an old Canadian play: Marsh Hay

[Guillermo Verdecchia]

>  What a treat to have confirmed that an "old Canadian play" can
> hold the 1996 professional stage with such potency. I agree with those
> who will undoubtedly point out that it is not everyone's cup of tea. But
drinking different kinds of tea is surely >a good idea.

How exciting. I wish I could get to Shaw and see this production.

Just last night, I was talking to Peter Hinton (new artistic director at the
Playwrights Theatre Centre in Vancouver) and bemoaning the fate of most Canadian
plays: two or three productions and then relegated to the dustbin or archive
boxes. Our plays have little "weight" because a body of production and criticism
doesn't build up around them. Nothing accretes to our work. The plays float
ghostly through our culture. I hope  theatres of all sizes around the country
will take their cue from Neil Munro and the Shaw Festival and begin to
re-examine the body of Canadian work that already exists.

Guillermo Verdecchia