REVIEWS

Anne Caron, Le Père Emile Legault et le théâtre au Québec, Montréal: Fides, 1978. 185p.

ANNETTE SAINT-PIERRE

L'historien du théâtre, le metteur en scène et le directeur artistique d'une troupe tourneront avec contentement les pages du livre d'Anne Caron, Le Père Emile Legault et le théâtre au Québec. L'introduction annonce le but de l'auteur qui est de <retracer le sens du mouvement de réévaluation et d'expérimentation qui s'effectua sur notre scène, il y aura bientôt trente-cinq ans>. On s'interroge depuis si longtemps sur la date exacte de la naissance du théâtre au Québec que l'on a hâte de recueillir d'autres éclaircissements sur cette conjoncture.

Le nom du père Legault, chef de file du renouveau au théâtre, évoque toujours le rayonnement des Compagnons de saint Laurent sur les scènes urbaines et rurales du Québec. Anne Caron relate avec clarté et précision la naissance et le dynamisme d'une troupe qui vint, au bon moment, épousseter les salles de spectacles au Québec et leur donner un air de fraîcheur.

Le chapitre premier traite de l'initiation du père Legault au théâtre en passant par son enfance, son adolescence, jusqu'à ce qu'il s'embarque pour l'Europe, en 1938, où il ira frayer avec les hommes du théâtre contemporain. On savait que le père Legault avait étudié l'art dramatique avec les grands maîtres, mais on ne connaissait pas tout de cette <histoire> racontée par Anne Caron.

Déçu du théâtre bourgeois réalisé au Québec, et convaincu qu'on ne réussira pas à développer le goût du théâtre parmi le peuple si l'on persiste dans les mêmes ornières, le père Legault se garde bien d'imiter ce qui se joue au Canada. Il veut un renouveau dramatique par le truchement de nouvelles sources d'inspiration.

De Michel Saint-Denis qui dirige le London Theatre Studio à Londres, il retient l'importance d'une mise en scène plus pure qui ne vient pas alourdir la vision du poète ni le jeu des comédiens. En France, l'effervescence du théâtre fascine le jeune ecclésiastique qui saura s'enrichir à l'heure des Copeau, des Jouvet, des Dullin et des Baty. Il assiste aux représentations des petits théâtres d'avant-garde. Des ouvrages classiques, des textes de dramaturges étrangers et d'auteurs français modernes nourrissent la curiosité de <l'étudiant> qui s'exerce à la critique tout en s'engageant dans une voie sûre. C'est alors qu'il aura l'idée de rénover la présentation des classiques et d'adapter de l'ancien à la moderne.

En assistant à des représentations susceptibles d'être réalisées au Canada, le père Legault n'oublie pas le besoin impérieux d'une dramaturgie nationale et la nécessité d'établir une communion entre l'acteur et le spectateur. De Chancerel, il retiendra l'idée d'un style nouveau pour le théâtre amateur et celle de la présence du théâtre dans l'éducation.

De retour au Canada, en 1939, le directeur des Compagnons de saint Laurent essaie un plan de réforme dans le but de former des comédiens, de créer un public et d'encourager la production d'oeuvres canadiennes-françaises. On peut se demander si l'importance attachée à ce séjour en Europe n'est pas trop grande. En effet, les parties consacrées aux Compagnons de saint Laurent, au public et à la critique, apparaissent comme des résumés si on les compare au chapitre deux sur la formation européenne. Selon nous, les chapitres trois et quatre traitant de quinze ans de travail à la scène auraient mérité plus d'attention que l'année de formation du père Legault. Quoique l'éclairage ait été nécessaire pour expliquer au lecteur la <transformation> du jeune metteur en scène, les activités théâtrales de sa troupe nous intéressaient beaucoup plus.

Anne Caron démontre clairement que l'on a minimisé l'apport du père Legault à la dramaturgie québécoise. Elle a eu raison de le faire - et son étude vient à point - car le théâtre au Québec n'aurait pas poussé des racines aussi profondes sans le passage des Compagnons de saint Laurent, et surtout sans la présence du père Emile Legault.

Ce dernier sait où il va quand il rentre à Montréal. Ses conceptions dramatiques sont analysées par Anne Caron, ainsi que les principales données de son esthétique. Il n'hésite pas à ajouter à son répertoire les oeuvres de Shakespeare, de Beaumarchais, de Musset, de Claudel, de Cocteau, d'Anouilh, etc. Les Compagnons de saint Laurent évitent de s'enliser dans un genre seulement et ce défi fait leur force et leur succès.

