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A scene from the satirical revue The Codco Show, appearing this week until May 23 at the Vancouver East
Cultural Centre.
Habitat Festival choices
A wealth of shows of interest to
» progressive audiences will be on
_ stage and screen during the month-
long Habitat Festival that began
this week and will run through
June 20.
. The Newfoundland Mummers
Troupe staged their much-
acclaimed revue What’s That Got
to Do with The Price of Fish? in
Vancouver this week and will be
producing it for Victoria audiences
May 22 at the Belfrey Theatre, the
final show of their cross-Canada
tour.
Another Newfoundland group,
Codco, will also be on stage this
week at the Vancouver East
Cultural Centre although Tribune
readers will be able to catch their
last four shows this Friday,
Saturday (including a matinee)
and again on Sunday.
- Show times are 8:30 p.m. for the
evening show and 4:30 for the
Saturday matinee. The address is~
1895 Venables Street in Vancouver,
Surrey hosts
two concerts
Surrey’s well-known folk-rock
ensemble, Bargain at Half the
Price will be on stage for two
productions next week at the
Surrey Arts Centre. Thursday,’
“May 27 Bargain will be joined by
the Kobzar Dancers and the
‘Vancouver Folk Orchestra in their
annual spring concert. Show time
is 8 p.m., and admission $3.
On Saturday, May 29, the Surrey
Arts Society’s spring cabaret will
feature Bargain and the dance
music of the 30-piece stage band,
the Musicmakers. The cabaret
starts at 8 p.m. with Bargain’s
performance, and admission is $4.
and ticket prices range for $3.50 for
the Saturday afternoon and Sunday
evening show and $5 for the Friday
and Saturday evening program.
Codco has also played to wide
acclaim wherever the group has
appeared, staging a fast-paced
satire which directly relates to the
Newfoundland experiences but
touching organized religion,
television shows and a host of other
subjects with its trenchant humor.
Sharon Pollock’s graphic
documentary play The Komagata
Maru Incident, based on the
shameful incident in 1914 when
immigration authorities refused to
let East Indian immigrants land in
Vancouver, also finishes up a
week-long run this Saturday with
two shows scheduled, at 7 p.m. and
10 p.m.
Tickets are $5.50 available from
the Vancouver Ticket Centre. The
play will be at the new David Y. H.
Lui Theatre, 1033 Richards.
On Friday, May 28, the play 1837,
The Farmers’ Revolt begins an
eight-day run at the Vancouver
East Cultural Centre with two
matinees scheduled in addition to
the evening show.
Presented by Toronto’s Theatre
Passe Muraille, the play explores
the 1837 Rebellion from the point of
view of farmers who participated.
It has been staged in ‘several other
cities and was recently produced
for national television.
The Farmers’ Revolt opens May -
28 at 8:30 p.m. and runs May 29,
4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., May 30,
8:30 p.m., June 2, 1:30 p.m. and
8:30 p.m., June 4 and 6 at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets are $3.50 for the afternoon
and $5 for the evening and are
available from the Vancouver
Ticket Centre, 630 Hamilton Street
in Vancouver. The number for
reservations is 683-3255.
HEAR JEAN VAUTOUR
Executive Secretary, Canadian Peace Congress
Speak on the New Stockholm Peace Appeal at
POTLUCK SUPPER & PUBLIC MEETING
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1976
UNITARIAN CHURCH
49th & Oak
Supper at 6:30
Tickets at door $3.00
Meeting at 8 p.m.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 21, 1976—Page 10
Running during the same week
at the David Y. H. Lui Theatre are
Tamahnous Theatre’s production
of Fanshen — reviewed several
months ago in the Tribune — and
Eight-four Acres, a satirical look
"at the land development issue in
British Columbia. ,
Fanshen will be on stage May 24
to May 27 with show times at 8:30
p.m. Tickets — available from the
Vancouver Ticket Centre — are
$4.50.
Eight-four Acres will be
presented May 28 at 8:30 p.m. and
May 29, 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Tickets are $5.50.
Several films will also be shown
during the series of Habitat events
including the powerful
documentary of the 1970 October
crisis, Les Ordres. It will be
screened for one night only,
Wednesday, October 26 at the NFB
Theatre, 1155 West Georgia at 7
p.m. and 9 p.m. Admission is $1.
