PATRICK B. O'NEILL
Herman Goodden has written a short monograph that surveys the development of theatre in London, Ontario, from the first productions by the military on 7 December 1839 until the death of Larry Lillo in June of 1993. As clearly stated in the Foreword, this is not a lengthy scholarly text but rather a modest publication that highlights the theatre history of London in seven brief chapters--the Garrison tradition, the early resident companies, the Holmans, the Heyday of the touring shows, the revival of the amateur tradition, the London Little Theatre, and Theatre London. On balance, the last two chapters are the most successful. Better research and organization facilitates a clearer line of exposition than in the first five sections, which are somewhat patchy and not as well integrated thematically. Nevertheless, as a pioneering introduction to theatre in London and a source of previously unpublished information (G. Simcoe Lee debuted in the role of Chloe in High Life Below Stairs on 17 January 1844), the work is a valuable addition to our knowledge of theatre history.
Goodden's methodology is primarily a work of synthesis: the author combines his own conversations with theatre practitioners with newspaper clippings (including his own reviews) and various unpublished sources housed in the London area, such as an unpublished manuscript by Catharine McC. Brickenden that details her connections to the London theatre scene beginning in 1932 and Alice Gibb's unpublished "Sewers and Sidewalks: A Look at the Development of Theatre London." Regrettably, the author apparently made little effort to augment his results with published scholarship in the field. The absence of Early Stages and The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre from his endnotes reveals two examples of fundamental sources that he failed to consult.
Authors, however, should be judged on how well they achieve what they intend, rather than on what the academic community wishes they had intended. Despite a number of academic shortcomings, Curtain Rising must be considered in its designated market. Undertaken as a project for the London Regional Art and Historical Museums, the book is designed for popular reading by the London community, and provides that public with a compassionate look at its theatrical past. There are few areas within this compact account of London's theatre history that the general reader will not find interesting, and the inclusion of numerous photographs aids in personalizing the people who created that history. The real strength of this work lies in the author's very readable style. In describing the first piece of dramatic criticism to appear in the London Herald on 7 January 1843, Goodden writes:
This review wonderfully combines many of the salient qualities to be found in the local reviews of the period--a scattershot spewing of witless superlatives interspersed with a few stray bricks of perfectly brutal nastiness and the whole thing glossed over with a disconcerting sheen of incomprehension.
Such lines afford a pleasurable enlightenment to the general reading public, and to academic readers as well.