Towards Excellence

(ISSN No. 0974-035X)
(An indexed refereed & peer-reviewed journal of higher education)
UGC-MALAVIYA MISSION TEACHER TRAINING CENTRE GUJARAT UNIVERSITY

THE CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY DRAMA: TRAJECTORY OF ITS GROWTH AND SALIENT FEATURES

Authors:

Devang Nanavati

Abstract:

The Canadian documentary drama is a unique genre of dramatic art in terms of its conceptual growth, its objectives marked by post-colonial hues and its insistence to explore truth of a given issue holistically. The present paper attempts to discuss as to how a Canadian docudrama differs from the other dramatic genres like history play, problem play or commitment play- in spite of the fact that it certainly weaves into its structure historical data, discusses contemporary social problems and exposes the politics of socio-economic and racial colonization.

Although this region-specific dramatic art had become remarkably popular in Canada in 1970s and 1980s, its artistic potential certainly transcends spatio-temporal boundaries because it has the capacity to de-colonize any community by interrogating and undermining the hypocrisy of its existing myths of human progress. Hence, while tracing the development of this stage art, this paper also aims to discuss various features of this art form.

Keywords:

Canadian Docudrama, De-colonizing the Canadian stage and social psyche, Alienation Effect, Subversion of Myths of Progress, Environmental Theatre.   

Vol & Issue:

VOL.12, ISSUE No.2, March 2020