Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – on stage at OLT through February 29, 2020 – premiered in 1967, and it shines a bright light back to the era of civil rights. In 1967, the OLT also staged a brand new play.
The year was 1967. Canada’s neighbour to the south, after nearly two centuries of nationhood, was boiling over with rage. Crowds of activists marched in the streets demanding an equal right to education, housing and the vote for black Americans. A hundred riots flared up in American cities. Martin Luther King Jr. had less than a year to live. In June, just two weeks after the premiere of a film called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” the law prohibiting interracial marriage in the U.S. was finally struck down. Still, even in liberal circles, questions were being asked. For instance, “What would you say if your daughter wanted to marry a black?”
Meanwhile, north of the border, there was excitement of a different order as Canada celebrated a century of nationhood. For many Canadians, the Centennial came with a realization that they knew little about their own country. A Centennial committee was set up to attack that ignorance.
Towns and cities across Canada, armed with matching grants, set out to build monuments and arenas, to compile local histories and to found local heritage associations. As for the government, it financed many cultural innovations, those in the performing arts including a new National Arts Centre. It also commissioned a new, bilingual play to be offered free to amateur companies across Canada. That play was a disaster.
“The Centennial Play” was cobbled together by a group of prominent Canadian writers, one each from the five regions of Canada. The authors were Robertson Davies, Arthur Murphy, Yves Theriault, W.O. Mitchell and Eric Nicol. Despite their enormous collective talent, these playwrights were attempting something extremely difficult; in the words of an Ottawa journalist, they were trying “to design a horse by committee.” After four years of work on their part, “The Centennial Play” premiered at the Ottawa Little Theatre on 11 January 1967 with the Governor General, the Prime Minister and a gold-plated audience in attendance.
As the dust settled the following day, journalist Frank Daley sat down to write what he called a “painful” review, and he pulled no punches. “The premiere was attended by a black tie audience,” he wrote. “They might also have worn black arm bands.” Daley blamed the play’s failure mostly on a flawed concept. He was also puzzled at what the play was supposed to represent, as it had little history, he complained, no satire and only a very modest amount of wit. The play was simply boring and, far from being gobbled up by amateur companies across Canada, it was never again produced.
The failure of this early venture in Canadian playwriting was sad but hardly surprising: when an earnest government committee gets involved in messaging, good art flies out the window. It is highly significant, however, that the government intended to present this “landmark” work in the community theatres of Canada, beginning with the Ottawa Little Theatre. Though there was relatively little original drama in Canada before the 1960s, much of what there was had come out of these groups.
Community theatre has deep roots in Canada. Expatriates sent into the back of beyond in centuries past brought with them a tradition of do-it-yourself theatrical entertainment that brightened up the Canadian frontier, with soldiers, citizens and government officials combining forces to stage mostly British or French dramas. There came a time, however, when community theatres tired of imported classics, and they began to commission new works. In 1915, for example, the Ottawa Drama League (later the Ottawa Little Theatre) staged a new work by a local author – “The Suffragist.” The play dealt with the thorny issue of votes for women, and it was just as topical in its place and time as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” was in the America of 1967.
Since then, the Ottawa Little Theatre has given many aspiring playwrights a start through its National One-Act Playwriting Competition, now in its 79th year. Winners of the past included Robertson Davies. In 1946, he submitted the script of a one-act comedy called “Overlaid,” and he won first prize. This play was the beginning of an extraordinary career, as “Overlaid” was published in 1949, a full two years before Davies’ first novel. Davies went on to write some 15 plays, as well as a long list of stunningly original novels. One of the great luminaries of Canadian literature, Robertson Davies got his start at the Ottawa Little Theatre.
Davies was a trailblazer. Not until after the Centennial were Canadian artists in significant numbers inspired to seek their own voice and their own vision in drama. As their supporter, the Ottawa Little Theatre has participated in the evolution of Canadian theatre, not only through its One-Act Playwriting Competition, but also through its own annual entry into the One-Act Play Festival of the Eastern Ontario Drama League. Periodically, as in the case of Robertson Davies, these projects overlap: Davies’ play won first prize in Ottawa in 1946, and it was staged the following year at EODL. The director was Canadian stage legend Amelia Hall.
“The Centennial Play,” said Times Magazine, was “a bouillabaisse that bombed.” It probably deserved to be forgotten. Nevertheless, the play represented a gallant attempt – and one in which community theatres such as OLT have been deeply involved over many years – to encourage the development and staging of new works by Canadian writers. The goal has been to express an authentic vision of Canada that would rival the inciteful power of American plays such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
More than half a century has passed since 1967. America may still be fighting its racial war, but Canada has come a long way in the struggle to find its own dramatic voice. The Ottawa Little Theatre has played a part in that journey.
Thanks to Jane Morris and Bob Hicks for their work on OLT’s online archives (ottawalittletheatre.com/About Us/Past Productions).
Janet B. Uren