This was the title of Sandra Gwyn's seminal article on the extraordinary energy of mid-'70s Newfoundland theatre, visual art and music, published April 1976 in Saturday Night magazine. Gwyn, who died in 2000 (the annual Winterset Festival and Award is founded in her honour) surveyed the scene and found "the freshest, brashest, most compelling art in the country." The evidence was undeniable: CODCO, The Mummer's Troupe, Gerry Squires' Boatmen series, Mary Pratt's foiled-wrapped domestic still lifes, Figgy Duff's rock-folk fusion, Elliott Leyton's immediately relevant anthropology that stepped from studies to stage. What caused all this? Gwyn, a smart, elegant and observant writer, had a few ideas: some comparisons to the Quebec culture, post-Quiet Revolution; an awareness of what Resettlement had wrought; an unflinching look at the ethics and ethos of the 'happy' province, one generation post-Confederation. On the To-Do list for this week: We hope to revisit this article, and some of the people she talked to, to feature in our Winter Issue.
(Image: www.cbc.ca/history.)
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