Community provides impetus for Newfoundland troupe

Political theatre result of mummer tradition

By ROBIN ENDRES

It was the 1969 fishermen’s
strike in Burgeo, Newfoundland,
that really started Chris Brookes
thinking about the political and
cultural situation in his home
province. The policy of relocat-
ing whole fishing villages means
that both traditional methods of
work and deeply rooted cultural
traditions are being destroyed.

Brookes returned to New-
foundland determined to use his
theatrical background to help
preserve a culture in the process
of dismemberment.

In St. John’s, he gathered to-
gether a group of Newfoundland
actors, some trained and some
not, and proceeded to revive the
ancient Newfoundland tradition
of mummering. Mummering was
the only indigenous, non-estab-
lishment theatrical tradition in
Newfoundland, and it was out-
lawed in 1862. Basically it con-
‘sisted of skits and pranks played

at Christmas.
= A Peoples’ History

Another aspect of mummer-
ing was the mummer play, also
acted at Christmas, and always
in people’s homes. The last one
was perfcrmed before the first
world war, and Brookes tracked
down the 50 or so people who
could remember seeing it, and

put together a script. Then ‘they .

went through St. John’s at
Christmas, knocked on people’s
doors and performed their play
in living rooms and kitchens.

_ “When we started,” Brookes
said, “the chief of police called

~ us and asked us what our inten-

tions were, and did we know it
was illegal, and they would be
-keeping an eye on us.”

The Mummers’ next project
was to create a play about New-
foundland history, ‘fa people’s

history from a socialist point of |

view.” The intention was to
bring the events of the play up
to the present, then “let it dis-
solve” so that the audience
would discuss what their history
is right now, their present his-

tory.
Gres Mourn
At Gros Morne National Park,
the Mummers discovered that
the five communities in the area
__ were to be eliminated. ‘“‘The na-
_ tional park policy was to draw
a line around an area, and if
there were people living there,
move them out, because you
don’t have people living in a
national park.”
According to press reports, ne-

¥

The aim of Company Town
recently performed in Toronto, is
te emphasize the cultural life,
which already includes a history
of trade union militancy.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 4, 1975—Page 4

View of the set for Company

Town, a play centred around life in

Buchans, a Newfoundland mining community.

gotiations had been successful
and the people had been allowed
to stay. When the Mummers’ ar-
rived, however, they discovered
that the wasn’t the case. People
in all five communities were an-
xious to talk to the Mummers
and air their views, since report-
ers never talked to them and the

‘press only reported what the

government wanted people to
hear. So the Mummers decided
to stay and make a show about
this struggle, and 10 days later,
in August 1973, Gros Mourn was
performed.

The actors learned an impor-
tant lesson. People in Sally’s
Cove, the village where the play
was first performed, tended to
talk more about their fear and
anger to the actors than they
did to each other. Thus the play
became a cohesive force in the
community as the audience mem-
bers recognized themselves and
each other on stage. The play
helped them to see their prob-
lem as a collective one demand-
ing collective action. Yet the
Mummers were no longer out-
siders; they too had become part
of the community, and it was the
people of Sally’s Cove who had
made the play. This dialectical
relationship between artists and
audience accounts for the unique
political and artistic character of
the Mummer’s Troupe.

Buchans

At the request of the people
in Sally’s Cove, the Mummers
performed Gros Mourn in the
other four affected communities,
and later toured the Atlantic
Provinces playing in National
Park areas. At present the Na-
tional Park policy is under re-
view, and plans for the Ship
Harbour, Nova Scotia, National
Park were cancelled in favor of
a series of provincial recreation
areas which will allow residents

- to remain in their homes.

The next summer, in 1974, the
Mummers spent six weeks in the
mining town of Buchans creating
Company Town, which played in
Toronto this June. Company
Town is a far more “homey,”
community oriented play . than
was Gros Mourn.

Level of Politicization

The Mummers’ administrative
director, Lynn Lunde points out
that the type of politics in any
given play depends on the level
of politicization in the given
community. Sally’s Cove was
completely unorganized and had
no tradition of politcal struggle.

Buchans, in contrast, has a.

long history of militant trade
unionism. Company Town is less
polemical than Gros Mourn,

more intent on portraying the
warmth and humor of the com-
munity. The aim of this produc-
tion is to emphasize the cultural
life — in the broadest sense —
of the people of Buchans. That
cultural life already includes po-
litical militancy, and the mirror-
image of Buchans reflects it.
Brookes worries about the
possibility of romanticizing life
in small Newfoundland towns in
plays like Company Town, and
about the possibility of pre-
sumptuously advocating politi-
cal action in plays like Gros

. Mourn.

In my view the Mummers
Troupe maintain their integrity,
pelitically and artistically, by

Resettlement play
wins national award

Newfoundland high school
student, Julie MacPherson, re-
cently won first prize in a na-
tional fiction writing contest for
a short story she wrote on the
resettlement program in New-
foundland.

