To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia

Development and Future" (1971) Ryga's fervent
nationalism is unleashed in a vitriolic
condemnation of the cultural institutions
which, in his view, prevented the development
of a viable Canadian theatre: "dinosaurs
like the Stratford Festival and the selfindulgent
thing at Niagara continue to be
lavished with endless resources to produce
Molière, Shakespeare and Shaw"; "I refuse
to endorse the cheap, diversionary and
divisive tactics of the Canada Council and
the regional theatres to delight their bookkeepers
in announcing vast numbers of
productions of Canadian works—when in
reality, nothing more than public rehearsals
occur." Ryga's strident posturing—"I demand
the right to equal auspices, for I, too, am an
artist of world stature"—was largely a
response to his increasing alienation from
mainstream Canadian theatre, a phenomenon
which, Kujundzic observes, originated
in his political disputes with the Vancouver
Playhouse. After producing The Ecstasy of
Rita Joe in 1967, the Playhouse commissioned
another work for the 1970/71 season;
Ryga responded with Captives of the
Faceless Drummer, in which he denounces
the Canadian government's proclamation
of the War Measures Act during the October
crisis, which had led to the imprisonment of
activists and artists. The Playhouse refused
to produce it apparently on the grounds of
its subversive politics. In "Social Responsibilities
of Writers" (1971) Ryga defends his
work by calmly and eloquently appealing to
the writer's need "to shift through the
sands of the past and the present-day for
the paradoxes which throw new light upon
the commonplace and elevate the experience
of living into humour, pathos and
heroism," an undertaking fraught with
"distinct danger" (1986). In his tribute to
Ryga, Richard Ouzounian, artistic director
of the Neptune Theatre in Halifax, goes as
far as to suggest that "The potentially greatest
playwright in this country was blacklisted
as carefully and as thoroughly as any
one of the 'Hollywood Ten' were under
McCarthy." Yet today, as Kujundzic
observes, we still need to determine what
dangers Ryga actually posed for the theatre
establishment.
The selections in the anthology are
accompanied by a number of high-resolution
photographs and a Bibliography of
Ryga's major works published between 1956
and 1992. Although full bibliographic docu
mentation is provided for the six previously
published entries, it would have been useful
to have the full original broadcast dates of
screen and radio plays (dates are given only
by year) and a sampling of their reception
by various audiences. Despite these minor
shortcomings, the anthology is timely and
will appeal to a wide variety of readers.
Journeys and Returns
Stan Rogal
Sweet Betsy from Pike. Wolsak and Wynn $10.00
Kenneth Sherman
Open to Currents. Wolsak and Wynn $10.00
Kenneth Radu
Treading Water. Oberon n.p.
Michael Bullock
The Walled Garden: A Fantasia. Ekstasis Editions
"J^
Reviewed by Lesley D. Clement
In an "Afterword" to The Walled Garden,
Richard Olafson contends that modern
realism with its "specialized perception of
reality" has reduced much Canadian poetry
to solipsism and thus to "cynicism and
nihilism." In contrast, Olafson discovers in
Michael Bullock's latest volume the "expansiveness"
of "the myth of return: the river
always returns to its source" through memory:
"The poetic ritual is a cultivation of
memory, syllable seeds planted in the garden
of consciousness." With the four volumes
of poetry under review, the odds refute Olafson's
argument. Each explores dark depths
of the mind and nature and undertows that
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