The affirmation
of Alvah Bessie
“You started something when
you joined the International
Brigades,’ Aaron Lopoff told his
adjutant Alvah Bessie one night in
June, 1938, the month before the
‘Brigades stormed across the Ebro
River in the last Republican of-
fensive. ‘‘Your future lies in
Spain. .. .”
Aaron Lopoff never came back
from Spain; he caught a machine-
gun bullet during that offensive
and died enroute to a hospital in
France.
Alvah Bessie did return from
Spain, however, and Lopoff’s
words became something of a.
prophecy: for the next 30-odd years
Spain would be a touchstone ‘for
him and for much of the writing
that he would do over those years.
Spain — and Aaron Lopoff’s
legacy -— are there again in
Bessie’s latest book Spain Again,
published by Chandler and Sharp
in San Francisco and issued along
with a new edition — the fourth
reprint — of Bessie’s 1939 work;
Men in Battle. Both were actually
printed last year but book
distribution and the U.S. postal
‘service being what they are, they
have become available in this
province only recently.
It is fitting that the two books
should be issued together; for if
Men in Battle, recounting Bessie’s
own experiences in the In-
ternational Brigades is a begin-
ning, Spain Again is a summation,
in a sense, of Bessie’s varied
career and of Spain’s history since
Franco crushed the Republic in ~
1939.
The book springs from an in-
credible series of ironies. The title
itself is derived from a film of the
same name, produced, strangely
enough, by a Spaniard who fought
for the Fascist side during the Civil
War. The director of the film, who
met Bessiein San Francisco, asked
him to collaborate on the
screenplay and assist him — the
assistance included playing a bit
part — during the filming — which
would be done inside Spain.
Theatre Passe Muraille’s 1837, The Farmers’ Revolt opening May 28 at
the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
Objective Burma, was later a
production of such a film under 4
“had been blacklisted in his %)
_ contemporary
‘U.S. governments that have
firmation of solidarity with.
' Co-op Bookstore or from Vete®
On his arrival, Bessie discoveél
another ironic coincidence. 7
American star of the film ™
Mark Stevens who, more thal
years before, had obtained his fi]
role in a Hollywood film.
Bessie had created. The
by the House Committee on
American Activities as an exal}
of ‘‘Communist propaganda” 4]
landed Bessie a one-year ter
Texarkana Prison when he refl®
to prostrate himself before
Committee and divulge
political affiliations
associations.
But perhaps the greatest ‘t
was the fact that the film “iS
based on the story of an Ameri]
who had fought Franco during 1
Civil War and was returning
Spain 30 years later. Pe
Even an account of 4
watchful eyes of the Franqu*
censors would make fascinal]
reading but Bessie, while gi¥]
such an account, has also doy
much more. The past and pret]
are woven together-in a pers]
and immensely readable Ww}
There are the people of SP]
whose paths cross those of the {
makers; the locations that brove
images from Bessie’s days in
Lincoln Battalion; his thought}
returning to a craft from which}.
country; and the search for Aaj}
Lopoff’s grave in the Santa Colo)
de las Planes.
The book reads like a
screenplay which occasioned i
the first place as flashbacks m@
with descriptions of modern SP
and excerpts from a 1938 @,
contrast with headlines from |
struggle.
throughout there is the earthy
and frequently sardonic — h
that is uniquely Bessie’s.
Besides Bessie the writer thert
Bessie the internation@)
reminding his readers of |
reasons for Franco’s victory (1
still have to deal with the ™J
subtle liars who have been Di /
cleaning their noses for deca |
and reminding us again that
the unholy dollars from succe>”,
the Caudillo and his succ™¥
afloat. Above all, there is Bess",
optimism for the final victory
the Spanish people and his *
struggle, a solidarity which, all
all, brought him to Spain 30 Y¥
before. Aaron Lopoff’s pi
still holds. |
Published in paperback, vt
Spain Again and Men in Battle g
available at $6.95 from the Peo
of the. Mackenzie-Papineau pe
talion, phone 536-6065.
—Sean' Gi