General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
the process of becoming General Idea—connected through the social scene that
surrounded the theatre. Bronson contributed to the company in various ways in the
1960s, including poster and set design. Laundromat Special #1, 1969, a collaborative
performance produced as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s programming, marked the
first time the trio performed together. The work comprised a series of actions staged in a
room with laundry-soap boxes piled on the floor and an oversized cotton bag labelled
“laundry bag” suspended from the ceiling. Match My Strike, performed in 1969 at the
Poor Alex Theatre, included Partz, Bronson, Zontal, and Mary Gardner, who used
various props, including minced meat, bricks, glass, candles, and a slide projector.
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Performance documentation of Match My Strike, directed by Jorge Zontal and produced by John Neon, Poor Alex Theatre, Toronto, August 30, 1969, Collection General Idea,
photographer unknown. Promotional materials detail the performance components: “1. Reading a letter, she is bound; 2. Dance; 3. Lights; 4. Meat ceremony, he is eating foam
rubber; 5. Toe chew; and ceiling collapse”
The Miss General Idea Pageant, which shaped the artists’ work in the 1970s,
originated in the production What Happened, 1970, a multilayered multimedia event
performed by General Idea (and friends) as part of the international Festival of
Underground Theatre held at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and the Global Village
Theatre in Toronto.21 The performance was based on a 1913 play of the same name by
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946). The work played with the traditional roles of the actor and
audience, and General Idea’s version in 1970 fragmented the conventional theatre
experience by staging the performance over a three-week period and having the
performers record the event in multiple media—from sketching to video.22 During the
intermission for another play being performed at the festival, the group staged The 1970
Miss General Idea Pageant.
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