| One of Canada’s best-known playwrights has stopped writing plays.
Brad Fraser, born in Edmonton, is internationally known for award-winning plays like Unidentified Human Remains and, most recently, Cold Meat Party. "Since then? I’ve worked on Queer as Folk, I’ve hosted a talk show, I’m developing a new series – I’ve done anything I can to stay as far away from the theatre as possible," he says, and his reason is simple. "It’s boring! I’m not talking about fringe theatre; I’m talking about mainstream small, mid- and large-sized theatres. I can’t tell them apart, and most of the plays we see are television. They don’t do anything to exploit the many possibilities of the theatre."
Fraser hits town this week for the Paget-Hoy Lecture Series at the University of Calgary, with a talk entitled How We’ve Failed the Theatre in Canada. But, who’s "we"?
"Everyone!" he says. "The professionals, the audience, the granting bodies – everybody. I really think, in chasing a kind of commercial sensibility, we’ve lost something that was really important to the new Canadian play: the ability to take chances and try things that were different. I don’t think theatre should be fiscally viable. I think hit plays should be fiscally viable, and they should support things we’re developing, because that’s where the next hit comes from. You have to develop 100 plays before you find a single hit that will make that kind of money."
Fraser worries that the next generation of theatre artists may fizzle before it begins. "When I was in high school, I was a white trash kid from nowhere," he says. "I didn’t know theatre from dick at that point – actually, I knew dick a lot better. I saw a play, and the idea of what could be done on stage really excited me. I grew up with a whole generation of people, like Ronnie Burkett, Blake Brooker, Denise Clarke, Judith Thompson, who were coming to theatre for the first time, trying to find where its power was. Theatre doesn’t speak to young people anymore. I’m not talking about your academics or your arts aspirants – I’m talking about the people who are out at clubs, the people spending all this money on video games, DVDs and TVs. Why aren’t they spending some of that money on theatre? Part of the problem we’re running into is there are too many people who’ve failed in theatre now teaching it or working as critics, generally inflicting their mediocrity on a new generation."
Fraser presents his lecture, How We’ve Failed the Theatre in Canada, at the University of Calgary (Boris Roubakine Recital Hall, Craigie Hall) on Thursday, November 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Zaid Shlah’s book of poetry, Taqsim, was originally printed in the United States last year, and now its first Canadian edition is coming out of Calgary’s own Frontenac House. His poetry delves into modern Arab culture intertwined with a contemporary North American esthetic. Join him at Pages Books on Thursday, November 23 at 7:30 p.m.
In Sixtyfive Roses: A Sister’s Memoir, by Heather Summerhayes Cariou, the author’s sister struggles with a terminal illness through the already-trying world of adolescence. It’s a story of family in crisis and sibling love at McNally Robinson on Thursday, November 23 at 7:00 p.m.
Michael Kenyon hits town this week with two books. The Sutler is a collection of poetry that journeys through a failing relationship and out the other side. The Biggest Animals, a novel, details the life of Rosa Pryznyk, a Great War survivor who lives an extraordinary life of beauty and hardship – or would, if she wasn’t the fictional construct of novelist Sam Gentles and film director Herb Thedal. He’ll be at McNally Robinson on Friday, November 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Richard Ford’s character, Frank Bascombe (Independence Day) returns in The Lay of the Land. Now middle-aged, Frank stumbles through a hospital bombing, a bar fight and an encounter with his ex-wife, over the backdrop of the 2000 presidential election. Follow his misadventures at the John Dutton Theatre (W.R. Castell Central Library) on Tuesday, November 28 at 7:30 p.m.
In 1934, acclaimed Russian poet Osip Mandelstam was arrested for a poem that defamed Stalin, igniting four and a half years of persecution. Raffi Aaron looks back at those events through the eyes of an anonymous prisoner in Surviving the Censor: The Unspoken Words of Osip Mandelstam. Join him for politically charged literature at McNally Robinson on Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00 p.m.
Got the publishing bug, but no patience for the traditional publishing market? The Writers Guild of Alberta is here for you, with Self-Publishing 101, a presentation by Debbie Elicksen that goes through the process of creating an attractive, sellable book of your very own. The session is $5 at the Rose and Crown Pub on Wednesday, November 29 at 7:00 p.m.
The monthly Calgary Poetry Slam rolls around again this week, as Sheri-D Wilson and myself present 10 more dynamic poets, storming the stage with their passionate words. See the action at the Beat Niq Jazz & Social Club on Wednesday, November 29 at 8:00 p.m, for only $5 – or, if you want to throw your poetry into the ring, arrive by 7:00 p.m. to sign up! |
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