Abstract:Elaine Nardocchio’s Theatre and Politics in Modern Quebec has the same basic goal, in the Quebec context, as the Canadian Theatre Critics recently published Contemporary Canadian Theatre: New World Vi...Elaine Nardocchio’s Theatre and Politics in Modern Quebec has the same basic goal, in the Quebec context, as the Canadian Theatre Critics recently published Contemporary Canadian Theatre: New World Visions had in the context and Canada as a whole. As the author points out in her introduction, it “aims to provide information that will lead to a better knowledge and understanding outside of Quebec of the socio political nature and implications of French-language theatre in Quebec.” It is indeed, as Eugene Benson states in the introduction, a “lively and timely” book; but unfortunately it suffers from some of the same weaknesses as Contemporary Canadian Theatre. The fault doe not lie with the author, who has managed to assemble a wealth of material into a neatly organized package, but with the discrepancy between the vast scope of the project and its limited format: a slim 115 pages of text. The inevitable result is generalization, oversimplification, shallowness of analysis and glaring omissions. The selection and treatment of playwrights provides a perfect example of the general tone of the book. Nardocchio has singlec out eight authors for individual mini-chapters. Of these, Michel Tremblay, obviously the outstanding figure of contemporary Quebec theatre, rates a full six pages, while the others – Marcel Dubé, Gratien Gélinas, Jacques Languirand, Robert Gurik, Françoise Loranger, Jean Barbeau, and Jean-Claude Germain – average about four pages each. Eleven lesser playwrights are grouped together in one short chapter. Obviously, not much that is new to an even modestly informed student of the Canadian theatre scene can be said within such a small space.Read More
Publication Year: 1987
Publication Date: 1987-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 13
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