DENYSE LYNDE
In order to mark the collapse of traditional Newfoundland culture inherent in the cod moratorium, two Memorial University students formed their own company, Island Stages, to mount Michael Cook's eerily prescient Head, Guts and Sound Bone Dance, first produced in 1973. With the play's original director, Tony Chadwick, and some of the original cast, this strong production deserved large houses. In the event, houses were pitiful; Michael Cook, who flew home to see the remount, was not, however, surprised. For Michael, who came to the Island in the sixties and began a lifelong love affair with her people and places, Newfoundland had always remained a cold and distant lover. But home Newfoundland would remain in more ways than one; a few days after Head, Guts and Sound Bone Dance closed, Michael, on the way to visit his outport sanctuary on Random Island, became seriously ill and died in St. John's on July 2, 1994.
When Michael first came to Newfoundland, two theatrical traditions reigned. In the urban centres, there was a strong and vibrant amateur scene while in the rural areas the concert tradition thrived. The young, talented and eager newcomer threw himself into the St. John's theatre world as actor, director, adjudicator and critic, and then, in the early seventies, playwright. And it was as playwright that he excited and disturbed audiences first in Newfoundland and then across North America. Michael's plays have frequently been met with damning praise from critics and audiences despite initial excitement from would-be producers; here a basic contradiction that haunted Michael and his work is revealed. From the warm local reaction to Head, Guts and Sound Bone Dance in Newfoundland and its subsequent dismissal by Ottawa and Montreal critics, to the hostile and vicious local reaction to Jacob's Wake and the variety of responses to productions in such diverse places as Lennoxville, Poland, and Ottawa, Michael's work has always challenged us. The response was never one of indifference but, in one way or another, troublesome. Audiences, readers and critics praise his language, fault his language, praise his theatricality, condemn his theatricality, and finally love his work or hate his work.
Where Michael and his plays lie in the Canadian theatre landscape is a question that has yet to be addressed. The uneasy truce with his adopted province is echoed by his tentative place within our theatres. Interestingly, while he continued his work for the theatre as writer and teacher, radio increasingly became Michael's focus. It is as if here his passion, his fury and his love of language was finally allowed to flourish. Will this substantial contribution ever be recognized? One can but ask. Regardless, his love of the theatre did not diminish and he had plans for yet another major play before he died. Sadly but not surprisingly, it is now following his death that two of his unpublished plays are available to readers and practitioners, while productions of his plays are once again being considered in the professional community.
Those of us who knew Michael remember best perhaps his love of life, his intensity and his generosity of spirit. His former students, whether from twenty-five or five years ago, speak of the excitement and love of theatre that he shared with them. Many theatre practitioners fondly remember with bitter-sweet memories the small, occasionally infuriating playwright. And, finally and perhaps most importantly for playwright Michael Cook, we have his plays, radio scripts and numerous commentaries. In many ways it seemed he wrote to live and lived to write, pausing only long enough to share a new insight or remember a fine moment. He has given us an incredible gift and we are grateful.
Michael Cook - 1933-1994
WORKS CITED
Cook, Michael. The Great Harvest Excursion. Inter-Play. St. John's: Breakwater, 1994.
________. The End of the Road. New Found Stages: A Collection of Newfoundland Drama. St. John's: Breakwater, in press.