Scott Duchesne:
“Incredible
Capitalists” and the Great Canadian Patriot: Robin Mathews, Selkirk and
the
construction of the Great Canadian Theatre Company
This
presentation analyzes the Great Canadian Theatre Company's staging of
Robin
Mathews’ Selkirk (1977) as the expression of its mandate to
produce
“socially relevant” Canadian drama. A Canadian play “of engagement” on
a
Canadian subject, Mathew’s Selkirk established the GCTC’s image
as a
genuine alternative company in English speaking Ottawa. The script,
publicity
material, internal company documents (meeting minutes, notes) and
reviews show
that the company worked to construct Selkirk as a radical
revisionist
historical drama, highlighting the reputation and standing of both
Robin
Mathews and Thomas Selkirk. Selkirk was shown as Mathews’
effort to
explore an important event in Canadian history (the “Seven Oaks”
massacre of
1815), and expose and interrogate what he called the pernicious
“liberal
ideology” of Canada at work in a specific historical moment and in the
present
day. I speculate that Selkirk is Mathews’ idealized
self-portrait of the
company at that time.