Village Squire, 1979-02, Page 31best new Canadian play produced in the
city in the season. Now it's back with
Theatre Passe Muraille taking the show in
an extensive tour all over Ontario. It paid a
brief visit to southern Ontario in January
before heading north. then coming back to
finishAn the south in February.
TNE idea for the play first came from
director Guy Sprung who thought there
was stage material in the Canadiens.
Centaur's artistic director Maurice Pod-
brey asked Canadien goaltender Ken
Dryden if he would assist in the
researching and he agreed. The man
chosen to write the script was Salutin, an
odd choice in a way because he says
he's long been a Maple Leaf fan.
Yet the choice was apt in that he is one of
the most successful playwrights in the
country. is a champion of the underdog and
while being accepted by the intellectuals in
the threatre is a committed hockey fan,
proof that the two colitides of athletics and
intellect can be bridged.
Salutin went to work talking to people,
researching to get the background. He
spoke with legends like Jean Beliveau. Toe
Balke. Henri Richard. Jacques Plante,
Dickie Moore and former coach Al
Macneil.
But the biggest help was Dryden who
brought pages of notes on what it means to
be a professional hockey player and a
member of Les Canadiens. In the midst of
the writing of the play came the event that
shook the country and gave the play its
eventual shape: The Election. The evening
of the election the Forum was different
than before. The audience paid as much
attention to the message board, flashing
the news of the election results as they did
to the hockey game. So did the players
though they managed as usual to play well
enough to win. The fans burst into
celebration at the PQ victory was
announced. The players. staunchly federal-
ist. were despondent.
That is perhaps the part that comes
across best in Salutin's play. that final
climatic evening and the feeling that
nothing would ever be the same. Les
Canadiens would be hollowed still by the
children but they no longer needed to be
the symbol of hope for the Quebecois. the
venging angels that showed Les Anglais up
at every turn.
Over all the play does a good job of
getting its message across though at times
the efforts to meld metaphor and action
become a little muddled. These transition
periods between the action on the ice and
the history can be confusing. Also
disconcerting were the speeches in French
by various members of the bilingual
company, spoken so well that slow -read-
ing, well meaning Anglophones couldn't
translate. (Anti -French members of the
audience were likely downright furious).
The play takes the Quebecois viewpoint
of all happenings in history, viewpoints
that may not be any more right than the
English Canadian viewpoint but are real to
the people who today want to break away
and form their own country. In this the
play, hopefully, will help inform people in
Ontario of just what is really going on in
the minds of Quebecois. The evidence of
Salutin's left-wing thought is also there in
the belief that everything from Confeder-
ation to the forming of the NHL was a
capitalist plot.
But first the show is entertaining more
than political. Director Miles Potter and
the cast of seven have infused the play with
a stunning amount of energy. There seem
to be few slow spots, only fast and faster.
The actors, with the exception of the loan
woman Fiona McMurran, all take to the
"ice" of the blue -painted, plywood set
playing the game on roller skates. The size
of the stage of course reduces their playing
space and sometimes make the hockey
sequences look non-sensical because they
tend to be travelling away from the goal as
often as toward it, but the effect of speed
and action is there.
The actors quickly change from hockey
players into various figures from history.
The electronic scoreboard sets the time
period the action is taking place as a
hockey rink's scoreboard would give the
time of the period. Thus the clock stops at
17:59 for the battle on the Plains of
Abraham. The show is infused with
humour as well as tragedy, philospohy as
well as exuberance.
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The irony of the whole play is that while
Les Canadiens stood as a symbol for the
Quebecois for so many years as a way of
beating Les Anglais, it could also have
stood for the unity of Canada, the ability of
French and English Canadians to work
together. Because Les Canadiens have
been almost as famous for their English
players as for their French. The first great
hero was a Western Ontario boy from
Orangeman country Howie Morenz (let
Mitchell and Stratford fight it out to see
who claims him.) Later came stars like
Dickie Moore, Doug Harvey and today's
Dryden and Steve Shutt, as popular as the
French stars with the exception of the great
idols Richard and Lafleur. Les Canadiens
then can be looked at like a partially -filled
glass of water: one man says it is half -full
while the other claims it is half empty.
Either way, there's something in the study
of Les Canadiens for everybody. •KWR
Lifestyle is being healthy
and doing our best to stay
that way. It's taking full
advantage of the pleasures
of life, but also learning
to repress abuses. It's mod-
eration.
"More than a
decorating resource,
The Raintree is an attitude."
I(;HTIN(,, \\;\[ t. O\'I RIN(;, FINE ;\RT (ENTS
One Twenty Eight ;\!hurt, (linton 482 1871
February 1979, Village Squire 29