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<font size="+1">hi denis:<br>
<br>
thanks for the update on the masque of neptune. important for us all
to know about and even acknowledge in our classes.<br>
<br>
best<br>
<br>
don<br>
<br>
</font><br>
Denis Salter wrote:
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<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0000ff"><strong><em>TheChronicleHerald.ca</em></strong></font></font></font></div>
<div><strong><font color="#0000ff">13 November 2006</font></strong></div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0000ff"><strong></strong></font></font></font> </div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Altering the
course of history<br>
</strong></font></font></font></div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Two theatre
productions re-enact Lescarbot’s 400-year-old play; one with a slice of
political correctness and a post-colonial bent<br>
</strong></font></font></font></div>
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font color="#0000ff"><strong>By MICHAEL
LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter</strong></font> </font></font></div>
<p><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial"><font class="Content_body-links">
<p><strong>The play’s the thing, according to William Shakespeare,
but in contemporary society it is a distinctly different interpretation
of its colonial-era content that’s spawned the controversy.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Within the next week, two competing productions of
Canada’s first drama written and produced by European settlers — a
short pageant staged by the French 400 years ago in Nova Scotia — will
be performed in Annapolis Royal and Halifax.</strong></p>
<p><strong>One will be a faithful version of the 1606 work by Marc
Lescarbot, The Theatre of Neptune in New France, while the other show
is to be a "deconstructed" adaptation with a politically-correct,
post-colonial bent.</strong></p>
<p><strong>History, it seems, is not only written by the victors, it
can be rewritten by unconventional theatre activists, with an eye
toward advocating for 21st-century native rights.</strong></p>
<p><strong>"You are getting certain slices of the original work" but
also elements of new work that "in a sense reframe the debate,"
Montreal drama teacher Donovan King said recently.</strong></p>
<p><strong>His small troupe, which will be performing the alternative
play, Sinking Neptune, in Annapolis Royal and Halifax from Tuesday to
Thursday, aims to present a thought-provoking "theatrical subversion"
of Lescarbot’s Theatre of Neptune.</strong></p>
<p><strong>"Instead of it being this celebratory re-enactment," said
King, "the issues of racism and imperialism are looked at through the
deconstruction" of the original production. "So, by the end of it, the
audience will go away reflecting on those themes."</strong></p>
<p><strong>King is ferrying his merry band of amateur actors to this
province in a van that he alone must drive because "I’m the only one
with a license."</strong></p>
<p><strong>He said celebrating the 1606 composition is not exactly
his kind of anniversary. He said what’s needed is "a moment of
re-evaluation and reflection" about the history of European domination
in Canada over First Nations people.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Asked if he has native ancestry, King said he doesn’t but
acknowledged the co-founder of his group, the Optative Theatrical
Laboratories, is an aboriginal person and "a lot of our . . . members
have First Nations blood." </strong></p>
<p><strong>According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, the drama by
Lescarbot was "written to welcome . . . Samuel de Champlain and Jean de
Biencourt de Poutrincourt on their return (to Port Royal) from coastal
explorations."</strong></p>
<p><strong>It was performed outdoors on Nov. 14, the encyclopedia
says, "under the author’s direction in barges and canoes on the waters"
near the Europeans’ settlement.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Lescarbot, a lawyer and writer, died in France in 1642.
His play "depicts the god Neptune bidding the travellers welcome; he is
surrounded by a court of Tritons and Indians who recite the praises of
the colonial leaders and sing in chorus the glory of the king," the
encyclopedia says. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Phil Roberts, who’s leading the effort to put on the
genuine article from Champlain’s day, welcomes the rival production.</strong></p>
<p><strong>But he said to look back at a dramatic effort written by
French colonizers — one that uses the word "savages" — under the
spotlight of a theatre company operating in 2006 is off the mark.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Roberts, a retired Annapolis Royal-area resident, said
it’s tantamount to condemning The Merchant of Venice for the shape of
Shakespeare’s crucial Shylock character, which many people today might
view as anti-Semitic.</strong></p>
<p><strong>"Lescarbot wrote what he wrote," he said in an interview.
"Beyond that . . . the French had very amicable relations . . . with
the indigenous people. It was the British, unfortunately, that didn’t.