En ce qui concerne le théâtre de <chez nous>, les Compagnons de saint Laurent n'auront joué que quatre pièces canadiennes-françaises. On comprendra mieux cette lacune si l'on consulte les textes dramatiques de ces années <Maigres> et l'on ne pourra blâmer le directeur artistique d'avoir abondamment puisé dans le répertoire étranger. Somme toute, la profession du comédien étant revalorisée avec l'avènement du père Legault, celle de la dramaturgie le sera aussi. Des années <grasses> succéderont aux premières. Anne Caron cite un extrait des Confidences du père Legault sur sa vision du comédien:

Un acteur, c'est un athlète, un clown, un acrobate ( ... ). Le comédien est un serviteur, le serviteur souple et disponible d'un texte dramatique. Il doit abdiquer sa personnalité au profit d'une autre âme provisoirement assumée. Cela exige une certaine ascèse. ( ... ) Un comédien qui va jusqu'au bout de lui-même, c'est un modeste et un têtu qui fait bon marché de ses dons immédiats, de taille, de voix, d'apparence et qui se travaille l'âme en dureté et en profondeur.

Le chapitre troisième trace le programme de formation imposé aux membres de l'équipe; c'est aussi un traité pédagogique qui révèle le secret du succès du père Legault à la direction de sa troupe.

Le chapitre quatrième est tout à l'honneur d'un homme de théâtre qui a toujours visé à satisfaire un large public. Anne Caron nous rappelle que da scène professionnelle à Montréal et à Québec, entre 1920 et 1937, travaille en fonction des valeurs marchandes et ne s'intéresse qu'au succès commercial, pour plaire à un auditoire privilégié qui en veut pour son argent>. Quand on songe aux milliers de spectateurs qui applaudirent aux représentations du théâtre chrétien, on apprécie mieux le choix des pièces puisque les thèmes religieux exerçaient un grand attrait sur la population. Le théâtre profane connaîtra autant de succès en dépit du fait que la troupe changera souvent d'adresse et que certains membres songeront à se ranger sous la bannière du professionnalisme.

Après la lecture de ce livre, 'on le classe dans sa bibliothèque sur le rayon des ouvrages à relire ou à consulter. L'étude est enrichie d'une bibliographie de trente-cinq pages, d'excellentes photos et du répertoire de la troupe. Une fois de plus, la maison Fides a fait un bon choix en acceptant de publier Le père Emile Legault et le théâtre au Québec. L'étude sera hautement appréciée par tous les historiens du théâtre. C'est un livre à commander le plus tôt possible.

Pierre Gobin, Le Fou et ses doubles: figures de la dramaturgie québécoise. Montréal: Les Presses de l'université de Montréal, 1978.

LOUISE H. FORSYTH
 

Le Fou et ses doubles is the latest volume in the fine series 'Lignes québécoises' published by Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal. Ten other books have appeared since the series published its first volumes in 1973. With the exception of Lise Gauvin's 'Parti pris' littéraire, each of the books deals with the work of a single major Quebec author. Gobin's work is the first of the series to deal with an aspect of Quebec literature over a long historical period and is also the first to study dramatic literature. Indeed, looking beyond this series, while there are already a few excellent studies of Quebec drama and its playwrights, this book is the first extensive thematic study of the corpus as a whole.

The subject of Gobin's book is folly and madness, but not viewed from a clinical perspective. Instead, folly is situated in its social context, where it is associated with abnormal behavior and with a vision of the shadow, or the double, of the world. As a result, Gobin's approach to Quebec drama establishes dialectical relationships between the two focal points of the fool and the world in which the fool exists. Without exception, there is conflict between the pressures of social norms and the fool's desire. The fool is out of step with his society and is alienated for a variety of reasons by the structures which reflect its values. In some cases, the fool is the hapless victim of forces over which he has little or no control. At other times, folly is consciously assumed as a challenge to mindless authority. In these cases the fool decides to play a role and to make a spectacle of himself. Rather than being the butt of laughter and scorn, he invites others to join in laughter with him. This is the role played by the court jester, Shakespeare's fools and the 'sots' of the French medieval tradition. Whether or not the fool is lucid, the spectator comes to see that when social norms are distorted and artificial, perhaps even mad, then the 'foolish' perspectives of the alienated may, through a process of reversal, be the clearest window on reality.

Gobin suggests that as a conquered and colonized nation, Quebec has endured the presence of a particularly large number of alienating ideologies, which have determined the superstructure of its society. Excluded from the exercise of power, the Québécois has had only a vague sense of identity and a problematic awareness of self in time and space. The authority of traditional ideologies is being challenged throughout the Western world. However, paradoxically, while such challenges have produced gloomy prognostications of the death of tragedy, literature, art, civilization, etc. in many places, the same challenge to the cultural fabric of Quebec, frequently effected by a type of folly, takes on a vigorous and vital form, leading to a rediscovery of the power of laughter and a renewed sense of self, place and historical moment.

