“Showing West” edited by Diane Bessai & Don Kerr & “Black Powder” by Rex Deverell and Geoffrey Ursel

Docu-Drama includes much of what is essential in Canadian theatre: it grows from a collective experience (like hog-marketing boards); it reflects the regionalism and multi-culturalism of the Canadian mosaic (and our pride and indulgence in it); finally, it is pragmatic theatre tailored to low budgets, limited facilities, and a broadly based audience. What is distinctly unCanadian about these plays is the respect they demonstrate for our historical and cultural heritage. In general, Canadian literature and drama tend to downplay the Canadian experience in order to focus on individual rather than collective realities. These four plays in the docu-drama tradition, however, are concerned with western Canadian history, culture and politics.

Showing West includes: “The West Show”, Theatre Passe Muraille, 1975; “As Far As the Eye Can See”, Rudy Wiebe and Theatre Passe Muraille, 1977, and “Medicare!”,Rex Deverell, 1980. “The West Show” is in two acts, each with four sections. Most sections are focused on an individual character, for example Sam Reimer, a Mennonite farmer who is called by God to stop the war in Viet Nam. In his introduction, Paul Thompson describes the play as “a key for actors and others to enter the landscape and characters that help define ‘the west’”. While each section could be performed independently of the rest, taken together they create a series of characters often shaped by pride and anger, sometimes by moral and often by political defeat.

In contrast to “The West Show“‘s interest in the broader purpose of defining a culture, “As Far As the Eye Can See”, “Medicare!” and “Black Powder” are concerned with examining a specific issue. Wiebe’s play centres around the potential takeover of farmland in Dodds-Round Hill by Calgary Power in order to mine coal. “Medicare!” describes T.C. Douglas and the CCF’s battle to introduce medicare into Saskatchewan between 1959 and 1962. “Black Powder” deals with the 1931 coal miners’ strike in Estevan.

The three prairie plays of Showing West reflect the range of docu-drama from the polemical to the individual historical portrait. In “The West Show” character is primary. The characters become portraits through which the audience/reader understands the political and historical process experienced by the characters. “Medicare!” is explicitly political: its characters are secondary to issues. Deverell relies heavily on historical documents and journals. The main characters are actual politicians and doctors, who, while not historical figures, are composites of people who were involved in the disputes preceding the establishment of medicare.

Wiebe’s “As Far As the Eye Can See” combines the approaches of the other two plays. The central issue, the attempted takeover of farmland by Calgary Power is personified by an engineer named John Siemens. The issue is expressed through individual characters and their emotionally charged responses to the action. Here the characters are more complex and more developed than those in “Medicare!” and the political issues are addressed more directly than in “The West Show”.

Deverell’s “Black Powder” appears to resemble “As Far As the Eye Can See” in its attempt to actualize a historical reality through its characters. However, the play suffers from the absence of characters who are more than stereotypes and the dialogue is often stilted. The issue in “Black Powder” is not as viable theatrically as in either “Medicare!” or “As Far As the Eye Can See”. Essentially, the way the conflict between Estevan’s owners and miners is presented is so black and white that it has limited dramatic potential. The audience is manipulated into accepting a simple option: “Black Powder“‘s villains are purely villains, its heroes are simply heroic.

In contrast, “Medicare!” effectively renders the conflicting values, desires and fears of men attempting to sustain or to change a power structure. In addition, we see the powerless caught in this struggle, and their subsequent attempts to affect its outcome. This play demands a critical and multi-level response to the issue.

Similarly, “As Far As the Eye Can See” refuses to advocate a right/wrong stance. The play explores the boundaries between three generations of farm people, between the farmers and the small town citizens, between rural and urban realities and between the sexes. In the presence of the allegorical ‘Regal Dead’—Crowfoot, Princess Louise Alberta, William Aberhart—Wiebe’s play also explores some of the historical roots of our prairie culture and its founding mothers and fathers.

The multiple realities of this play are finely constructed. It is a balanced and acute representation of the issues around traditional land use and the need to rape and pillage Mother Earth in order to support a technological society. The engineer explains to Caroline: “Anything is possible for man if we but dare. I want to take that coal out of the ground, light this province for 30 years and put the soil back and have it growing more grain than it did before. It can be done.” Shortly after this polemic, Wiebe’s characters address each other from a more simple, human context. The human connection which bridges the political differences for Wiebe’s characters in “As Far As the Eye Can See” breathes a vitality into this particular play that is not evident in the others.

The question is not how political, documentary, or dramatic an individual docu-drama is, but whether each play effectively creates a theatrical structure to contain its politics. “Medicare!“‘s highly political content dictates a certain structure. Deverell establishes it and gives it depth and resonance. In “Black Powder”, the structure fails to elucidate the issue. “The West Show” addresses political issues through its characters cohesively and humanly. “As Far As the Eye Can See” gently balances the human and political realities in a play the structure of which gives meaning to both. ■

Lee Anne Block is a Winnipeg freelance writer.