Award details
Nicholas Guerreiro
Department: Theatre
Faculty supervisor: Dr. Anthony Vickery
Abstract
"HMS Parliament, or the Lady who loved a Government Clerk is a Canadian political satire from the 1880s that criticizes the corruption of John A. MacDonald's second government by casting him as the captain on an ersatz version of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. Although the topical nature of this text makes its humour inaccessible to modern readers, I believe that, with careful annotation, playwright William H. Fuller's imaginative libretto will reveal its secrets. By using archival material and other primary sources to provide context I will endeavor to use HMS Parliament to show how the strong links between British and Early Canadian identity, both artistically and politically, are revealed in both the form and content of this popular operetta."
