REVIEW

Fragmented picture of 1983

SOLIDARITY FOREVER... ? Written by
Chris Creighton-Kelly. With Susan Astley,
David Peterson, Suzanne Ristic, Margo
Kane. At the Vancouver East Cultural Cen-
tre, Nov. 16-21.

It seems as if a couple of lifetimes have
passed since the night of Nov. 13, 1983,
when International Woodworkers leader
Jack Munro met with then premier Bill
Bennett in his home riding to put the cap on
the most militant and broad based fight
against reactionary government legislation
in post-war years.

The agreement which ended the fight of
unprecedented scope was soon dubbed the
Kelowna Accord. No settlement in British

Columbia’s history has produced such ~

emotion and such controversy.

Such was the nature of the struggle
against the 27 bills of Socred legislation that
united community, women’s, disabled,
church and human rights groups with trade
unions in the Solidarity Coalition, that it
has already assumed the larger-than-life
dimensions of history. But it is recent his-
tory, and viewing it in retrospect produces
strong feelings.

Obviously aware of all this, Vancouver
performance artist Chris Creighton-Kelly
has ventured forth with the first attempt to
dramatize the Solidarity period. The result
is Solidarity Forever . . .?,a production with
a statement as fragmented as its mixed-
media format.

Viewed on several large TV monitors
scattered and stacked like building blocks
on the two-tiered stage, images of the rallies
and marches that highlighted the struggle
compete with the live action provided by the
production’s four. characters. They are
Francesca Bergoni (Sue—Astley), Patricia
Martin (Margo Kane), Dave Pollard
(David Peterson) and Cindy Reynolds
(Suzanne Ristic) and they represent, respec-
tively, teachers, the poor, trade unionists
and women’s groups.

As sort-of symbols of the basic compo-
nents of Solidarity, Francesca, Cindy,
Patricia and Dave aren’t meant to give us
the definitive message about the movement
and its demise. In fact, early on in the pro-
duction the actors voice what amounts to
an author’s explanation. Solidarity Forever

. ?, we’re told as the characters sarcasti-
cally recite several slogans, is not in the
genre of “‘politically correct” theatre — by
which the author seems to mean that no
definitive answers will be given.

Instead, the message is the host of ques-
tions that lie unanswered in the wake of
Solidarity: could Solidarity have continued
if strikers had continued to defy injunc-
tions? Who did Jack Munro represent when
he went to Kelowna? Could the movement
have brought down the government?

Valid questions, but Solidarity Forever

. ? doesn’t attempt to answer them. What
it does do is present viewpoints. Cindy, who
enjoys a lesbian relationship with Fran-
cesca, is the essence of what is often called
the non-aligned left: militancy and sponta-
neity combined. Francesca is the teacher
who knows the Socreds are destroying edu-
cation but, as a career person, shies away
from law-breaking. Dave is a middle-of-the-
road trade unionist and stands for order, the
New Democratic Party and the proper
channels of duly-constituted authority.
Patricia, in an outstanding performance by
Margo Kane, is the downtown eastsider, a
single parent on welfare who is politicized
through her involvement in Solidarity.

Interspersed with the live action is a
videotaped interview with Willis Shaparla,
a participant in the historic 1935 On-to-
Ottawa Trek who provides a link to the
struggles of the Eighties, and newsreel foot-
age of the rallies and marches between the
launching of the first actions in July to the
final days before the accord in early
November.

SOLIDARITY FOREVER ...

pete with live action.

Most of the live action consists of the
interplay among the principal characters,
whose views naturally clash. All are given
equal time, but one can’t help but notice it is
Cindy who steals scenes. Her gregarious
nature contrasts with the political timidity
of Francesca and the stodginess of Dave.
And we get some idea of where Creighton-

Kelly finds his heroes when Cindy states
that it is the community groups that provide
Solidarity’s “moral high ground.”

Dave, meanwhile, dismisses groups out-
side the trade union movement as subordi-
nate to what he considers the key objective
of the Solidarity movement — defending
labour’s rights. In some ways, we’re told, he
is part of the problem with his implied belief
that electing the NDP is the panacea for all
social ills. But Dave’s character is only accu-
rate in describing some of the trade unio-
nists involved in Solidarity. He does not
represent those left-wing trade unionists
who provided the initiative for the Solidar-
ity Coalition and who pushed for the max-
imum in extra-parliamentary efforts to stop
the legislation.

For some reason, Solidarity Forever . .
delves briefly into the backgrounds of ns
of its protagonists. Why this is done is
unclear since those vignettes explain neither
Solidarity nor why these given individuals
became involved in it. And, since they serve
mainly as symbols, it raises the question as
to why the mainly traumatic childhood
incidents described are necessary to under-
stand the characters.

Equally unclear is why Creighton-Kelly
imposes himself, via a videotaped message
midway through the production, to make
some vague statement about art. This artis-
tic self-consciousness is furthered in the
program’s notes, in which the author offers
what presumably is an excuse for the dis-
jointedness of much of Solidarity Forever

.. 2: “Interdisciplinary art is a fancy way of
describing work which comes from hectic,
media-layered modern lives. We are all liv-
ing them. If you are having any trouble

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 18, 1987

PHOTO — MARK GOERTZ

? CAST (clockwise, from top right): DAVID PETER-
SON, MARGO KANE, SUSAN ASTLEY, SUZANNE RISTIC...

TV images com-

‘getting’ the piece just imagine the fragmen-

tary nature of your own day-to-day
thoughts and experiences.”

But simply stating one’s philosophy of
art does not excuse artistic weaknesses. The
best feature of the play are the scenes of the
rallies — in Empire Stadium, outside the
legislature, on the streets of Vancouver dur-
ing the Social Credit convention in mid-
October — which remind one of the spirit
and vigour of the historic people’s move-
ment. The live action itself gives us tantaliz-
ing glimpses of the politics and drama of the
Solidarity movement, but ultimately falls

t hort of th k.
far too short o e mar nas ackoetoii

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