Up the Mainstream: The Rise of Toronto’s Alternative Theatres, 1968-1975

Abstract

One of the most endearing qualities of Up the Mainstream is its rich collection of colourful anecdotes about the creators of Toronto’s alternative theatres in the late 60s and 70s. Some of the stories are merely trivial: in 1969 Chris Brookes’s company “blithely” cut a hole in the floor of Trinity Square Church Hall (53); for NDWT’s one-day performance of Reaney’s entire Donnelly trilogy in 1975, Mallory Gilbert “organized a huge gourmet lunch” (246). Some are merely fanciful: in summer 1969 “it seemed like everyone was falling in love” (61). But there is also useful detail about the early careers of key figures in Toronto’s alternative theatres, such as the account of the University of Western Ontario in the 1960s, where Paul Thompson, Martin Kinch, and Keith Turnbull began, and Jack Chambers painted scenery, and John Boyle acted (239). There is some gossip, such as hints about who caused the Festival of Underground Theatre’s deficit (73). But there is a storyteller’s fascination with personal charisma: when Jim Garrard left Theatre Passe Muraille in 1969, the actors treated him like “a departed god” (63); both Garrard and Louis Capson are credited with “messianic” qualities, though of rather different kinds (217); Bena Shuster is “dynamic and admittedly arrogant” (163); John Palmer is “tempestuous” (55) and projects a “manic power” (58). In a certain but limited sense the book’s colourful narrative helps one to feel that one was “there.”