Compte Rendus/Book Reviews

Reviews of the Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English series

Erin Hurley

McGill University

Dear readers,

1 In these pages and in those of the next two issues of TRiC/RtaC, you will be able to read reviews of all 21 volumes in the Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English series, published between 2005 and 2011 by Playwrights Canada Press. In his General Editor’s Preface to volume 9 (Space and the Geographies of Theatres, edited by Michael McKinnie), Ric Knowles describes the goal of the series as follows:

Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English sets out to make the best critical and scholarly work in the field readily available to teachers, students, and scholars of Canadian drama and theatre. In volumes organized by playwright, region, genre, theme and cultural community, the series publishes the work of scholars and critics who have, since the so-called renaissance of Canadian theatre in the late 1960s and early 1970s, traced the coming-into-prominence of a vibrant theatrical community in English Canada.

2 As the last volume in the series was just published, and since none of the volumes had yet been reviewed in our journal, we thought it timely and meet to devote the bulk of our review pages in the next two issues to reviews of this important and useful series. In most cases, reviewers address themselves to two or even three of the volumes in a single review, grouped according to theme, region, or other synergistic rubrics. In some cases, I’ve also turned to international and non-anglophone scholars with particular expertise in the unifying rubric (e.g., space and theatre) and some familiarity with Canadian theatre but who would not consider themselves Canadianists. This choice reflects first, the fact that most Anglophone Canadian theatre scholars have contributed in some way to the series, increasing the difficulty of finding an appropriate, arms-length reviewer. This turn to our international and francophone theatre colleagues also acts on the desire to invite other perspectives on Canadian theatre scholarship, to send our good work into international networks, and to foster intellectual dialogue across borders.

Bonne lecture !