Four world premieres to buoy Blyth Festival's 2026 season
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
On Monday, Dec. 22, the Blyth Festival officially announced its 2026 season, which was approved by its board of directors at its annual general meeting the previous week. Artistic Director Gil Garratt said it will be a good season with plenty of laughs and five shows - four indoors at Memorial Hall and one outdoors at the Harvest Stage - that “reflect the humour, pressure, resilience and vibrancy of rural life.”
The season will begin with Sisters of ’78 by Kristen Da Silva. The play, which was commissioned by the Blyth Festival, tells the true story of the Fleck Strike in Centralia in 1978. Da Silva has spent several years doing research and conducting interviews to tell the story about one of the most historically-significant labour movements in Canadian history, certainly for the women of this country.
Eighty women, many of whom were in their early twenties at the time, went on strike at the manufacturing plant in the name of safe working conditions at the plant. However, the movement grew into so much more, attracting national attention for its length and the dedication of those on strike, but for what it was able to accomplish, which includes the first-ever sexual harassment clause in a labour agreement in Canada.
Garratt says it’s a tremendously important Canadian story that played out just down the road from Blyth in Centralia, representing a long-overlooked moment in the history of Canadian women and Canadian labour.
That show runs from June 12 (with preview performances on June 10 and 11) and closes on Aug. 9.
The second show, written by Leeann Minogue, is Dry Streak, which premiered at Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre in 2006. Minogue has made some minor tweaks and updates to her celebrated play, readying it to return to the stage 20 years after it premiered.
The show focuses on a family farm in Saskatchewan in the summer of 1988 as the community is in the midst of an extreme drought. The Richards family’s son John returns to the farm amid the challenging conditions, bringing along his girlfriend Kate, who is into punk rock and vegetarianism.
As the drought continues with no end in sight, Kate chimes in to do her part to bring the rain - and perhaps raise some money for the local arena renovation - and things only seem to grow from there.
Garratt says this is a great play from a prolific farm journalist who understands the small towns of Canada and it should be a great fit for the Blyth Festival.
It opens on June 19 (with preview performances on June 17 and 18) and closes on Aug. 16.
The third show, outdoors on the Harvest Stage, comes from Kelly McIntosh, Andy Pogson and Stacy Smith, with original songs by Stratford’s Dayna Manning, who was nominated for the Best New Solo Artist Juno Award in 1998, losing to the great Holly McNarland.
Curveball: The Fast-Pitch Ladies from the Factory Floor tells the story of the 1950s in southwestern Ontario when many of the women of the community would work in the factories by day and play top-calibre baseball by night.
The show focuses on the true story of the team from Stratford’s Kroehler Furniture factory and a push to support them as winners of the provincial championship.
It will open on July 10 (with preview performances on July 8 and 9) and close on Aug. 22.
Garratt says the show will find a perfect home on the Harvest Stage, outdoors and in a performance area that - more or less - is in the shape of a baseball diamond. He says it will be a fun throwback to a great time with some excellent music.
The fourth show of the season, back indoors at Memorial Hall, will bring the familiar face of David Scott back to the Festival with The Last Mayor of Rusty River, written by Scott, Garratt and John Powers, who is contributing his musical talents to the show.
The show chronicles two long-time council members - a mayor and deputy-mayor who have controlled the town for ages - and two millennial councillors who come in looking for change and find that enacting change isn’t as easy as they may have first thought.
The frustration of the battle of generations and the grinding of municipal politics all reach a head when the youngsters decide to run a cat - Captain Whiskers - for mayor, all to Powers’ bluegrass sensibilities.
Scott, a former mayor and journalist himself, has experience as the last Mayor of Seaforth before amalgamation (and the youngest mayor in Canada at the time). He also has Festival experience as the voice behind There’s Nothing In The Paper and The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom.
The show runs from July 31 (with preview performances on July 29 and 30) to Sept. 13.
The final production is a one-man show that marks the return of Justin Shaw, a stand-up comedian who was in Blyth last Christmas. Off-Island Odyssey will tell of Shaw’s adventures from Prince Edward Island (as the only member of his family to ever live somewhere else) to Alberta to Ontario, all in a warm, observant and funny way.
Garratt says that Shaw has been compared to Stuart McLean and this one-man show will be a great way to close out the season.
The show runs from Aug. 2 to Aug. 30.