Regina tonight: History goes to the theatre

Tonight, at Neutral Ground Gallery Regina's Spring Festival presents a reading of Anne McDonald's new play Lullabies and Cautions, which is apparently both autobiographical and about the Charlottetown Conference, 1864

In Lullabies and Cautions, the character of ME, her family, and her history interconnect with John A. Macdonald, the Fathers of Confederation, and Mercy Coles, the daughter of the Prince Edward Island delegate during the 1864 Confederation conferences, Expo ’67, and 1974 during the Inquest into ME’s father’s death. Love, loss, and the responsibilities we have to each other on both a personal and public or political level are the themes explored in this play. Throughout there is song, music, adapted lullabies and nursery rhymes, dance and poetry with lots of chorus work making the whole a playful experience of a serious subject. We don't promise tap dancing, but there may be a little soft shoe ...

Deets here.

Weekend update: Blogs, Alexander Hamilton, and Tony Abbott

Some odds and ends from the last few days

Blogs: Easy Come, easy go.

Dusty Bookcase, the blog on Canadian pulp, Canadian noir, and for years our guide to whether Stephen Harper would ever publish his hockey history, has ceased posting. On the other hand, historian Christopher Dummitt has recently had his Everyday History blog active again. These changes have probably been not much noticed  in the larger blogosphere amid the noise over the ending (or maybe not ending, who really knows?) of Andrew Sullivan's American ur-blog The Dish.

But a little ferment in the blogs is a good thing, and there's no reason any blog has to go on, but I've tweaked the blog list at right a little.

Hot-Ticket History

"Hamilton," a hip hop musical about Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, due to open in New York City next week, sounds, ah, unpromising as a great night at the theatre.  As the New Yorker says,

Perceptions about the music aren’t the only challenge in promoting “Hamilton.” Seller can imagine theatregoers saying, 'Who wants to go and see a show about America’s first bureaucrat?' 

A Venn diagram linking hip-hop music fans, experimental theatre-goers, and colonial history fans might produce a pretty small sweet spot in the middle.

In fact, "Hamilton" is the hottest ticket in New York and the only question is whether it can get moved to Broadway fast enough to cop all the Tonys this spring.  Kinda sweet: the whole thing began when playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda started reading Ron Chernow's doorstopper biography from 2004.

Auz Parliamentary Democracy

It's all done down under. Tony Abbott survived the review of his leadership by his parliamentary caucus and will go on being prime minister, for a while at least.  It was not a ringing endorsement; he won on a 60-40 split among his own caucus members.

I'm fine with this outcome. Too much giving the boss The Heave makes the system look a little unstable, and the Australian Labor Party's recent revolving-door leadership hurt it at the polls. Instead, PM Abbott has been reminded he is a member of the parliamentary caucus, subject to caucus discipline like any other member. In future he will need to be careful about crazy freelancing or blithe assumptions that a leader can do anything that occurs to him.  A rule like that applying to Messrs Harper, Trudeau, and Mulcair.... well, it would be parliamentary.

Still, Abbott's chances of leading his party into the next Australian election are thought to be slim.

Ways to mark Canada Day #1: 4th Line Theatre

The season does not open until July 2, but this fits. 4th Line Theatre at Winslow Farm near Millbrook, Ont., is one of those summer theatres that does local theatre in situ, often taking up historical topics. Theatre in a barn? 4th Line has several barns, and a big yard, and makes use of them: one of its plays this year involves a cast of sixty and mounted horsemen.

The definitive 4th Line production, perhaps, is the now 20-year old The Cavan Blazers, about a local and risky subject: Protestant-Catholic hostilities in the country north of Lake Ontario during the 19th century. This year's Winslows of Derryvore is offered as a prequel set in Ireland, where they also knew something about Protestant-Catholic, ah, issues.

Season brochure downloadable here.

The Regina Cyclone 1912

"Maany buildings were only a year or two old when they were destroyed by the tornado."  (Moose Jaw Public Library Archives)

June 30, 1912  Regina, a town of 30,000, was devastated by the F4 tornado  that swept through. It was a hot and sultry Sunday (much like today in Sask tho it's looking a little stormy now ...) and people were out on Wascana Lake, enjoying the long weekend and getting ready for the Dominion Day Celebrations.

 The CBC has put up a fantastic interactive website with maps as well as photos to compare now and then and historical highlights and interviews on the map. Lots more fun stuff there too for your enjoyment on the Canada Day long wknd.

My favourite is the quiz - try it out see what you know about Regina in 1912 whether you're from near or far. There's a fun question about the Globe and Mail and what was found in an oven that flew through the streets. For more on that you can see Connie Gault's fantastic novel EUPHORIA which captures the Tornado and its effect on people as well as history of the Prairies and Toronto at the time.

And if you're in or around Regina the first half of this month you can catch BD Miller's play Swept Off Our Feet which features Boris Karloff before he was Frankenstein.

Lots more art and stories posted on the web and to come throughout the summer.