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e land”.

Marxism and
| Today’s Problems

Karl Marx
1818-1883
Movember 26-23, 1983 / Toronto
Sponsored by Communist Viewpoint

=~

The Poster pictured above, on sale for $1, has recently been issued
to mark the upcoming conference Marxism and Today’s Problems.
Ponsored by the theoretical and political journal Communist View-
Point, the conference takes place November 26-27 at OISE, 252
loor St. W., Toronto. Space is liimited, and Communist Viewpoint
reports that pre-registrations are coming in ata brisk pace. Registra-
'0n forms are available from CV c/o 24 Cecil St., Toronto MST 1N2.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
: Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,

Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

Subscription Rate: Canada $14 one year; $8 for six months.

Second class mail registration number 1560

acting. Bottom:

When my father used to talk about the ‘‘good old
days’’ I’d turn off. What could have been so great
about the depression? But to paraphrase Mark
Twain — I’m amazed at how much smarter the old
man’s gotten since I’ve turned 30. The 30s were
tough, but they were also a time of social change;
the trade union movement was founded, sub-
stantial social legislation was wrested from iron
heeled governments; young men and women found
their place in the fight for democracy in Spain,
against the rise of fascism in Europe. I can under-
stand how anyone involved in these movements
could look back with wistful nostalgia; particularly
now when I have that same nostalgia for the 60s.

What was so great about the Vietnam war? No-
thing, except it moved large numbers of young
people into action. The anti-Vietnam war movement
gave birth to many spinoffs — civil rights marches,
women’s liberation, respect for the environment.
University was a marvellous place where you
could take over the student newspaper, hold sit-
ins, smoke pot while discussing philosophy. It was
our choice — flower-power or revolution. From
this priviledged existence we laid our plans to be-
come the new Norman Bethunes, Rosa Luxem-
bergs or at least a good labor lawyer.

But none of us made it according to the Big Chill.
Take Harold, Sarah, Sam, Michael, Karen, Meg
and Nick — classmates from the University of
Michigan, together again for a weekend pajama
party to mark the death of a friend who slashed his
wrists. Alex was a student leader, a scientific
genius who spurned a Ruthledge fellowship to try
welfare work, construction jobs, then suicide.

There's plenty of soul searching. They had once
kept each other in idealistic humanism, then drifted
apart. They’re all successful, but embarassed.
They’ ve sold out.

Harold (Kevin Kline), does a Robin Williams
impression through the film. This keeps him like-
able, even though he alone doesn’t long for the
past. A burgeoning chain of jogging shoe stores
keeps him comfortably entrenched in a southern
mansion. His only links with the 60s are his wife
Sarah, (now a physician) and his ‘‘Greatest Hits”
record collection — ‘‘the only music that’s played

_ in this house’’. Pretty Sam (Tom Berenger) is the

macho-private detective star of a popular TV

New left hasn’t chilled

series. White suited, machete in hand he jumps
from bed to adventure, but tries to put “‘something
of value’ in each episode. People’s Magazine got
Michael, (Jeff Goldblum) he stalls fiying off to
interview a 14-year-old blind baton twirler promis-
ing his editor a story on his friends finding ‘“‘hope
after death’’. Once a public defender Meg (Mary
Kay Place) traded representing ‘‘guilty scum’’ for
corporate law — ‘‘They only rape the land’. Faced
with an expiring biological clock she plans to use
the weekend and one of her old school chums to
father a child — ‘‘after all they’re the only men I’ ve
ever cared about’’. Karen (Jo Beth Williams)
traded in her poems and short stories for her kids.
She hopes rekindling a 15 year old passion with
Sam will be her ticket out of a stultifying marriage
to an ad agency executive. Nick (William Hutton)
got his genitals blown off in Vietnam. Snorting
cocaine masks the pain of his impotence; dealing it
pays for his Porche. Out of place in this flashback is
today’s youth (Meg Tilly), Alex’s girlfriend, 15
years younger than the rest with eyes that have
already seen too much. Unlike the others, there’s
nothing in her past or future to talk about.