Julie, who lives in St. John’s,
has never been a resident of a
community that has been sub-
ject to the resettlement policy.
She wrote the story after school
trip to such a community, and
after seeing what the resettle-
ment program had done to de-
stroy it. :

Julie visited an island in
Placentia Bay as part of a class
project on resettlement in New-
foundland. She saw the forced
destruction of this community,
where, at one time 78 families
have lived and now there are

. only five. :

On to success!

“If . ... national liberation . . .
succeeds in South Vietnam, it
can succeed anywhere in the
world.

—Secretary of State Dean Rusk,

Dept. of State publication

#7921, 1965. |

keeping their focus constantly
on their audience. They see the-
atre in class terms, as a social

act.

The Newfoundland Mummers’
Troupe has until recently been
the only professional company
in that province. For the first
few years, they pooled their
meagre grants and private dona-
tions and paid out $40 a week
to each actor. After their suc-
cesses with the Gros Mourn and
‘Buchans plays, the provincial
cultural director regarded them
with increasing suspicion.

There was a great deal of talk
about establishing a regional
theatre in Newfoundland — the
Canada Council was advised
that this is what the province
needed—a big, expensive build-
ing in St. John’s, headed and
staffed by “professionals” from
outside the province. The Mum-
mers’ Troupe opposed this re-
-commendation. The Canada
Council sent Keith Turnbull to
St. John’s to evaluate the situa-
tion last September. After four
days, in which Turnbull sup-
posedly assessed the cultural
needs of the province, he also
recommended a regional theatre.

By this time, Codco, a comedy
revue team which had been
working in Toronto, returned to
Newfoundland. Codco, Mum-
mers and the Newfoundland
Travelling Theatre (a touring
group. which specializes in Brit-
ish farces) resolved their poli-
tical differences and wrote a
brief to the Canada Council de-
manding that all theatre grants
be given to them, to be divided

in three equal parts, and that a
regional theatre in the future
would have to evolve from thé |
existing theatres. This had some)
effect, and the Council increased |
its grant to the Mummers. Th!
now: draw a salary of $100 4
week — but more importantly,
in the insecure life of the the
atre, it’s guaranteed for the next
year. The original condition
the grant was that it be match
by the province, but the provil”
cial cultural director refused
give the Mummers’ any funds
until recently when a small sum
was provided for a week Jong
tour. :

Planning Ahead
_ For the first time, the Troupé
is in a position to plan its pro:
ductions in »advance. They’V@
been commissioned by the St
John’s community planning
council to do a play about life i?
downtown St. John’s — the
first production based on a city:
They also ‘plan a play about
mining diseases, based on
book about Elliott Lake minef®
called Dying Hard. Finally they
are planning a play about the It
ternational Woodworkers strike
in 1958-59. The play will focus
on Smallwocd’s decertificatio? |
of the union, and the consequ: |
ences for labor in Newfoun@ |
land as a whole. i
Hopefully other ‘alternate |
theatres producing political d0 |
cudrama plays will take theif |
lead from the Newfoundlan
Mummers’ Troupe. Commitment! |
to performing in the community |
which provides the impetus fof)
the play in the first place is 4?
essential first step.

GENEVA — Women’s equal-
ity, and trade union rights in
Chile, were the subjects of re-
solutions passed at the annual
conference of the International
Labor Organization (ILO), dur-
ing the week of June 22-28.

The 126-member organization
approved a plan giving women
workers equality with men with
opposition being expressed by
Canadian, British, and U.S. gov-

‘ernment and business delegates. -

They objected to references in
the conference declaration on
women dealing with the -estab-
lishment of “a new international
economic and social order.”

The business and government
delegates also voiced opposition
to a section of the resolution re-
cognizing the “need to devote.
particular attention to the situa-.
tion.of women in countries un-
der foreign domination or sub-
ject to the practices of apar-

_ theid.”

A proposal by one of the
Canadian business delegates to
delete the reference to the es-
tablishment of a new internatio-
nal economic and social order
was defeated by 230 votes.

The employers’ delegates
again expressed their opposition
when the conference passed a

_resclution charging Chile’s fas-

cist junta with violating trade
union freedoms.

rights.

The resolution urged the junt@ |
to implement as soon as Pp?
sible the recommendations of at }
ILO commission on trade unio? |
rights to release trade unio? |
leaders in detention, to put af
end to torture and ill treatme?
and to do away with speci®
courts and special military te
bunals.
Jce Morris, representing the
Canadian Labor Congress on
Canadian delegation, stated
the amendments which the em
ployers’ delegates tried to p dae
through unsuccessfully would
have watered down the ILO®

criticism. a
Appealing for a general am
nesty, the resolution called
Chile to repeal all laws and
crees limiting the free functio™
ing of trade unions and theif
right to collective bargaining.
Included in the resolution W4
the demand that the junta Te%
pect fully the rights of tradi |
union organizations to hole
‘meetings in full freedom, to ele
their representatives, and esta
lish federations and confedera”
tions cf their own choosing. :
The ILO also called on th@ |
fascist junta to repeal practic®
allowing dismissal on groum
of political opinion, and asks th
government to supply regulet
reports on the application
ILO conventions on trade uni0