sewn paper
Drama
1983
104 pages
ISBN 0-88984-066-0
$8.95
The Fighting Parson
C.H. Gervais
`I am Stockton, Reverend Leonard Stockton. Fifty-one years a
minister of the gospel. Always looking ahead ... and always behind. That
is why I am here tonight. It's in my character to have the last word ... first.' ... and
so we are introduced to The Fighting Parson, a character based on the life
of Methodist minister J.O.L. Spracklin who epitomized, more than any other
figure during Prohibition, the dramatic confrontation between the forces
of temperance and the rumrunners. With guns strapped to his belt, Spracklin wailed
from the pulpit and roamed the streets, embracing the task of eradicating
demon rum with unrestrained enthusiasm.
`Among the more flamboyant figures to appear during Ontario's experiment
with Prohibition was a Methodist minister, Leslie Spracklin, who was appointed
liquor licence inspector in the Windsor area. He led vigilante raids on
smugglers and speakeasies and eventually shot and killed a saloon owner who
had been a close childhood friend. Gervais's play, based on Spracklin's life, has saloon girls,
music (both secular and religious), a little dancing, violence and revenge -- almost
everything, one would judge, for an exciting evening at the theatre.' `James Reaney, who certainly is a playwright who should know, writes in
his introduction to The Fighting Parson that we do, indeed, have dramatic
subjects in our Canadian midst worthy of literary attention. C.H. Gervais brings to his script
about a gun-toting prohibitionist parson the experience of having collaborated
with Reaney (on the play Baldoon) and the advantage of having already
researched his subject for The Rumrunners: A Prohibition Scrapbook. We are
doubly fortunate that Gervais saw the dramatic possibilities of a particular story to
produce this script and that he did not shy awayfrom dramatic techniques that have
been used in the production of Reaney's plays.
`If this play lacks a certain flowing line to its structure, it is no matter,
for it effectively suggests layers within a community and translates the confrontation
of protagonist and antagonist in ways that are climactic and riveting. Gervais does not
just draw a curtain at the end of an act; with a superb sense of intrigue he orchestrates a
cadenza -- satisfying in itself, yet marked with a sustained note which holds us
through the interval waiting for a resolution.'
-- Pat Bolger, Canadian Materials
-- Ian Nelson, Canadian Book Review Annual
