A woman ahead of her time, Florence James revolutionized American theatre before finding safe haven in Canada from a fascistic strain of American politics that continues to exist to this day.
Born on the Idaho frontier, Florence James was a New York City suffragette. The first to put Jimmy Cagney on stage, she founded both the Negro Repertory Theatre and the Seattle Repertory Playhouse. She worked with Francis Farmer, Paul Robson, and Helen Hayes, but her views on art and politics and her choice of plays led to a clash with the Un-American Activities Committee. In the wake of two Kafkaesque trials, where she condemned her persecutors as liars, she fled to Canada and kick-started professional theatre in Saskatchewan, the home to North America’s first socialist government.
This new edition of Fists Upon a Star (called “sensational” by Jimmy Cagney) tells an inspiring story of one woman speaking truth to power.
