QS World University Rankings recently named Montreal one of the best student cities in the world, but you didn’t need a pollster to tell you that. Cheap food, cheap rent, and enough culture to last a lifetime—for many, these are the principal attractions of the bohemian, dynamic metropolis.

At the same time, students at anglophone universities like McGill are keenly aware of the undercurrent of language politics constantly at play within Quebec. National identity is intimately tied to the French language, which finds expression in culture and art. Situated in this context are the English theatre companies of Montreal: they are presented with unique challenges, but also exciting opportunities, by the interplay of a rich national history and a promising cosmopolitan future.

According to Jane Needles, Executive Director of the Quebec Drama Federation (QDF), a non-profit umbrella organization for English theatre in Quebec, the history of English theatre in the province stretches all the way back to the 1600s, when sailors performed on ships docked in Quebec City. From then on, theatre remained a significant part of life in the province; although until the 1940s, it remained a recreational rather than professional activity. Since then, English theatre in particular has seen its highs (during Expo 67) and lows (following the anglophone exodus after Bill 101 in 1977).

A challenging path

Though English theatre in Montreal has seen a resurgence within the last decade, significant challenges remain. One key issue is funding. While theatre is situated in a broader discussion of public funding for the arts in Canada, it is a common concern within the English theatre community that anglophone theatres receive less funding than their French colleagues.

Paul Flicker, artistic director for the Segal Centre, notes that government support “accounts for somewhere around six per cent of our operating funding, which is significantly less than most other theatres … in Canada or Quebec.”

Infinithéâtre, an English theatre company in the Mile-End, receives “less than half of what a francophone company would get,” according to its artistic director Guy Spring.

“The anglophones face the funding challenge, because the francophone companies are funded on a much greater basis than the anglophones are,” says Needles. “This is not a complaint, it’s just a mere fact.” She quickly notes, however, that even this limited support is still important. That English theatre is funded at all indicates to Needles that underfunding reflects the government’s instinct to “protect the francophone culture.”

Challenges are not only incumbent on theatre companies, but aspiring actors as well. Dane Stewart, U3 arts, is actively involved with theatre both at McGill, and within the wider community. He hopes to pursue a professional career in theatre—but likely not in Montreal.

“I couldn’t think of a better city to have spent my undergrad in, because I’ve been able to be involved in so many groups,” says Stewart. “But if I want to actually start getting paid for it, especially if I’m not bilingual … it’s not that sensible to stay in Montreal.”

“A lot of the people who have been involved in the shows that I’ve done outside of McGill … feel the same way about getting out of the city … especially the anglophones,” he continues. “The francophones … they find a bit more work.”

Forming the “cultural tapestry” of Quebec

In speaking with diverse groups within the community, an apparent conflict soon arises. Though most are buoyed by the proliferation of new, independent English companies in recent years, some artistic directors and actors express concern that the large number of companies does not reflect the relatively small size of the market.

“There are just so many groups that are cropping up in the English scene,” notes Stewart. “The support in the community is divided so much between all of these shows. Nobody could see all the shows by all the companies … therefore no company can get a strong enough foundation and support, to lift itself up and become financially stable enough to pay their actors—or at least it’s very difficult to.” He adds that “this is more my opinion than fact.”

Similarly contentious is the role that English theatres play in general society. Erin Hurley, associate professor in McGill’s department of English, emphasizes the significance of francophone theatre in Quebec culture.

“Since the ’60s, English-language theatre has not attained, nor particularly sought, the status of being a kind of identity-holder, or identity-marker, for Quebec,” she says, noting the difference between anglophone and francophone theatres. With the latter, “there is also a real emphasis on local—which is to say national, Quebecois—dramaturgy and playwriting.”

Needles views English theatre as one part of Montreal’s “cultural tapestry,” which is characterized by the city’s “multicultural disciplines.”

“There [are] so many languages spoken; French and English just happen to be the official languages,” she notes.

Some in the English theatre community have criticized francophone theatres for their lack of diversity.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find anybody of colour that’s in any theatre in French at the moment,” Sprung says. “It’s unbelievable how retrograde most of  the theatres in French in this city are, or how blind they are to the world … in terms of integration on stage…. Most francophone theatres are fairly right-wing and reactionary.”

A growing bilingual collaboration

[pullquote]There is increasing experimentation with bilingual productions…. I think theatre companies are wise to capitalize on that potential.[/pullquote]

The strengths and weaknesses of English and French theatre in the city also present an opportunity for both in the future: mutual recognition, and mutual learning.

“There is increasing experimentation with bilingual productions, of one kind or another,” says Hurley. “You can presume that most [anglophones] understand some French, and most francophones understand some English. That’s just historic contact, plus education policy and language policy. I think theatre companies are wise to capitalize on that potential, and it might be a way of bringing in more francophone audiences to what is putatively English-language theatre.”

Flicker describes the relationship between anglophone and francophone theatres “as a huge opportunity.”

At the Segal, “every second year, we’ve done these co-productions with French theatres,” says Flicker. “A show will run in French in their theatre, it runs in English in our theatre, with the same director and same cast and design team. So they get exposed to the English-language tradition, and we get exposed to theirs; and those are usually amazing experiences.”

Sprung, whose Infinithéâtre’s mandate embraces the way in which being a linguistic minority “helps shape our identity and fuels our creative work,” similarly cherishes opportunities to experiment with bilingual productions.

“We did an adaptation [where] we took … the English version and the French version, we had a cast of two anglophones and two francophones, and we basically overlapped the two versions,” says Sprung. “The idea is that we reflect the life around us.”

Needles notes that this trend towards increasing collaboration between English and French theatres was “not common” a decade ago.

“You have, right now, Good People playing at Centaur, and its French counterpart is playing at the same time. That rarely happens. But that’s an indication of the value of what both cultures found with each other,” she says.

This strategy may be paying off.

“This year our subscription is up five per cent,” says Flicker. “I think we put together a season that people really want to see. The subscribers are the most important group we have.”

“You see it by the number of productions that are playing throughout the year, with the increase in those productions being very marked,” says Needles. “So [English theatre] is definitely thriving and becoming more recognized.”

For aspiring actors, then, the solution may be similar.

“If you’re going to stay here in Quebec, learn the history, learn the culture, learn the language,” says Needles. “Understand the rationale and appreciate what the French culture has done for culture in general.”

“There is that major joie de vivre in francophone culture, it’s the only way I can explain it,” she adds. “And if you are going to be a student, and you want to stay here, then understand what that means, and be part of it.”