The Canadian Precedents

Abstract

Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Workshop Productions, the Mummers of Newfoundland, Regina’s Globe Theatre, John Juliani’s Savage God, Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre Society, Montreal’s Théâtre d’aujourd’hui and dozens of other companies all across the country bear vivid testimony to the fact that the relationship between theatre and social action has not been lost on Canadian artists. This past winter, in fact, many of these theatres—at the invitation of the Mummers—met in St. John’s to discuss the politics of theatre and social action as well as defining general concerns in the field. But because the work of many of these companies has already been documented—in CTR and elsewhere—it seemed more fruitful in the context of this theme issue to look back a little bit for earlier examples of theatre and social action in Canada. One could speak of John Herbert’s play, Fortune and Men’s Eyes, in this context for it was Herbert’s castigation of prison life which led to the creation in the United States of The Fortune Society in 1967. The Society is a nonprofit organization aimed at improving vocational, educational and social opportunities for ex-convicts as well as creating greater public awareness of the prison system and the problems and complexities confronting inmates during their incarceration and when they return to society. But there have been even earlier attempts at linking theatre and social action and one of the most historically interesting was the development through the 1930s of the Progressive Arts Clubs across the country. Beginning in Toronto, the PACs spread to Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver and in their turn led to the creation of the Worker’s Experimental Theatre in Toronto and later to the Theatre of Action there. Recently, CTR Editor Don Rubin and former CTR Managing Editor Forster Freed interviewed two of the movement’s pioneers, Oscar and Toby Ryan, as part of a series of interviews done for the Ontario Historical Studies Series. The following is excerpted from that interview now on deposit in the Ontario Public Archives. The Ryans’ story has never been told in full and in an attempt to correct that situation, Toby Ryan is now working on a memoir of this fascinating period, a period which saw theatre utilized in extraordinary ways for social betterment.