Gobin discusses several plays of the nineteenth century in order to show that fascination with 'originaux et détraqués' (the expression was coined by Louis Fréchette) dates from the beginning of Quebec's dramatic tradition. However, it is only in recent years that dramatists such as Claude Gauvreau, Michel Tremblay, Jean Barbeau and Jean-Claude Germain have created characters who fully assume their folly and follow it through to its logical conclusion.

In Chapter One, Gobin discusses that area of folly related to the religious tradition of Canadian Catholicism and the ideology of messianism. The characters are either God's 'fools' or the Devil's possessions. While such characters are not numerous in Quebec dramatic literature, their folly has inspired some fine dramatic creations. It frequently manifests itself in a fundamentally naive and innocent character torn between the evils of the world and a problematic spirituality. As in the case of Bousille or Solange, piety for the fool may be more a bewildering trap than a promise of consolation and salvation.

In the thematic field of folly, Chapter Two introduces the area of political alienation, where time and space are out of joint and disorder prevails. The type of fool found in this area is not possessed, but rather dispossessed, while his dreams of a land of his own are seen against the harsh reality of a situation of extreme confinement. Quebec has long been fascinated by the 'madness' of characters like Riel or some of the Patriots of the 1837 Rebellion.

The type of folly discussed in Chapter Three emerges in the cultural area, symbolically represented by the character's language. Cultural norms and control of the word in Quebec have always come from France. In addition to this cultural domination, control of language has also been exercised from the pulpit or, increasingly today, the mass media. Dramatists particularly sensitive to the paralyzing effects of cultural alienation have created a number of mute and impotent characters. Michel Tremblay turned such alienation inside out with Les Belles-Soeurs when, in the face of dominant cultural norms, joual became the linguistic vehicle of the counter-norm. The unavowed cultural reality of the alienated had found its voice.

The type of folly analyzed in Chapter Four arises in that area of madness created by a materialistic, technological society where communication takes place around the empty slogans of the mass media it has engendered. The economic process reifies individuals, while exploiting them, and allows for expression of personal desire only through forms of fetichism based on subjugation to the very things which oppress. In such a 'mad' world, reason dictates that the normal individual allow himself to be turned into a zombie. The fool who clings to a desire for self-identification is alienated by voices of authority he rarely understands. In an inhuman society, the healthy man is reified and marginalized.

In Chapter Five, Gobin examines the work of dramatists who have fully explored the ontological status of the fool. The logic of folly has led them to its tragic conclusion on the other side of incomprehension and death. Claude Gauvreau, who has given most complete dramatic expression to such madness, offers no resolution to the extreme tension between self and world. Nor does he seek to restore an impossible order to the universe. Instead, he accepts its final explosion, thereby denying to the spectator the security of a transcendant order or the return to normal stability.

Chapter Six reveals a final type of folly, purely theatrical, one which is consciously assumed. The fool acknowledges it would be foolish not to admit he is part of universal human folly. Through such an admission, human creativity is released in a dynamic process. Jacques Ferron and Jean-Claude Germain, along with several others, have rediscovered the rich resources of the satirical 'sotie' tradition. Through parody, subversion and exaggerated theatricalisation of authority and society's psychoses, usually perceived as 'normal', these authors gain access to the double or other side of reason. Such a reversal, using play and all the techniques of theatrical illusion, assures that the fool avoids mutilation and fragmentation, while retaining his wholeness as an individual.

The title of Le Fou et ses doubles recalls Antonin Artaud's famous title Le Théâtre et son double. Gobin makes frequent references to the theories of Artaud and associates his concept of folly in the theatre with Artaud's 'plague.' The association seems well founded. However, one recalls Artaud's insistence on the many languages of theatre and his rejection of a critical tradition which put undue emphasis on the written text. Gobin has, unfortunately, been able to discuss only Quebec dramaturgy, the published and unpublished texts. A full study of the dramatization of folly would seem to demand consideration of the role of theatrical signs other than just the word on the page. In that regard, it would be very interesting to apply the method proposed by Gobin to a study of the numerous manifestations of improvisation and collective creation in Quebec in recent years. Types of fools frequently appear in collective creations. The company whose theatrical work would probably be most interesting in a study of the fool and his doubles is the dynamic Grand cirque ordinaire.

John Ball and Richard Plant, A Bibliography of Canadian Theatre History: 15831975. Toronto: The Playwrights Co-op, 1976; The Bibliography of Canadian Theatre History Supplement: 1975-1976 Toronto: The Playwrights Co-op, 1979.

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON

When John Ball and Richard Plant's first bibliography of books, articles, and theses relating to Canadian Theatre History appeared four years ago, it was greeted by a mixture of relief, acclaim, and irritation: relief that at last a reference of this sort was available to scholars in the field, acclaim for the work's general reliability and thoroughness, and irritation prompted by some of its organizational idiosyncracies. Now that the work has been available as a tool f6r four years, and its supplement for one, use, that acid test of the worth of a reference work, has confirmed all three early reactions.