And further to the south (in North America), it was the Spanish that
didn’t."</strong></p>
<p><strong>Still, Roberts thinks King’s plan to stage a competing
production "is great." He said his own show, to be presented by a
company called Musique 400 Society, will be done outdoors by the waters
of Annapolis Basin unless the weather is bad, in which case it’ll be
moved to a local community hall.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Musique 400 formed three years ago, Roberts said, and is
dedicated to learning and performing music and dances from 400 years
ago. The troupe uses period costumes and instruments to re-enact
entertainment from the 1600s. </strong></p>
<p><strong>Forced to stand in the wings during these contentious
anniversary events is a Halifax theatre maven who was guiding a group
that was organizing gatherings linked to the 400-year-old play.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ken Pinto said this week his hopes were dashed after two
applications for Canada Council for the Arts grants were rejected. </strong></p>
<p><strong>He said requests for about $35,000 in grant money were
turned down last year and in 2004. Pinto, director of the annual
Atlantic Fringe Festival, said his now-defunct group, Theatre 400, had
wanted to promote the 400th anniversary of the Lescarbot play by
mounting productions in Annapolis County and metro and by hosting a
major theatre conference that, if deemed feasible, would be going on
this weekend.</strong></p>
<p><strong>The private sector was targeted for fundraising, too, he
said. A provincial grant was to cover the cost of printing posters and
brochures.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Regarding the Montreal troupe’s alternative production,
Pinto said it’s not right to cut a slice out of 17th-century life and
paste it to a theatrical work four centuries later. </strong></p>
<p><strong>"It’s political correctness gone crazy," he said. "I mean
I just hate political correctness."</strong></p>
<p><strong>Pinto, who is black, said he’s read the Lescarbot play and
sees nothing wrong with its depiction of natives.</strong></p>
<p><strong>"The word ‘savages’ – that was the way it was back then,"
he said. "Blacks were slaves back then. That’s the way it was."</strong></p>
<p><strong>Pinto is unhappy with the way Canada Council’s jury
handled his two applications but said plans are in the works to stage
Lescarbot’s play in Halifax in 2010 at the Dingle Park on the Northwest
Arm.</strong></p>
<p><strong>"It would be a perfect location," he said. </strong></p>
<p><strong>( </strong><a href="mailto:mlightstone@herald.ca"><strong>mlightstone@herald.ca</strong></a><strong>)</strong></p>
<p><strong></strong> </p>
<p>
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<td><a
href="javascript:viewfullsize('firstplay_Provincial_11-11-06_GJ3SHUN.jpg')"><img
moz-do-not-send="true"
src="imap://drubin@postoffice.yorku.ca:143/fetch%3EUID%3E.INBOX%3E7486?header=quotebody/;section=2?part=1.2&filename=firstplay_Provincial_11-11-06_GJ3SHUN.jpg"></a><br>
<br>
<p>This artist’s rendering depicts Canada’s first play written
and produced by European settlers, Marc Lescarbot’s The Theatre of
Neptune in New France, staged by French colonizers in Nova Scotia on
Nov. 14, 1606. To mark the 400th anniversary of the production, two
amateur theatre companies are putting on rival versions of the work in
Annapolis Royal and Halifax. A third group tried to mount a production
of the play, but its hopes were dashed after grant applications were
rejected.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<div
style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 2px; color: black;">ON STAGE
<p>Amateur theatre productions marking the 400th anniversary of
Canada’s first drama written and produced by European colonizers are to
be staged in Nova Scotia during the next several days.</p>
<p>•Sunday, in Annapolis Royal, a re-enactment of Marc
Lescarbot’s The Theatre of Neptune in New France will be performed by
the Musique 400 Society at 3 p.m. on the shores of Annapolis Basin at
the Port Royal Habitation. If the weather is bad, the event will take
place inside Lower Granville Community Hall.</p>
<p>•Tuesday, in Annapolis Royal, "a theatrical subversion" of
Lescarbot’s play, called Sinking Neptune, will be put on by Montreal’s
Optative Theatrical Laboratories at 8 p.m. at King’s Theatre, 209
George St.</p>
<p>•Wednesday, in Halifax, Sinking Neptune will be performed by
the same troupe at 8 p.m. at The Bus Stop, 2203 Gottingen St.</p>
<p>•Thursday, in Halifax, Sinking Neptune will be staged at 8
p.m. at The Bus Stop. </p>
</div>
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