Canadian Alternative Theater Essay examples -- Richard III 3 William S

My Kingdom For a Canadian Alternative theatre The Richard threesome That Never WasOf all the parts she vie in her brief time as an actress during the late 1960s, thepart my mystify remembers most fondly is one she never got to perform the role ofRichard IIIs hump in Theatre Passe Murailles business of Richard III. The productionwas conceived of more than twenty years before I was born, and Ive never seen videorecordings, photographs, or even a review of the piece. In fact, the play was cancelled forfinancial reasons before it was ever performed. Despite this, for me, my suffers role inthe 1969 vision of Richard III represents a fascinating, and humorous, fleck in whichShakespeare and my own Canadian history come together. More than this, the failedproduction, rehearsed at the Theatre Passe Muraille during the early days of Torontosexperimental study scene, is representative of a significant change in attitude towardShakespeare, towards Britain, and towards what a Canadian Sh akespeare or even aCanadian theatre meant and could mean.In 1969, the Theatre Passe Muraille was based in the Church of the Holy collar a traditionally liberal church tucked between the towers of the Eaton magnetic core in the heart ofdowntown Toronto. Twenty-five years later, when I was eight, I would go to the samechurch for a summer camp offered by a non-profit arts organization run by my mother,who had long since given over up acting. I would play theatre games on the same lawcourtstones. In 1969, however, my mother and the forty-odd members of the Theatre Passe 2Muraille had just go in, and the church was just becoming one of the most importantcentres for secondary theatre in Canada.The Theatre Passe... ...inst anidea of The Bard as the last-ditch figure of British, and therefore legitimate, culture. Asmy mother said, you want to free yourself from your compound roots, and the way to dothat is to do contemporary, immediate theatre. The Theatre Passe Muraille translati onwas not an attempt to embrace the canonic Shakespeare as a symbol of imperial culture,but an attempt to express something immediate and Canadian utilize Englands greatestwriter. 6Works CitedJohnston, Denis W. Up the Mainstream The Rise of Torontos Alternative Theatres,1968-1975. Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1991.Daniel Fischlin and Mark Fortier. General Introduction. Adaptations of Shakespeare.Eds. Daniel Fischlin and Mark Fortier. London Routledge, 2000. 1-22.Press Release. Theatre Passe Muraille. 1969.Shakespeare, William. Richard III. Oxford Oxford UP, 2000.