The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
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around your house." Thus, Standj<strong>of</strong>ski<br />
cunningly superimposes the Stations <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Cross on the cycle's first segment, "Rabbit";<br />
other segments consist <strong>of</strong> monologue, pantomime<br />
or dance, <strong>of</strong>ten with text projected<br />
on the set. In both plays, Standj<strong>of</strong>ski's<br />
careful craft and diligent workshopping<br />
result in intellectually and emotionally layered<br />
scripts that come daringly close to pretentiousness<br />
but never teeter <strong>of</strong>f the edge. If<br />
Standj<strong>of</strong>ski can keep up this balancing act,<br />
his future should be extremely bright.<br />
In four short scenes, Jeanne-Mance<br />
Delisle's A Live Bird in its Jaws presents a<br />
triangular relationship. <strong>The</strong> compulsive<br />
writer Hélène, "a sensual, attractive<br />
woman," has an unfaithful bisexual lover,<br />
Xavier, who is the father <strong>of</strong> her absent<br />
eight-year-old son. Xavier has a twin<br />
brother, Adrien, who is also his long-time<br />
partner in incest. Hélène has written a<br />
weird expressionistic performance based on<br />
Xavier's reminiscences about the mother he<br />
seemingly adored and the domineering<br />
father who died in a mysterious house fire.<br />
Adrien arrives to take part in the performance,<br />
but first he seduces Xavier and,<br />
more roughly, Hélène as well. At last, the<br />
performance begins: with the twins costumed<br />
as fighting cocks and Hélène as a<br />
gypsy mother, the play reaches a violent climax<br />
as the arsonist's identity is revealed. At<br />
the end, Hélène dons the gown <strong>of</strong> a "glass<br />
princess" and proclaims: "I reclaim my<br />
body and my soul, condemned to hope for<br />
love! . .. Better to run through life with<br />
dreams impaled and held al<strong>of</strong>t!"<br />
In Delisle's original text, Un oiseau vivant<br />
dans le gueule, the French language itself<br />
suits both the ritualism and the passion <strong>of</strong> a<br />
play that seesaws constantly between poetry<br />
and pr<strong>of</strong>anity, two great obstacles to successful<br />
translation. Yves Saint-Pierre's version,<br />
polished by workshopping with<br />
actors, conveys both in good idiomatic<br />
English; but the play is flattened by the very<br />
act <strong>of</strong> translation, the characters reduced to<br />
empty stereotypes. A Live Bird never soars<br />
above its thick layer <strong>of</strong> overdone Freudian<br />
imagery (shafts, lances, snakes, lone trees,<br />
chimneys, and so on rear their heads on<br />
every page). It would take a truly brilliant<br />
staging to send an audience home "wringing<br />
wet and exhausted" as a note demands.<br />
This English edition is more than competent,<br />
but not sufficient to convey Delisle's<br />
promise as a playwright, and is further<br />
marred by typos—particularly at the<br />
beginning <strong>of</strong> Scene Two when Xavier is<br />
given a stage direction as one <strong>of</strong> his lines—<br />
and by Guy Rodgers's brief but pretentious<br />
introduction. Many other stage directions<br />
from the French have disappeared altogether,<br />
and the author's original preface is<br />
also sorely missed.<br />
Individual Native Voices<br />
Lynda Shorten<br />
Without Reserve: Stories from Urban Natives.<br />
NeWest Press, pa. n.p.<br />
Daniel David Moses<br />
<strong>The</strong> White Line: Poems. Fifth House, pa. $10.95<br />
Reviewed by Mava Jo Powell<br />
An egalitarian concern for the rights <strong>of</strong> all<br />
members <strong>of</strong> underprivileged minority<br />
groups has been a predominating sociopolitical<br />
line <strong>of</strong> thought in Canadian culture<br />
during the last decade. In the case <strong>of</strong> First<br />
Nations peoples, this corrective dialogue<br />
acknowledges long standing neglect, prejudice,<br />
and abuse. Yet, by its very nature,<br />
sociopolitical attention is distanced because<br />
it focuses on people as members <strong>of</strong> a group.<br />
<strong>The</strong>refore it remains silent about the lives<br />
<strong>of</strong> many urban Natives who have neither<br />
band nor Treaty status; above all, it renders<br />
indistinct the Native as individual.<br />
However, the literary text can transcend the<br />
impersonality <strong>of</strong> political discussion. In the<br />
two texts under review, the uniqueness <strong>of</strong><br />
poignant, individual voices is intimately