Winnipeg's progressive theatre company of the 1930s and 40s.

© 2021, Christian Cassidy

October 1, 1936, Winnipeg Free Press

The Winnipeg New Theatre company existed from 1936 to circa 1942. Its roots were in the left-wing Workers Theatre Movement that began in Europe soon after the First World War and spread to North America and throughout the British Empire. It brought blunt and plainspoken calls for social justice and an anti-war message to mainstream Winnipeg theatregoers.

The company was organized after members of the city's Progressive Arts Club decided to put on Irwin Shaw’s new anti-war play, Bury the Dead. Members realized they were too small to mount such a production on their own, so they called on others in the arts community to help. The result was a new organization called the New Theatre created in August 1936. It was made up mostly of performers in their late teens and early 20s and its purpose was “the production of modern plays dealing with vital, present day problems."

Bury the Dead was staged for a week in October 1936 at the Orpheum Theatre. Directed by Charles "Christy" Dunbar, it featured a large cast made up of George Werier, Alex Nelson, Sydney Cohen, Alfred Richmond, Max Goody, Max Litvok, Gable Charach, Daver Robertson, Edward Parker, Bernard Dubovski, Nick Elendik, Abe Padolsky, Jack Bristow, Earl Levin, Max Jenning and Norval Gray.

Frank Morriss, the Free Press' entertainment critic, noted "...the bitter nature of the play attract(ed) a mixed reception from a fairly large audience." Despite some lighting issues and rough spots in dialogue, he said the cast "performed valiantly and well .... there was a passionate sincerity to their work and much of it was striking". The blunt language of the play, he warned, was more than likely to shock many theatregoers, but he concluded that "Bury the Dead is well worth the attention of thinking citizens."

Alfred McGinley, the Tribune's entertainment editor, also recommended it. He called it a difficult play and congratulated the players for "giving an earnest, sincere performance."

January 15, 1937, Winnipeg Tribune

Satisfied with the outcome of Bury The Dead, the company soon announced its next play would be We the People by playwright Elmer Wright with performance dates to be confirmed. As they were working on rehearsals a strange controversy came up.

The company was accused of being "communistic" by school trustee William Scraba. It started out as a wider rant at a school board meeting alleging communist activities were taking place inside St. John's High School. When asked to clarify his statement, one example he cited was an editorial by the principal in an edition of the Student Review urging students to take note of the New Theatre and its work.

There were, of course, communist and socialist roots in the New Theatre Movement in general, including Winnipeg's New Theatre and its predecessor, the Progressive Arts Club. One of its founding members, and at times a director and president of the board, was Joe Zuken who was a member of the Communist Party and served on Winnipeg’s city council under the Communist banner from 1962 to 1983.

Some came to the defence of the New Theatre in letters to the editor by accusing Scraba of seeing the Communist 'bogeyman' wherever he looked and pointing out that the theme of their first play was staunchly anti-war, which made some people uncomfortable but was not “communist.”

January 23, 1937, Winnipeg Tribune

The New Theatre does not appear to have mounted any public comeback at Scraba and his complaint and it surprisingly ended up in the ouster of New Theatre director Charles Dunbar at a January meeting of their board. The vote was 24 to 4. Given the makeup of the company and the fact that progressives were always going to make up their core audience, it makes me think that there may have been more than Scraba's complaint at play - they were obviously quite happy to jettison Dunbar.

The plan to stage We the People went with Dunbar. The company instead chose It Can't Happen Here, a dramatization of Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel of the same name, at the Walker Theatre from May 20 - 22, 1937. It too, received generally good reviews.

With that, the curtain came down on the New Theatre's inaugural season.

February 3, 1938, Winnipeg Tribune

The 1937 - 38 season began with a double-bill of plays in December 1937 directed by Joe Zuken: Sit Down by William B. Titus, and Waiting at Madrid by John Loftus.

The New Theatre also entered Waiting at Madrid in the annual Dominion Drama Festival - Manitoba Region which took place each February or March. It was the gateway to the Dominion Drama Festival later in the spring.

The festival version of the play was also directed by Zuken and starred Fred Novalansky, Arthur Cooper, Gordon Burwash, George Werier and Ruth Popeski. It didn't win any awards and the national judge, while he commended some of the acting, found fault with the direction and lighting.

Still, the play won accolades from some corners. Alfred McGinley, the Tribune's entertainment editor,  wrote that the company "showed progress with Waiting at Madrid. Not the best choice of play, but remarkably well done, the talented players won many friends by their work."

The company finished their season with Ernst Toller's No More Peace at the Orpheum Theatre in May 1938.

March 2, 1939, Winnipeg Tribune

After another winter season, the New Theatre entered the following year's drama festival with Rehearsal by Albert Maltz. It was described by one reviewer as "An unusual labour play boasting such bourgeois qualities as love interest and humour". It was directed by Mercer McLeod and performed at the Walker Theatre on March 4, 1939.

The performance was well received and Rehearsal ended up winning best play. Gordon Burwash and Frances Goffman won best actor and actress, respectively.