The Big Chill has its funny moments which help
cover up the insult leveled at everyone who ever
joined left politics. It says there is no room for
personal growth. ‘‘Revolution”’ is a stage the young
pass through on their way to growing up.

Not all the New Left graduated to ad agencies
and the stock exchange. Some made it into the
professions and work to make them more accessi-
ble to the people they were intended to serve. The
economic crisis forced others into the working
class. They haven’t found life on an assembly line
or construction site depressing enough to commit
suicide.

The young people who rallied against U.S.
butchery in Vietnam, today march with their chil-
dren in hand, for nuclear disarmament, against the
new Vietnams in the Caribbean, Latin America,
the Mid-East and Africa. They’re lobbying for
women’s rights, better schools, accessible housing
... Wherever you find people in motion, you'll find
those who cut their political teeth in the 60s, along
with thousands of others who stubbornly plod
along because there are still things well worth
fighting for. — Kerry McCuaig

Breaking into ‘mainstream culture’

Multicultural theatre

TORONTO — By all accounts,
Black Theatre Canada’s recently
held conference on Shakespeare
and Other Cultures was a suc-
cessful initiative in a heretofore
unexplored area of the Canadian
arts scene.

The thirty-five people who
gathered at the Toronto Board of
Education Nov. 5 and 6 repre-
sented a wide range of organiza-
tions and varying areas of profes-
sional disciplines. Geographical-
ly, people came from as far away
as New York City and Winnipeg.

The opening address entitled,
Toward a Multicultural, Multi-
racial Theatre, was delivered by
Woody King, Jr., Artistic Direc-
tor of The New Federal Theatre in
New York City. King stressed
that the presence of Black theatre
in today’s society has added
greatly to our understanding and
appreciation of culture and art
as a whole. Numbering Black
Theatre Canada along with the
New Federal Theatre and the
Negro Ensemble Company he
said, ‘“‘Black people today need,
more than ever before, an outlet
for creative and cultural expres-
sion in all the areas of the arts.
Especially needed is more train-

ing and sensitivity to the
development of the Black actor —
and indeed all visible minorities
— who may not fit into what is
generally viewed as the ‘‘cultural
mainstream.”

Minorities in Theatre

He used, as an example, the
play Three Sisters by Chekhov,
“‘At the university level, there is
no reason why this play could not
use a Black woman, an Asian
woman and a Native Indian
woman to make up the three sis-
ters if that was the composition of
the class. The exclusion of visible
minorities in theatre begins from
the first day they enroll in theatre
arts at university’ he said. King
went on to say that Black Theatre
Canada’s recent award winning
production of a Caribbean Mid-
summer Night’s Dream was an
important breakthrough in this
area. ‘‘We need more re-interpre-
tations of the classics,’’ he said.

When questions as to why we
do not see visible minorities at the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival,
Cecil O'Neil, Director of Produc-
tion, answered that he believed
that the problem is partly one of
perception. “‘Of over 600 actors
that recently auditioned for the

Stratford Festival, only four were
visible minorities. The majority of
Black actors probably figure they
just don’t have a chance’’. Con-
ference participants generally ag-
reed that some kind of program
was needed to rectify this prob-
lem. “‘If Black Theatre Canada
could work with Stratford to set
up some kind of workshop for vis-
ible minorities, I think it would be
helpful’’, O’ Neil said.
Yellow Fever

Other workshops, held
throughout the day included:
Remmelt Hummelin and Darryl
Wildcat, the Association for Na-
tive Development in the Perform-
ing Arts, who spoke about Indi-
genous and Popular Theatre
Movements; Enid Lee on Africa
and the Elizabetheans and the
presence of prejudice and bias in
school curricula; Phillip Ing from
the Canadian Artists Group who
spoke about his group’s problem
in producing ‘‘Yellow Fever’’ by
Rick Shiomi; and Azra Francis,
who dealt with the language of
Shakespeare.

The conference ended with the
showing of the film Proud Valley,
Starring Paul Robeson.

— Robin Breon

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— NOVEMBER 16, 1983— Page 9

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