Jean Rivard - University of British Columbia

Books in Review
hood, and old age. The many roles and
relationships of women are examined in
excerpts that "range from the performance
piece to the traditional script, from the
realistic to the symbolic and experimental."
The collection includes six sections:
"Maximizing Attitude"; "Revisioning
Time"; "Revisioning Place"; "Connecting/
Disconnecting"; "Looking In/Looking
Out"; and "Personal/ Political." These categories
hope to draw connections among the
disparate pieces. In the first section, for
example, Margaret Clarke posits a relationship
between Hamlet's mother and his
sweetheart. In Gertrude and Ophelia, a
pregnant Ophelia seeks the counsel of
Gertrude, who ignores her situation and
shows concern only for her son. In section
two, Joan Givner imagines an exchange
between Mazo de la Roche and her cousin,
Caroline Clement. In the excerpt from
Mazo and Caroline, the latter is the stronger
character who assumes control of their lives
when de la Roche's Jalna wins the Atlantic
Monthly prize of $10,000 US.
In section three, Betty Quan parodies the
Nancy Drew mystery novels for girls in her
serio-comic Nancy Chew Enters the Dragon.
In Quan's treatment, Nancy Chew is
accused by "good cop" Bruce Lee of participating
in a robbery. Section four includes
an excerpt from Rachel Wyatt's Getting
Out, which records, with painful clarity, the
marital strife between a working wife and
her unemployed husband. Eleanor
Albanese's The Body Image Problem in section
five presents Mari's struggle and determination
to be thin and attractive to the
boys at her school. And in the final section,
ten-year-old Lucy in Judith Thompson's
Pink mourns her former nurse, Nellie.
Having racially insulted Nellie in the heat
of an argument, Lucy feels guilty and
responsible for her beloved nurse's death.
In its attempt to provide a broad picture
and its inclusion of new material—as the
editors envisioned, the work of experienced
playwrights appears alongside that of new
dramatists—Taking the Stage is valuable
primarily as an introduction to contemporary
theatre by women in Canada. As an
introduction, however, it has limitations.
Despite an attempt to organize the material
in sections, for example, the categories
offer little information to readers who are
faced with a vast, eclectic collection. Of the
headings, "Connecting/Disconnecting" and
"Personal/Political" are the most appropriate
and connote the similarities among several
pieces. Regrettably, each excerpt is too
brief to provide more than a glimpse of the
larger play. As a reader, I would have preferred
fewer but longer pieces. Moreover,
there are typographical errors throughout
the text, unfortunate evidence of poor
proofreading.
Taking the Stage includes an excerpt from
Little Sister, Joan MacLeod's first play for
young people. The complete work, along
with The Hope Slide, have been issued in
one convenient volume by Coach House
Press. Little Sister explores the private lives
of five adolescents—three girls and two
boys. Katie, an anorexic, is the catalyst for
much of the play's action. Katie is coming
to terms with her parents' divorce, having
moved from Toronto to Vancouver, attending
a new school, living apart from her
father who now has a girlfriend, and her
altered relationships with her mother and
brothers. Bella, Tracey, Jay, and Jordan are
variously affected by Katie's hospitalization
after she collapses in school. As Katie withdraws
into her private world and Bella
obsesses over her weight, as Tracey and Jay
engage in a gender-imbalanced sexual battle
and as Jordan faces unpopularity, Little
Sister strikes some poignant chords. In this
sensitive and engaging drama, written in
adolescent vernacular, MacLeod raises
compelling issues for all readers and viewers,
regardless of their age.
While The Hope Slide also explores topical
issues, it adopts a more experimental
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