Études théâtrales and Performance Studies in Quebec

Études théâtrales and Performance Studies in Quebec Erin Hurley (bio) That this round table amounted to a preliminary public conversation about performance studies in Canada may be a sign of the “trans-discipline”’s somewhat shallow roots in these quelques arpents de neige, as Voltaire so memorably, if dismissively, called this country when it was still a French colony. And possibly the roots are shallow because of the snow. But I think other scenarios are more likely. Among them are the facts that performance studies scholars are spread out across Canada’s regions and that the vast majority of us do not work in performance studies departments. I realize that this state of affairs is not unique to Canada. But there is also something quite Canadian about this set-up, inasmuch as it manifests the federalist politics of regionalism that structures our educational and performing arts institutions. Regionalism, which is also a kind of wonderful fantasy of commensurate public spheres and equitable access to public services across a vast and varied land-mass, is also supported by federal financial mechanisms like the equalization payments program whereby those provinces with “inferior fiscal capacity” are given transfer payments, drawn from those regions with “superior fiscal capacity,” in order to ensure “reasonably comparable” public services across the country. This also means that in the public university system—that is, almost all Canadian universities—professional and graduate programs are also distributed according to this logic of reasonable comparability: they are dispersed across regions to increase access to their educational opportunities; they are allocated within regions to reduce redundancy. What I propose to explore in somewhat more depth is the impact of national narratives, imaginaries, and histories [End Page 84] on the development (or lack thereof) of performance studies. I’ve alluded already to a powerful national narrative—that of regions united under a federal system that apportions finances and legislative responsibilities across different areas for the common good. This story—which is also, in its bureaucratic structures, a condition of possibility—has deeply marked the story of the genesis of a “truly Canadian” (i.e., not English or French at the high culture level and not American in the popular culture domain), decolonized performing arts culture in English Canada. In short, it has been argued, the regional theatre system allowed for the efflorescence of Canadian drama and theatre, often linked mimetically to the experiential realities of the region. Click for larger view View full resolution Celebrated Quebecois conteur Fred Pellerin in performance. Photo by Richard Tessier In Quebec, the narrative—and imperative—of identifying, recognizing, distinguishing, and building a nation has, I think, both opened and closed doors for performance studies. In Quebec, as in much of Canada and, indeed, other settler nations, the performing arts have often been called upon to render national service by representing le pays. One of the effects of this effort at proving the nation’s existence via cultural production—despite and because Quebec lacks an independent state which would secure the nation’s existence otherwise—has been an embrace of a rather expansive range of expressive behaviours as national performances. These include but are not limited to humour (stand-up and monologues), vaudeville (les Fridolinades, La Poune), improvisation (Ligue nationale d’improvisation), clowning, drama of all genres, image-theatre, folk-dance exhibitions, folk, rock, and independent music, film, crafts fairs, television, and speech itself. In the context of a minority culture within Canada’s federal system—that equalizing model—these forms were valued for their French-language expression, for their ties to oral tradition and rural cultural practices developed in New France (thus the contemporary stand-up comic is an inheritor of the conteur or storyteller tradition, for instance), and valued as evidence of Quebec-ness, Quebec experience, or values. Click for larger view View full resolution Marie Brassard (centre) in Moi qui me parle à moi-même dans le future with Alexandre St-Onge (l) and Jonathan Parant (r). Photo by Frédéric Auger This formal eclecticism in terms of objects combined with the analytical penchant Sherry Simon among others has identified for theorizing the socio-political effects and stakes of representational practices (and vice...

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