THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH FEDERATION AND AMATEUR THEATRICALS IN 1930'S ...

273 Pages·2016·10.92 MB·English

THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH FEDERATION
AND AMATEUR THEATRICALS IN 1930’S VANCOUVER, BC

by

PATRICIA HEWS EVERETT-KABUT

BA, Linfield College, 2007
MA, University of Arizona, 2010

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

in

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES

(Theatre)

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

(Vancouver)

September 2016

© Patricia Hews Everett-Kabut, 2016
ABSTRACT
This research investigates a collection of short one-act plays in the Arthur J. Turner
Fonds held in the University of British Columbia Rare Books and Special Collections. These
plays, written by Arthur J. Turner, Thorvald “Denny” Kristiansen and Hubert Evans in the mid
1930’s, formed part of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation’s broader social and
propaganda efforts to educate and indoctrinate new members in the basic tenets of Socialism and
the CCF platform. Like agitprop plays created elsewhere in Canada, Britain and the United
States, dramatic groups within CCF clubs wrote and performed such plays as one of many means
of legitimization for parties and movements of the Left along with other educational, social and
political activities. For the CCF, a recently formed political party built by the merger of many
disparate groups and cultures, solidifying their voting base and creating new centres for
progressive culture, social gatherings, shared political vision and party solidarity was vital in the
1930’s to ensure the continued existence of the party as well as electoral success and political
change. This research seeks to situate these plays amid their social, cultural, historical and
political contexts to show that their emergence was a result of the unique set of circumstances
created in the Depression-era and a manifestation of the larger global workers’ theatre
movement. Finally, this research seeks to recover and publicize the plays of the CCF drama
groups that have been almost entirely erased from the broader discourse of Canadian theatre due
to their amateur status and exclusion from the hegemonic archive.

ii
PREFACE
This dissertation is an original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Patricia
Everett-Kabut.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii
PREFACE ...................................................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ x
DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................. xii
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1
Personal Investment in The Research ......................................................................................... 4
Turner, Kristiansen and Evans .................................................................................................... 5
Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 11
Purpose and Scope ................................................................................................................. 11
Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 12
Research Methodology .......................................................................................................... 12
Theoretical Lens of Analysis ................................................................................................. 15
Attempting a Movement ............................................................................................................ 16
Challenges of the Archive and Historiography ...................................................................... 19
On the Significance of the Turner Fonds ............................................................................... 26
iv
Social and Academic Significance ......................................................................................... 29
Study Delimitation ................................................................................................................. 30
CHAPTER TWO: Grounding CCF Drama in Theatrical and Political Contexts ........................ 33
Global Workers’ Theatre Movements ....................................................................................... 33
Early Rumblings of the Workers’ Theatre Movement .......................................................... 35
British Workers’ Theatre Movement ..................................................................................... 39
American Workers’ Theatre Movement ................................................................................ 54
Canadian Political Context .................................................................................................... 76
Canadian Amateur Theatre and Workers’ Theatre ................................................................ 80
Progressive BC History as Context ........................................................................................... 97
Pre-World War I .................................................................................................................... 98
The Great Depression and Relief Efforts ................................................................................ 105
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 111
CHAPTER THREE: Arthur J. Turner and the South Hill CCF Club ......................................... 112
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 112
Arthur J. Turner ....................................................................................................................... 114
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and The Great Money Trick ..................................... 122
Boys of the Old Brigade .......................................................................................................... 146
A Story of the Simia, or The Monkey Rebels ......................................................................... 167
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 175
CHAPTER FOUR: Thorvald “Denny” Kristiansen and the Cooperative Commonwealth Youth
Movement ................................................................................................................................... 179
v
Denny Kristiansen ................................................................................................................... 179
The Cooperative Commonwealth Youth Movement .............................................................. 182
Big Business by Thorvald “Denny” Kristiansen ..................................................................... 189
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 202
CHAPTER FIVE: Hubert Evans and the Roberts Creek CCF Club .......................................... 205
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 205
Hubert and Anna Evans ........................................................................................................... 209
Contextual Works .................................................................................................................... 211
Evans and the Roberts Creek CCF Club ................................................................................. 217
You Can’t Tell Me by the Roberts Creek CCF Club .............................................................. 219
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 233
CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 235
WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................... 248

vi
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Plays Found in the Arthur J. Turner Fonds, UBC Rare Books and Special
Collections ................................................................................................................ 14
Table 2: Comparison of the Original Novel and the CCF Adaptation of The Great Money
Trick ........................................................................................................................ 136
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Arthur James Turner ........................................................................................ 112
Figure 2: Program from the CCF Drama Festival, Arthur J. Turner Fonds, University of
British Columbia Rare Books and Special Collections .......................................... 144
Figure 3: Denny Kristiansen (second from left) while working in a BC logging camp as a
"cook's flunky". Photo courtesy of Lyle Kristiansen’s private collection .............. 179
Figure 4: Hubert Evans in his “double ender” boat and campsite off the Sunshine Coast,
BC ........................................................................................................................... 205
Figure 5 "Poor Joshua" ad for BC Telephone, The Chilliwack Progress, 3 May 1928 .. 227
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BC British Columbia
Canadian- the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. The CCF was
CCF/NDP the precursor to the NDP, the Canadian New Democratic Party, formed
through the union of the CCF and Canadian Labour Congress.
CCYM Canadian- Cooperative Commonwealth Youth Movement
CLC Canadian Labour Congress
CP International- the Communist Party
CPC Canadian- Communist Party of Canada
CPGB British- Communist Party of Great Britain
CUPE Canadian Union of Public Employees
ILP Canadian- Independent Labour Party
LOWT International- League of Workers’ Theatre
Canadian- New Democratic Party, formed after the merger of the CCF
NDP
and CLC in 1961
PAC/PAP Canadian- Progressive Arts Club aka Progressive Arts Players
SLP American- the Socialist Labor Party
SPC Canadian- Socialist Party of Canada
WTM British- Worker’s Theatre Movement
WUL Canadian- Workers' Unity League
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work could not have been completed without the support of my supervisor,
Dr. Jerry Wasserman, whose guidance and eagle eye editing are so deeply appreciated,
even though at times I may not have shown it and for not giving up on this project when I
was ready to do so. I also wish to heartily thank my committee members, Siyuan Liu and
Kirsty Johnston for their feedback and support throughout this project. Additional thanks
go to the members of the Department of Theatre and Film for their support,
encouragement, and faith, particularly Stephen Heatley, Hallie Marshall, Cam Cronin and
Karen Tong. Consultation with Mark Leier of Simon Fraser University was also
tremendously helpful as this theatre and political science student tried on a new
interdisciplinarian labour studies hat for this work. I extend my gratitude to Elsie and
Audrey Jang and Stuart Clyne for their support of arts graduate students. I am also
grateful for the support, camaraderie, empathy and tough love from other members of my
cohort including Julia, my loquacious officemate Eury, Selena, Alex and the rest. Thank
you to my former faculty from Linfield College, Janet Gupton, Ty Marshall and Dawn
Nowacki and Bobbi McKean and Christin Essin from the University of Arizona for
giving me such a solid foundation on which to build my academic career and their
continued support in this work.
I wish to thank my CUPE family, particularly the unstoppable Peter Lane, Ed
Kroc, Molly Campbell, Adrienne Smith, and the many other members of our Local’s
executive committees over the last four years. Thanks also to Karen Ranaletta, Colleen
Garbe, UCBC, Mark Hancock and too many other CUPE BC and CLC members to name
here for their support. I also gratefully acknowledge the support from Joey Hartman and