Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Theatre in Atlantic Canada: Soap on a Rope

1990; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 62; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/ctr.62.004

1920-941X

Dawn Rae Downton,

Literature, Musicology, and Cultural Analysis

Over the clinking of champagne flutes at Halifax’s tony Prince George Hotel, Neptune Theatre interim artistic director Tom Kerr announced his 1989 / 90 season. “I think Neptune is the most important of the Canadian regional theatres,” said Kerr, “because it’s the only one outside Toronto that does new work consistently. Original things happen here. ” An ambitious claim, certainly, but one which is in no way borne out by the season itself. The line-up is barely distinguishable from so many others over the 26 years of the Neptune Theatre’s history: Man of La Mancha, yet again; war horse Neil Simon’s well-ridden Broadway Bound; Health, the John Gray musical that premièred last winter at the Vancouver Playhouse to lukewarm reviews; Brass Rubbings, Gordon Pinsent’s new play about old times; The Playboy of the Western World, that veteran snoozer in which Kerr promised but could not deliver the “Canadian” enfant terrible Kiefer Sutherland, can probably not light a spark. For Christmas, there’s yet another stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol, this time by Mavor Moore (who, the Neptune brochure reminds us, played Undershaft in the production of Major Barbara that launched Neptune over a quarter of a century ago); and lastly there’s Foxfire, an American drama with music that will star a man known to most of us as the relic Relic on CBC TV’s The Beachcombers.