(Im)Possible Spaces in the Plays of Sharon Pollock
Wes D. Pearce
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WES D. PEARCE is Associate Dean (Interdisciplinary Programs and Special Projects) in the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance and Professor in the Theatre Department (University of Regina). His published work appears in a variety of anthologies on a range of topics from homophobia and same sex celebrity gossip to how Sharon Pollock uses scenography in her plays to investigating the role of visual dramaturgy in new play development. He has published numerous book reviews in a variety of journals including: Theatre Research in Canada, Texas Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics and Theatre History Studies. He is also a professional scenographer, with dozens of production credits across Western Canada including 20 productions for Regina's Globe Theatre, nearly a dozen productions for Saskatoon's Persephone Theatre and close to 30 productions for the University of Regina’s Theatre Department.
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Abstract
With close to two dozen published plays to her name Sharon Pollock is one of Canada’s best-known playwrights. Yet despite her substantial body of work, the wealth of critical and academic discourse around her work, the fact that many of her plays involve explorations of family, and the fact that currently Pollock is read, first and foremost, as a feminist playwright, nothing has been written about how Pollock uses domestic space(s) within her plays. This essay is a preliminary step in addressing the lack of critical discourse around understanding domestic spaces in Pollock’s plays.
This essay examines the use of domestic spaces in three plays from the first decade of Pollock’s career: Walsh (1973), Generations (1980) and Blood Relations (1980). Not only do these plays present domestic spaces in three radically different ways (tipi, contemporary kitchen, and Victorian home) but these spaces also serve a different function in each play. In Walsh, Pollock contrasts the failed domestic spaces of settler communities with the stable and fulfilling domestic spaces of the Lakota Sioux. In Generations the kitchen is not just the heart of the family but represents “progress”, a gendered assault against the land. This domestic space is familiar, expected and comforting but temporal. The play might be about the Nurlin family trying to save the land, but Pollock makes clear this domestic space will inevitably disappear back into the landscape. In Blood Relations, Pollock’s meta-theatrical re-imagining of the Lizzie Borden story, the Borden home is the site of extreme patriarchal resistance. It is a complex space offering multiple simultaneous readings: carefully constructed Victorian normalcy, the foundation of patriarchal expectations, a site of patriarchal resistance as well as a metaphoric glimpse into Lizzie Borden’s state of mind. This reconsideration of Pollock’s use of domestic spaces furthers an understanding of how space means within her plays.
With close to two dozen published plays to her name Sharon Pollock is one of Canada’s best-known playwrights. Yet despite her substantial body of work, the wealth of critical and academic discourse around her work, the fact that many of her plays involve explorations of family, and the fact that currently Pollock is read, first and foremost, as a feminist playwright, nothing has been written about how Pollock uses domestic space(s) within her plays. This essay is a preliminary step in addressing the lack of critical discourse around understanding domestic spaces in Pollock’s plays.
This essay examines the use of domestic spaces in three plays from the first decade of Pollock’s career: Walsh (1973), Generations (1980) and Blood Relations (1980). Not only do these plays present domestic spaces in three radically different ways (tipi, contemporary kitchen, and Victorian home) but these spaces also serve a different function in each play. In Walsh, Pollock contrasts the failed domestic spaces of settler communities with the stable and fulfilling domestic spaces of the Lakota Sioux. In Generations the kitchen is not just the heart of the family but represents “progress”, a gendered assault against the land. This domestic space is familiar, expected and comforting but temporal. The play might be about the Nurlin family trying to save the land, but Pollock makes clear this domestic space will inevitably disappear back into the landscape. In Blood Relations, Pollock’s meta-theatrical re-imagining of the Lizzie Borden story, the Borden home is the site of extreme patriarchal resistance. It is a complex space offering multiple simultaneous readings: carefully constructed Victorian normalcy, the foundation of patriarchal expectations, a site of patriarchal resistance as well as a metaphoric glimpse into Lizzie Borden’s state of mind. This reconsideration of Pollock’s use of domestic spaces furthers an understanding of how space means within her plays.
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