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For the cause of intercultural theatre

‘Intercultural theatre ecology is active in Canada.’

Canadian theatre activist Ric Knowles briefs Mohamed Nazeer on the vibrant theatre scene, which has transcended cultural borders, in his country.

“For me, what matters is what is new, exciting, challenging and politically important,” says Ric Knowles, an academic, playwright, theatre director and researcher in Canada. He believes that the stage must reflect what is going on in the society.

He was in Kannur to attend a week-long theatre workshop organised by the Centre for Canadian Studies attached to the Kannur University’s Department of Studies in English.

Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada, Dr. Knowles is currently working on a book on intercultural theatre groups in Toronto. “The important development in the Canadian theatre scene has been the growth of a vibrant intercultural theatre ecology,” he says. It is an intersection of different theatre activities going on in Canada, especially Toronto. He dubs this network of the non-mainstream theatre companies, ‘grassroots interculturalism.’

Dr. Knowles authored ‘The Theatre of Form and Production of Meaning’ (1999) and ‘Shakespeare and Canada’ (2004) and ‘Reading the Material Theatre’ (2004), the last being a materialist analysis of the theatre. He has also edited a series of books called ‘Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English’ as also ‘Canadian Theatre’, which is a major anthology.

“Intercultural theatre groups of Toronto constitute a complex web of connections among individual theatre activists and theatre companies working in solidarity across acknowledged differences to reduce the white hegemony on the city’s stages,” says the theatre expert. The Asian-Canadian, African Canadian, Filipino-Canadian theatre companies as well as native theatre groups are no longer playing to the dominant white audience, he says.

“In the 70s and early 80s Toronto theatre scene was typically a split between British and American mainstream plays and small Canadian nationalistic alternatives. The most significant development over the two decades has been the emergence of intercultural theatres that cross performance traditions and disciplines and reflect the cultural differences that are visible and audible on the city’s streets and streetcars,” Dr. Knowles points out.

These theatre companies use the Western theatrical models, but stick to performance forms of other cultures, says Dr. Knowles. “This has shaken up the way theatre is done in Canada,” he adds. Dr. Knowles says that Montreal too is becoming a major theatre centre. There is a group called Teesri Duniya which promotes interculturalism and it is getting good audience, he says. Though the feminist theatre in Canada is not as strong as it was 10 years ago, it is still active. When it was brought to his attention that Kerala has theatre groups that take up social issues, he admits that there are mainstream companies in Canada that make productions based on social issues.

Dr. Knowles has done his Ph.D. on Shakespearean works. There is a renewed interest in The Bard in Canada, according to him. For example, Djanets Sear’s play ‘Harlem Duet,’ based on Othello, reverses Shakespeare’s representation of Othello as an isolated and tragic character in an overwhelmingly white world, he says. Native Earth Performing Arts, a theatre group in Canada, is currently engaged in the production of an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar entitled ‘Death of a Chief.’ The play analyses through Shakespeare the poison that has fractured native communities, he observes.

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