Frank Morriss of the Free Press wrote, "The drama festival went along politely and amiably at the Walker Theatre last weekend - that is, it did until the Winnipeg New Theatre launched a dramatic bombshell straight into the lap of an unsuspecting audience." He described the play as a cry for social justice and concluded that "...the Winnipeg amateur stage has not experienced in recent memory a more spin-tingling 30 minutes of theatre."

The New Theatre went on to the Dominion Drama Festival finals in London, Ontario in May 1939 and Rehearsal was the runner-up best English language play.

Soon after their return from London, the Tribune carried a feature about the company noting that less than three years earlier its first play attracted about 50 people, mostly United College Students, and now it was the toast of the town with "several hundred" subscribers.

February 3, 1940, Winnipeg Tribune

The New Theatre did not mount a large-scale production for the remainder of 1939, instead its members concentrated on drama classes, small dramatic revues, and readings at their studio.

In October 1939, the company hired its first full-time artistic director. Max Glandbard was from Philadelphia and according to Joe Zuken's autobiography he hitchhiked to Winnipeg to take the $15 a week position. In November, members cut the ribbon on a new studio space in the Duffin Block, (before the 1956 fire that reduced it to a single storey).

With a new director and new studio, the company began working on their next feature: Volpone by Ben Jonson. The play dates back to 1605, so Glandbard took on double duties of directing and modernizing the language. The three-hour play with two ten minute intermissions was staged at the Winnipeg Auditorium on February 2 and 3, 1940. Amongst the cast was Joe Zuken in the eponymous role.

The play was well received. Frank Morriss of the Free Press wrote: "The production had a glitter, bite and a very real understanding of the robust treatment that Jonson's loveless comedy needs."

The 1939 - 40 season ended in May 1940 with a triple bill of one act plays at the Playhouse: Informer by Bertold Brecht, Lo, the People by James Macauley, and Plant the Sun by Ben Bengal. This would be director Glandbard's farewell performance.

Joe Zuken, president of the New Theatre, announced at the company's year-end meeting that the season had been its most successful and it was able to pay all of its bills. This was in large part due to the decision to host classes and smaller events at their studio which earned the money to offset the cost of full-scale productions.

Max Glandbard, left, and Robert Orchard

The 1940 - 41 season brought a new director named Robert Orchard. The company continued to concentrate on revues, lectures and classes. One of their major productions, a January 1941 musical comedy revue at the Dominion Theatre called Off the Record, was panned by critics from both newspapers.

Ed Parker of the Tribune, who had a hand in forming the company, wrote in a January 1941 column that, "the Winnipeg New Theatre has changed character to such an extent that has become a sort of adult educational and entertainment centre lacking the quality of a small but concentrated acting unit". He went on to note that many of the actors who were involved in Rehearsal had drifted away from the company and advised that to get back to being a meaningful presence in the city's dramatic community it needed "nothing short of a total reorganization."

The new Theatre's next play in April 1941 was The Six Men of Dorset, which included Roland Penner in the cast. Parker called Penner's work outstanding and wrote that the labour-themed play "was going back to the original social protest theme of its organization."

 
January 23, 1942, Winnipeg Tribune

The New Theatre's next major work came in January 1942. Professor Mamlock was a Nazi-era play written by Freidrich Wolf, directed by Orchard, and performed by Mary Madden, Mary Gordon, Ruth Popeski, Louis Bassman, Howard Maden and Ben Chud. It was held at the company's new studio space at 328 Smith Street.

The play received good reviews. The Free Press' Morriss wrote, "Professor Mamlock can be ranked as one of the finest efforts by the New Theatre" with its effective setting and sincerity of the acting. A Tribune review called Bassman's performance "remarkable" and the play worth seeing.

The Winnipeg Council for Allied Victory picked up the play for a one-night special engagement at the Winnipeg Auditorium with proceeds going to Red Cross' Hong Kong P.O.W. fund.

The New Theatre decided at the last minute to switch its entry for in the April 1942 Winnipeg District Drama Festival to Mamlock and it paid off. The adjudicator, a guest judge from the U.S. National Theatre, found the the production "outstanding in setting and grouping". Bassman took home the best actor award.

May 9, 1942, Winnipeg Free Press

In mid-April 1942 came a reading of the Greek play Euripides - The Trojan Women in front of 50 people at their studio, then the company prepared for its season finale production of New Walls of China in May.

The company offered a preview of New Walls of China, directed by Orchard, at their Smith Street studio on May 10 and then the play does not seem to have been performed again until June 13, 1942, again at their studio, sponsored by the Winnipeg Branch of the Labour Youth Federation.

In August, at a Labour Youth Federation meeting, the company put on a brief comedy and musical skit and that is the last newspaper mention of Winnipeg's New Theatre.

What happened to the company is not clear.

It may, like many other organizations, have disbanded in the "fog of war" as company members enlisted or took on war-related volunteer activities. Some groups also found that as the war dragged on, their audiences and patrons disappeared as they had had other places to channel their spare time and money.