Uncle Eddie's Guide to Art Appreciation : Dramatic Reading 3

Uncle Eddie's Guide to Art Appreciation is a 50 minute monologue in which an angry Saskatchewan farmer, despite himself, takes up the defense of art. The clips here are from a dramatic script reading recorded live at Cafe Esperanza café during the 2005 Montréal Infringement Festival. It was my first attempt to try and reconcile my peasant roots with the artist and urbanite that I have become.

In the final section of the monologue, Uncle Eddie falls off the wagon. The audience is now confronted with the suffering and cultural marginality that are the source of his initial reactionary attitudes. He systematically dismisses, with a conclusive "To hell with that" statement, the personal hurt that came from his wife leaving him, the estrangement from his children, his Dad's domestic violence and his eventual abandonment of Eddie's family, and the racism and classism that Eddie experienced as a young man. This catalog of personal tragedies leads Uncle Eddie to tell us of the suffering of his ancestors. He says, "You probably don't know that..." and goes on to tell us of the Canadian Interment of Ukrainian Canadians, which we hear in this clip, but also the Soviet engineered famine in the Ukraine. Finally, Uncle Eddie tells us, as a sensationalist and anesthetized image from the Ukrainian genocide looms on the screen of the artwork, that he would have preferred that his nephew had given him a painting of his old Ford tractor. I also left a bit of the credits so that you can hear Norman playing a traditional Ukrainian bandura piece on the violin.

The music in the wheat scene is by ZEELLIA "Zavjazalom Sobi Ochi" (If I Only Had Eyes) from Willow Bridge © 2004. Uncle Eddie is played by Norman Nawrocki.

For more information see: http://www.guz.ca/uncleeddie/index.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• art
• farmer
• rural
• ukrainian
• canadian
• immigrant
• internment
• saskatchewan
• prairie
• norman
• nawrocki
• goodes
• don
• donald
• zeelia

[lucky4us]

A very sad historical reality. The dysfunctional family life, alcohol, and especially the internment by the Canadian government, which is not publicized nearly enough in my opinion. Keep making these videos.

Great portrayal.

[BTape]

I like it. The music choices complement the film really well.

[bwhahrhr]

Fantastic. Thank you for sharing