Wikipedia

Michael Cook (playwright)

Michael Cook (14 February 1933 – 2 July 1994) was an English-born Canadian playwright known for his plays set in Newfoundland.[1][2]

Michael Cook
Born(1933-02-14)14 February 1933
Fulham, London, England
Died2 July 1994(1994-07-02) (aged 61)
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
OccupationTheatre reviewer and playwright
Period1966 - 1991

Early life edit

Cook was born in Fulham, London, England to Anglo-Irish parents. He attended boarding schools until age fifteen and joined the British Army in 1949.[3] He served for twelve years, mostly in Asia, including Japan where he saw the Ama (Japanese female free-divers) harvesting shellfish, sea urchins, pearls, etc., from the ocean. He married Muriel Horner in 1951 and had eight children. Between 1962 and 1966, he attended the University of Nottingham, earning teaching qualifications.[2][4]

Career edit

After graduating in 1966, Cook left his family and moved to Newfoundland to work as a schoolteacher. In 1967, he began his career at Memorial University of Newfoundland, first as a drama specialist and later becoming an associate professor in the English department.[5] Soon after arriving in Newfoundland, he wrote scripts for several radio dramas which were produced in St. John's.[6] He also reviewed plays and wrote articles about the importance of theatre in the St. John's Evening Telegram and the Canadian Theatrical Review.[7]

Cook wrote a number of plays set in Newfoundland, beginning with Tiln, written in 1971.[8] His best-known works are Jacob's Wake and The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, in which Newfoundland provides a sometimes realistic and sometimes symbolic backdrop for his poetic rendering of lives in continual conflict with natural elements.[9] Many of Cook's plays include dialogue written in Newfoundland English.[10]

In the mid-1970s, Cook began to spend time on Random Island and Fogo Island, marrying Madonna Decker in 1973.[11] In 1977, he was playwright-in-residence in the Banff Playwrights Lab at the Banff Centre for the Arts.[12] From 1982, they lived in Stratford, Ontario, where he was playwright-in-residence in 1987. He would often spend his summers on Random Island.[5]

His plays have been performed throughout North America, as well Poland, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Ireland.[13]

In 1994, while making his way to his summer home on Random Island after visiting St. John's to see a staging of The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, Cook became ill and died.[14][5]

Personal life edit

Cook married three times, and fathered fourteen children, including actor Sebastian Spence by his second wife, Janis Spence.[15][2]

Works edit

Stage plays edit

  • The J. Alfred Prufrock Hour, 1968.
  • Tiln, 1971.
  • Colour the Flesh the Colour of Dust, 1972.
  • The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, 1973.
  • Jacob's Wake, 1974.
  • Quiller, 1975.
  • Therese's Creed, 1976 (also spelled as "Terese" and "Theresa").
  • The Fisherman's Revenge, 1976.
  • Not as a Dream, 1976.
  • On the Rim of the Curve, 1977.
  • The Gayden Chronicles, 1977.
  • The Apocalypse Sonata, 1980.
  • The Deserts of Bohemia, 1980.
  • The Great Harvest Excursion, 1986.

Compilations edit

  • Tiln & Other Plays (Talonbooks, 1976). Includes Tiln, Quiller and Therese's Creed.[16]
  • Three Plays (Breakwater Books, 1977). Includes The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance; On the Rim of the Curve; and Therese's Creed.

Radio plays edit

  • How to Catch a Pirate, 1966
  • A Walk in the Rain, 1967
  • No Man Can Serve Two Masters, 1967
  • The Concubine, 1968
  • Or the Wheel Broken, 1968
  • The Truck, 1969
  • A Time for Doors, 1969
  • To Inhabit the Earth Is Not Enough, 1970
  • Journey into the Unknown, 1970
  • The Ballad of Patrick Docker, 1971
  • Apostles for the Burning, 1972
  • There's a Seal in the Bottom of the Garden, 1973
  • Love Is a Walnut, 1975
  • Travels with Aunt Jane, 1975
  • The Producer, the Director, 1976
  • Knight of Sorrow, Lady of Darkness, 1976
  • Ireland's Eye, 1977
  • The Gentleman Amateur, 1978
  • All a Pack o' Lies, 1979
  • The Hunter, 1980
  • The Preacher, 1981
  • The End of the Road, 1981
  • The Terrible Journey of Frederick Dunglass, 1982
  • The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone, 1983
  • This Damned Inheritance, 1984
  • The Bailiff and the Women, 1984
  • The Ocean Ranger, 1985
  • The Saddest Barn Dance Ever Held, 1985
  • The Hanging Judge, 1985
  • The Moribundian Memorandum, 1986

Other edit

  • In Search of Confederation, 1971, television play
  • "The Island of Fire: Chapter One of a Novel in Progress". Aurora: New Canadian Writinq 1980. Ed. Morris Wolfe. Toronto: Doubleday, 1980, pp. 33-48.

Further reading edit

  • Craig Walker, "Michael Cook: Elegy, Allegory and Eschatology," The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.

References edit

  1. ^ "Michael Cook". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Kirkpatrick, D. L. (Daniel Lane) (1988). Contemporary dramatists. Internet Archive. Chicago ; London : St. James. pp. 96–98. ISBN 978-0-912289-62-5.
  3. ^ Lisa De Leon. Writers of Newfoundland and Labrador: Twentieth Century. Jesperson Press; 1 January 1985. ISBN 978-0-920502-58-7. p. 267.
  4. ^ Michael Cook entry at The Canadian Encyclopedia
  5. ^ a b c "Michael Cook". Heritage Newfoundland, www.heritage.nf.ca
  6. ^ Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, Volume IV (Second Edition). University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; 15 December 1990. ISBN 978-1-4875-9116-8. p. 199–.
  7. ^ Page, Malcolm (1994). Biocritical Essay (Michael Cook). University of Calgary Press. ISBN 978-1-895176-52-0.
  8. ^ María Jesús Hernáez Lerena. Pathways of Creativity in Contemporary Newfoundland and Labrador. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 18 September 2015. ISBN 978-1-4438-8333-7. p. 193–.
  9. ^ Craig Stewart Walker. The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP; 2001. ISBN 978-0-7735-2075-2. p. 83–.
  10. ^ Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics. Routledge; 11 September 2002. ISBN 978-1-134-87700-3. p. 179–.
  11. ^ John Robert Colombo. Canadian Literary Landmarks. Dundurn; 1 January 1984. ISBN 978-1-4597-1798-5. p. 22–.
  12. ^ "A Brief History of the Banff Playwrights Lab". www.banffcentre.ca. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  13. ^ The CTR anthology : fifteen plays from Canadian Theatre Review. Internet Archive. Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0-8020-6812-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ^ Lynde, Denise (1 June 1994). "In Memoriam Michael Cook". Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada. ISSN 1913-9101.
  15. ^ "Director, actor Janis Spence dead at 61". CBC News, Feb 07, 2008
  16. ^ Cook, Michael (1976). Tiln & other plays. Internet Archive. Vancouver : Talonbooks. ISBN 978-0-88922-107-9.
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