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Michael Cook (playwright)

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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

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

Early life

Cook was born in Fulham, London, England. He attended boarding schools until age fifteen.[3] He served five years in the British Army, 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

After graduating in 1966, Cook left his family and moved to Newfoundland, working 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 was 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 1975, Cook began to spend time on Random Island.[11] In 1978, he was playwright-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In the 1980s, after retiring from Memorial University, he lived in Stratford, Ontario, where he was playwright-in-residence in 1987 and spent his summers on Random Island.[5]

While passing through St. John's on a trip to his summer home on Random Island, Cook became ill and died.

The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance was restaged as far away as Regina, Saskatchewan in 1980.[12]

Personal life

Cook married three times, and fathered fourteen children, including actor Sebastian Spence by his second wife, Janis Jones.[13][2]

Works

Stage plays

  • 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.
  • 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 Festival, 1986.

Compilations

  • Tiln & Other Plays (1976). Includes Tiln, Quiller and Therese's Creed.[14]
  • Three Plays (1977). Includes The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance; On the Rim of the Curve; and Therese's Creed.

Radio plays

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  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 "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. ^ "Michael Cook - Biocritical Essay", by Malcolm Page, University of Calgary. 1994
  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. ^ Contemporary Canadian theatre, new world visions: a collection of essays. Simon & Pierre; 1985. ISBN 978-0-88924-152-7. p. 77.
  13. ^ "Director, actor Janis Spence dead at 61". CBC News, Feb 07, 2008
  14. ^ Cook, Michael (1976). Tiln & other plays. Internet Archive. Vancouver : Talonbooks. ISBN 978-0-88922-107-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
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