John Herbert
John Herbert Brundage was a prominent Canadian playwright and theater figure born on October 13, 1926, in Toronto, Ontario. Raised in a supportive environment that fostered creativity, he became enamored with theater and film from a young age. Identifying as homosexual, Herbert began experimenting with drag and faced significant challenges, including a wrongful arrest and subsequent imprisonment at Guelph Reformatory, where he experienced harsh treatment. After his release, he dedicated himself to the stage, establishing three theater houses in Toronto that focused on avant-garde experimental productions.
Herbert's most notable work, "Fortune and Men's Eyes," premiered in 1967 and addressed themes of brutality and social injustice, drawing from his own experiences in the reformatory. The play marked a significant moment in Canadian theater and showcased his distinctive style that often depicted marginalized characters facing overwhelming societal challenges. Despite writing over a dozen plays, none matched the impact of "Fortune." Herbert passed away on June 22, 2001, leaving a lasting legacy as a key figure in Canadian alternative theater, known for challenging audiences to confront issues of prejudice and injustice.
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John Herbert
Playwright
- Born: October 13, 1926
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Died: June 22, 2001
- Place of death: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Biography
John Herbert Brundage was born in Toronto, Ontario, on October 13, 1926. His father was a semipro athlete in a number of sports, and his mother a high school science teacher who encouraged her son to paint and sculpt. As a rather lonely child, Herbert was enthralled by both traveling theater tours and American cinema, drawn particularly to larger-than-life diva figures such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Gloria Swanson. He briefly attended the Ontario College of Art (1947-1949).
By the age of eighteen, certain of his homosexuality, Herbert began experimenting with drag, appearing in a number of fashion shows recreating the glamorous Hollywood stars he had loved as a child. In 1947, Herbert was arrested, charged (falsely, he claimed) with soliciting sex from a young man who had beaten and robbed him. He was sentenced to four months at the notorious Guelph Reformatory. Released in 1948, he was thereafter arrested again on the charge of gross indecency for appearing in public in drag. He was returned to Guelph where, by his later accounts, he was routinely brutalized by the guards.
After his release, he worked a number of odd jobs before settling in Toronto to pursue his long interest in stage. He studied at the New Play Society School of Drama (1955-1958) and then the National Ballet School of Canada (1958-1960). Enthralled by the power and immediacy of live theater and its ability to shock and provoke, Herbert turned his considerable energy to theater management, founding and operating three separate theater houses in Toronto that encouraged avant-garde experimental theater. Herbert performed, danced, designed sets, ran props, and served as general technical consultant for more than twenty years. In addition, Herbert lectured on theater at universities around Toronto, tirelessly promoting the theatrical experience.
When Herbert decided to write in the early 1960’s, he found modest success. He used his experiences at Guelph to shape what would become his signature drama, 1967’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes. In following the disturbing corruption of a young, affable innocent sent to a reformatory, Herbert recreates the raw brutality, the claustrophobic feel, and the predatory violence. The play was hailed as a landmark in Canadian theater (although it premiered Off-Broadway), praised for its naturalism, its honesty, its black humor, and its trenchant satire. As a result, Herbert was compared to Eugene O’Neill and Edward Albee. Although Herbert would write more than a dozen other plays, none would approach the success or impact of Fortune.
Herbert’s plays, collectively, offer little hope—his signature characters, misfits, are most often victims of social injustice, cultural prejudice, or random violence. Despite considerable reserves of strength and outrage, his characters ultimately cannot muster sufficient resolve to achieve any kind of meaningful salvation. He died June 22, 2001, in Toronto. Herbert remains the defining figure of Canadian alternative theater during the 1960’s, its most influential decade. Herbert’s powerful theater, compelled by a heroic sense of outrage, challenges the audience to sympathize with the outcast-figure and to confront the cultural environment that encourages ignorance and hate.