Village Squire, 1973-04, Page 5the
Farm
Show
...telling the city
about
the country
Below: actress Janet Amos tells
the audience about a family
wedding. At right, Anne Anglin
sings the ballad of the Lobb
family. Both scenes are from
the original performance in
the Holmesville barn.
•
•
It's a long way baby from a barn
on the Maitland Concession of Goder- *
ich township to the National Arts
Centre in Ottawa.
It's a long way for a play to go, in
miles, in setting and in importance.
Yet that is the trip The Farm Show
has made. Last August a small autl-
ience of under 200 farmers and inter-
ested townsfolk sat on bales to see the
show. A year later, the same show
will be seen in the opulence of the
$46 million culture palace on the
banks of the Rideau River.
Yet although the setting is vastly
different, the show is not. The Farm
Show began there in the baric with a
breath -taking view of the Maitland
River winding in the valley below and
it is basically the same now as then.
It is presently back in Huron county
on a tour that will see it shown to the
people of the towns, villages and fa-
rms again. The tour began in Oran-
geville and Listowel and will end
after appearances in' towns such as
Clinton, