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