Shakespeare in Vancouver: 1889-1918 (1971)

There is no greater writer associated with the English language than William Shakespeare. Does that make him my favourite writer? Of course not. But I recognize his influence, his insights into human behaviour (desire, envy, greed, power), historic events (a popular Roman dictator, the rise of capitalism in Venice, the hypocrisies of the British monarchy), and the relevance of those behaviours and events to succeeding generations. 

Shakespeare has been taking a beating of late, with school teachers and their students asking if he should still be considered required reading. In Grade 10 (1977-78) we read Julius Caesar and in Grade 12 it was Macbeth and the Sonnets. In first year university, it was Richard III. Perhaps it is the continuity of Shakespeare that teachers find problematic, the idea that no one person (a cis-gendered white heterosexual male, no less) should dominate the English Literature curriculum. For the most part I agree.

That said, UBC's recent "once-in-eternity" acquisition of Shakespeare's First Folio (rumoured to be in the $10M range), and the Vancouver Art Gallery's sudden accommodation of it, comes at an odd time, and I am surprised more has not been said in protest. Maybe this is the product of a culture so contaminated with "freedoms" that its members have lost their ability to focus, pursue an issue's textures and complexities, moving instead to the next issue, addicted as much to that fresh rush of anger and the friendships it engenders as they are to expanding the conversation in an effort to right wrongs.

Yesterday, while looking through the People's Co-op Bookstore's Townie Bin, I came across a copy of Sheila Roberts's Shakespeare in Vancouver: 1889-1918, a slim, hard cover volume that, among other things, gives us every Shakespeare play mounted in Vancouver between 1881 and 1971 (Hamlet 20 times, Merchant of Venice 18, Macbeth 17, Twelfth Night 16 ...), as well as rare pictures of Vancouver's purpose built opera house the Empress at East Hastings and Gore (demolished in 1969, as part of the proposed freeway?).  

Later that day I mentioned the book to a neighbour, a retired Shakespeare professor, and he said he'd never heard of it, nor (as it turned out) had a younger Shakespearean he was in touch with. My plan was to give the book to the VAG, thinking its curators might add it to their Folio display, but the VAG is no place for a book like this. Best it go to those who know their subject. So I gave it to my neighbour -- and returned with a pound of freshly baked bread!