ethnicity and ideology. Their divergent stories argue against a homogenous Canada and constitute a complex portrait of many colors, perspectives, and lifestyles. Thus contemporary English-Canadian plays often contest the idea of a cohesive national identity; they interrogate Canada's place in the world and its global responsibilities.
Mapping an Alternative Terrain
From the late 1950s English-Canadian drama has been developed and produced primarily in a network of small “alternative” theaters in cities across the country. These theaters were established in order to create a distinctively local drama as an alternative to the British and American plays which predominated in the larger commercial houses. Their early work was typically collaborative — collective creations by actors, writers, and directors, who imagined the social landscape of a particular community or group. George Luscombe's (1926–1999) Toronto Workshop Productions (TWP), founded in 1959, experimented with a politically engaged dramaturgy that challenged entrenched ideas of class and gender, using a variety of theatrical techniques from Brechtian docudrama to mime and circus.
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- History of Literature in CanadaEnglish-Canadian and French-Canadian, pp. 373 - 386Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008