Group: A Therapeutic Musical

By bpNichol and Nelles Van Loon.

GROUP: a therapeutic musical. The complete script TS. 1979.

Lyrics & Music: bpNichol & Nelles Van Loon
Book: bpNichol

There were two productions, Spring 1979 and Spring 1980. Six shows each year (Friday, Saturday, Sunday for two weeks). The first audition was at the Therafields farm "tapping their way to heaven" says Nelles Van Loon: "It's probably one of the high points of the Therafields experiment - creativity was encouraged and bp was a mighty inspiration force in his quiet way."

Therafields, a psychoanlytic commune, was the largest urban commune in Canada, with 900 members in its therapeutic community, including a farm outside Toronto, a school inside the city, and owner of over a dozen properties in the Annex neighbourhood. Professor Siobhan O'Flynn, who grew up in the Therafields community, describes it as a "cult". The community was devastated and dissolved after the founder's son, Malcolm Hindley-Smith was convicted of molesting children at the Therafields school. bp was Vice President of Therafields at the time of the molestations and the dissolution of the group. John Lavin, another member of the community, writes, "We kept quiet while other people were crushed."