Abstract

This study explores the history, contexts, and dramaturgies of French-Canadian theatre from 1910 to 1929. The study opens with a survey of the beginnings of French-Canadian theatre history and an exploration of the historical, sociopolitical, and cultural ideas and movements that came about in early 20th century Canada. Through extensive archival research, this study provides an in-depth analysis of the theatrical landscape of these two decades situated within the established sociopolitical and cultural contexts, identifying trends in theme, genre, format, and playwright positionality. Furthermore, this research project delves deeper into a particular corpus of plays, exploring the ways in which French-Canadian playwrights represented and represented Anglophone culture and the power dynamics between French- and English Canadians in their works. This study uses a post-colonial lens to examine the dramaturgical strategies used by playwrights to undermine and subvert the dominant cultural and historical narratives through creative choices relating to character, language, time, and space. The study concludes with a consideration of the possibility or potentiality of the subversive act of revisioning of Anglophone culture and (re)writing of cultural and historical narratives on stage to contribute to the understanding of and creation of French-Canadian national identity in the early 20th century.