Latest news with #TheatreNewBrunswick
CBC
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Saint John's trolley-toppling railway strike of 1914 inspired N.B. playwright's new work
Social Sharing Just two weeks before the outbreak of the First World War, a railway strike that turned into trolley-toppling riots broke out in Saint John. More than a century later, one New Brunswick playwright is taking that pivotal moment in labour history and bringing it back to the forefront. "You have to imagine, in the main uptown street in Saint John, 10,000 people rioting, turning over streetcars, setting them on fire, cavalry charge from the barracks by the Royal [Canadian] Dragoons to try to disperse the crowd," said playwright and Université de Moncton professor Thomas Hodd. "It's just this amazing, epic event that happened in Saint John history, and almost nobody in this province probably has ever heard of it." Hodd's play, titled O'Brien, will be touring the province starting Wednesday with Theatre New Brunswick. The play is based on the July 1914 event which started with simmering tensions between the newly formed union and the railway company. According to the website for the Frank and Ella Hatheway Labour Exhibit Centre in Saint John, the railway company fired the union leader and more than 130 men walked out on strike. A crowd of supportive citizens began to form over the next three days and a riot eventually broke out. The mayor at the time read the Riot Act and authorized the deployment of a small detachment of Dragoons. The crowd overturned two stalled streetcars and took to the company's powerhouse, causing a city-wide blackout. Eventually, a deal was negotiated between the sides and trolley service returned to normal. And while Hodd is only now bringing the story to the stage, this event has been on his mind since the early '90s when he worked for the New Brunswick Museum as a historical interpreter. He was given the task of sharing stories with the public relating to objects in the museum. Using the trolley strike and a military uniform, he wrote a five-minute monologue to share with tourists. Then, just a couple of years ago, the story came back to him with international conflicts growing — such as the invasion of Ukraine — and the fight for reproductive rights in the United States. Coupled with that, Hodd learned that 2023 was an exceptional one for labour strikes. The amount of disruption — measured using person-days not worked — reached an 18-year high in 2023. Hodd said everything happening in the world sounded similar to the larger issues at play in 1914. "I thought, 'Wow, maybe this is the time to try to finally put the story to paper and to put it on stage,'" he said. But when he decided to write the story, he didn't want to write about the mayor or the union head or a military leader. He wanted to tell it using the average working-class union member. "Having grown up as the son of a working-class union worker, I understood a bit about what it means to have to make those choices and what it means to deal with striking and putting food on your table," said Hodd. So the story is told from the perspective of a third-generation Irish New Brunswick family. The family dynamic is one of dysfunction, with one extended family member being a prominent local suffragist, a few of them working for the railway company and one of the sons being a member of the local militia. Hodd said he likes to describe the play as a heritage drama as opposed to a historical drama because the story is rooted in the family, exploring the real conflicts and tensions that would have existed at the time. Hodd said he hopes people can see themselves in the family — from the dysfunction to the real situation of potential job loss and struggling to make ends meet.
CBC
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Fredericton poet explores vulnerability in new book
Social Sharing Tallas Munro knows about vulnerability. The 28-year-old New Brunswick poet and actor remembers having to leave his Grade 4 classroom with a brown paper bag because he was having an anxiety attack. "I was like, 'Oh, gosh, what do I do? How do I get over this?'" Munro recalled. "And I thought, 'Well, I'll do the worst thing that I can think of,' which is standing in front of 300 people and [reciting] lines from memory. "And that seemed to help stabilize a lot of those feelings and those emotions." Years later, Munro remembers the first time he saw his roommate's stuffed animal, wondering why his friend of five years had kept it hidden all this time. That same month, he saw a stuffed animal that belonged to another close friend. Its name was Lion — the name Munro would give to his latest book of poetry. "We're so selective about our vulnerabilities, and rightfully so, but it just wormed its way in my mind and I was thinking, you know, when we're a child, our parents teach us about vulnerability," Munro said. "But what is the first instance in which we project our own vulnerability to someone or something? "I think it's a stuffed animal." WATCH | Tallas Munro reads from his latest book of poetry: Fredericton poet puts vulnerability at centre of latest collection 1 day ago Duration 3:30 Tallas Munro says the title of his new book, Lion, was inspired by a close friend's stuffed animal. The idea of vulnerability inspired Munro's latest poetry book, Lion, published through Ace of Swords Publishing Inc. Munro, originally from Rexton and now living in Fredericton, said he spent two summers at Theatre New Brunswick, working with kids who spent their formative social years in pandemic lockdown. He noticed that many of them struggled with making connections and with being vulnerable. He felt a similar thing happening within himself. "You're working, you're acting, and then suddenly nothing," Munro said. "And how do you open up those channels again to where you're connecting with another person organically?" The poems in his book came first, Munro said, but the theme makes itself clear over time. For this book, he said he originally wrote more than 300 pages, but he whittled the work down. And while some of the poems have deep personal meanings, Munro said he believes readers can interpret them how they wish. "I believe that when you write something, and you put it out and it's publicly available, it doesn't belong to you anymore," Munro said. "People have their own interpretations that they'll bring to the table, and in a way, through their own interpretation, they connect with you as the person that made it. "My interpretation is irrelevant, or my intention, rather, is irrelevant. What you get out of it is the truth." A message to his younger self As a child, Munro said he would write about anything and everything. He remembers going on long drives and writing about the fields and ditches he'd see along the way. Even if the things he wrote didn't make sense, Munro said it helped develop his writing skill and allowed him to later write about deeper things he was feeling. Looking back at the boy with a brown paper bag trying acting for the first time or writing about those ditches and fields, Munro said he would tell that young boy to keep pursuing his art, despite everything. "People may not understand you," he said. "That's something you'll have to live with, but it's worth it.
