Blyth Festival

Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt announced the company’s 2026 season, a playbill of five productions that reflect the humour, pressure, resilience, and vibrancy of rural life.

Sisters of ‘78 by Kristen Da Silva is a world premiere inspired by the Fleck Strike in Centralia, Ontario. It is a fierce, funny, and deeply moving ensemble drama about women pushed to the brink at a small auto-wiring plant. As unsafe conditions and harassment collide with a company that won’t listen, tensions spill into the wider community in a conflict that changed Canadian labour law forever. A pivotal and long-overlooked moment in Canadian women’s and labour history, the Fleck Strike reshaped conversations about workplace dignity, solidarity, and collective action—conversations that continue to resonate today. June 10 – August 9

Dry Streak by Leeann Minogue is a contemporary comedy set in the summer of 1988, and drought is scorching the Richards family’s rural Saskatchewan farm. Son John returns home with his punk-rock, vegetarian city girlfriend, Kate. Tensions rise and then explode when Kate makes a reckless weather-related promise that turns private desperation into public spectacle.

Wildly funny and sharply observed, Dry Streak is a comedy about belief, belonging, and small-town pressure. June 17 – August 16

The Last Mayor of Rusty River by David Scott, John Powers, and Gil Garratt is a world premier of a musical comedy. In Rusty River, a municipal election goes completely off the rails when two fed-up councillors decide to run a cat – Captain Whiskers – for mayor. What begins as protest spirals into an all-out circus filled with bluegrass-fuelled showdowns and political shenanigans. Co-created by David Scott, who served as both the youngest mayor in Canada and the last mayor of Seaforth before municipal amalgamation, the musical draws on lived experience inside small-town politics. With toe-tapping new songs by John Powers (A Huron County Christmas Carol), The Last Mayor of Rusty River is a timely, joyous comedy about power, persistence, and local democracy. July 29 – September 13

Off-Island Odyssey, written and performed by Justin Shaw, is another world premiere - this time a solo comedy show. From PEI horse ranch to Montreal theatre school, Fort McMurray oil fields, and a dubious Hamilton apartment, Justin Shaw has spent a lifetime leaving … and coming home again. 

In this hilarious, warmly observant solo show, he turns his off-Island adventures into stories of ambition, belonging, and carrying home in your heart, wherever you go. August 2 – 30

Outdoors, on the Harvest Stage, the Festival will stage Curveball: The Fast-Pitch Ladies from the Factory Floor by Kelly McIntosh, Andy Pogson and Stacy Smith, with original songs by Dayna Manning. Set in 1950s Southwestern Ontario, Curveball tells the true story of the women of Stratford’s Kroehler Furniture Factory: ladies who built furniture by day and played championship-level softball by night. This big-hearted outdoor musical celebrates teamwork, grit, and the women whose athletic achievements finally move from centre field to centre stage. July 8 – August 22

Tickets for the 2026 season go on sale to Blyth Festival Members starting January 12, and to the general public in early April. www.blythfestival.com 431 Queen St., Blyth