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Reprinted from the Regina LeaderPost, October 1, 1999 A3

Mitchell surprised by honour
By Nick Miliokas

Being a restaurateur himself, Ken Mitchell was all the more appreciative of the food and drink laid out at the Order of Canada reception in the nation’s capital last week. But the fact that he was fooing the bill, in a roundabout way, gave him pause.

“It was incredible,” he says with a smile. “As a taxpayer, however, you do wince a little bit looking at it.”

Mitchell, as you know, was among the deserving men and women who received medals (to be worn only on formal occasions) and certificates (suitable for framing).

An English professor at the University of Regina, he was recognized for the literary contribution he has made over many years as a writer of short stories, novels, and plays. (That Mitchell also happens to own a piece of the Cathedral Village Free House was, presumably, strictly beside the point.)

“I felt out of my depth completely,” he says. “But then, probably everybody who goes there does. It was an honour, especially because it was right out of the blue. I had absolutely no idea it was coming.”

Among other fellow inductees, Mitchell was excited to meet film director Atom Egoyan, opera singer Ben Heppner, and former federal cabinet minister Mitchell Sharp. Even the prime minister, Jean Chretien, dropped by to extend his congratulations.

So ceremonious was the occasion that Mitchell bought a tuxedo, “the Scotsman in me,” as he puts it, having seen the considerable economic advantages of buying over borrowing: two rentals equals one purchase.

Not the least of many thrills was staying at a historic hotel, the Chateau Laurier. For Mitchell, this was a dream come true, a longtime fantasy realized.

Sounds to me like there’s a play in there somewhere.

“There’s a play in everything,” says Mitchell, who not so long ago gave serious thoughts to writing a piece, tentatively called The Project, about opening a restaurant.

“To a certain extent,” he explains, “that’s what you do as a playwright. You fantasize this other existence in the reality of a production. And if your vision is strong enough, if it speaks to people at the right time, the play succeeds.”

There are two plays on Mitchell’s mind these days.

One is ‘old’ and the other is new(er).

Last night the Globe Theatre launched its 1999-2000 season with a revival of Cruel Tears and this afternoon the U of R theatre department will begin its Playwrights Reading Series (3:30 p.m. in the Shumiatcher Theatre, University Centre) with a presentation by Mitchell on his most recent work, The Hunter Memorial.

The latter is a stage adaptation of Sawbones Memorial, a novella written by Saskatchewan writer Sinclair Ross. What intrigues Mitchell about this piece in particular is that it was a distinct departure from the technical craftmanship and attention to detail that earned Ross his literary lable as a Prairie realist.

In this novella he used a European style that replaced the conventional narrative device with monologues and dialogues.

“It is like nothing Ross had ever written before,” says Mitchell, whose stage adaptation, like the novella on which it is based, concerns a country doctor’s relationship with the inhabitants of a small town, and is told in one night, the occasion being the doctor’s retirement.

“To me, it’s also a Ross memorial,” Mitchell says.

“I’d love to see the play produced in a small town because that’s what it’s about.” Come Monday night at 8 o’clock, in the cabaret space at the Globe Theatre, Mitchell will join Dave Margoshes for ‘Bright Nights, Great Authors,’ otherwise known as the Saskatchewan Writers Guild reading series.

Mitchell’s presentation will include excerpts from a novel that is now in its second draft, a “satirical adventure story,” as he describes it, about a Moose Jaw man who becomes a hero and goes to Las Vegas to fight crime.

read Ken Mitchell’s “The Great Electrical Revolution”
read a review of Rebels in Time: Three Plays
read an interview
return to Ken Mitchell
return to Spotlights