Spectacle of Empire

Jerry WassermanProfessor of English and Theatre at the University of British Columbia, Jerry Wasserman has written and lectured widely on Canadian theatre, modern fiction, dramatic literature, theatre history and blues music; edited the two-volume anthology Modern Canadian Plays, a standard course text now in its fourth edition; made more than 200 appearances on stage, film and television; and served for more than 15 years as a drama critic on CBC Radio. He is currently the editor of Vancouverplays.com, an informative website that provides up-to-date listings and reviews of local theatre performances. In 2011, he was recognized with the prestigious Sam Payne Award, honoring a lifetime of achievement in the theatre.

“The French play by Lescarbot is a significant literary and cultural artifact: it represents a social interaction expressed in artistic form.”— Dalhousie Review“The Theatre of Neptune in New France was a defining moment … a moment in which the theatre enacted an imagined authenticity even as it confirmed the extension of empire by transmuting the work of colonialism into spectacle.”— Alan Filewod, Performing Canada“A useful and amusing book filled with fascinating little-known facts.”— Geist