The initial bibliography provides 2,015 listings classified within thirteen categories: general surveys; history to 1900; twentieth-century English-Canadian theatre; twentieth-century French-Canadian theatre; the little theatre movement; the Dominion Drama Festival; the Stratford Festival; Theatre Education; theatre architecture, facilities, stage design and lighting; biography and criticism: actors, actresses and playwrights; theses; periodicals; and bibliography of theatre bibliographies. The second, third, and fifth categories are further subdivided by region, while within all categories except 'Theses', in which entries are listed in the alphabetical order of their authors' surnames, entries are listed chronologically by the publication date of the article or book. The supplement adds 1,040 entries, listing items published in 1976 and rectifying omissions. The same classification system is employed, but a fourteenth category, books on stagecraft, is added.

The first difficulty encountered by the prospective user of the work, then, is that two books cover roughly the same time period, necessitating double consultation on any topic, the same difficulty attending use of the Brock bibliographies of published Canadian plays. The compilers of both works faced the same dilemma, balancing the urgent need for a reference in the field against the desire for completeness and the concomitant need for yet further delay; the dilemma encourages sympathy, but the difficulty remains, to be remedied, one hopes, by a future amalgamation of the listings.

Principles of categorization are always difficult to establish, particularly in a work, such as this one, which brings together so many disparate items; nonetheless, not all categories in the Ball and Plant bibliographies seem logical, and this adds to the difficulties encountered by a user. For instance, while all other divisions are determined by subject matter, items in the 'Theses' section are grouped according to their manner of presentation. Because a thesis might conceivably examine any of the areas within the bibliographies' scope, the user must consult at least four sections, relevant field and theses in each book, every time he has occasion to use the work.

The most serious difficulties, however, are created by the chronological listing of items by date of publication. Except in the case of the Stratford section, where the arrangement leads the reader to articles on particular seasons, I can find no practical use for this organizational method. The method is particularly irksome in the biography and criticism section; while the thorough and reliable index alleviates some problems, the index does not distinguish interviews and general background pieces from literary or dramatic criticism (why not separate sections?), does not help the reader to find criticism of individual plays or performances, nor, in the case of some writers, does it make it clear whether the person is the author or the subject of the indexed item. Information would be much more efficiently arranged, surely, were the items in the section listed alphabetically according to the names of the subjects; a good many questions would be answered at a glance, obviating the need for shuffling back and forth between index and text. In other sections, classification by company, theatre, or even city would be preferable to the present system.

The compilers have established some boundaries to their work. Items pertaining to radio drama are excluded (as are items pertaining to other electronic dramatic media, although these exclusions are not mentioned by the authors). Also excluded are newspaper articles, except those appearing in the Financial Post. Ball and Plant further caution that they have 'not attempted to be exhaustive' in their listing of French-Canadian material, arguing that the field is large enough to warrant study in its own right and therefore restricting their efforts to 'materials which supplement the study of English-Canadian theatre history'. Criteria for determining what does and what does not provide such aid are not explained. Also, the indexing of Saturday Night and Canadian Forum is not complete; the extent of the gap is not specified in the introduction to the original bibliography, but in the introduction to the supplement we are told that the 'early years' of the journals are the periods neglected.

Again, the problems determining the parameters of the study are acute, and elicit sympathy for those attempting to solve them. However, some of the limitations of the bibliographies have unfortunate and far-reaching consequences. The task of indexing newspaper articles about Canadian theatre and drama would be a monumental one, and it is certainly understandable that the bibliographers; felt that the job was beyond them. However, the omission has introduced a misleading distortion into this, the first extensive attempt to survey the field. A good deal of the published history of the theatre of Atlantic and Western Canada is to be found not in journals, most of them central Canadian, but in regional newspapers. A practical limitation of the study, then, has the effect of misrepresenting the nature of the field itself.

The incomplete indexing of two major journals is less understandable and excusable, and the difficulties created are compounded by the failure to indicate precisely which volumes of Canadian Forum and Saturday Night have not been searched. For that matter, Ball and Plant would have done the prospective user of their work a great service had they listed the journals, or volumes of journals, which they have indexed; their one inexplicable gap casts doubts which can be eased only through recourse to other references.

For all the qualifications, however, I am certainly among those grateful to Ball and Plant for this hitherto unavailable assistance, and I greatly admire their diligence and skill. While the bibliographies of Canadian theatre history are not yet, by themselves, a comprehensive guide to the field, and while their machinery needs modification to achieve the fullest possible efficiency, it must be remembered that bibliography requires the salutory effect of successive accumulations, and that, therefore, future compilations from Ball and Plant will undoubtedly provide even greater services to Canadian theatre scholars.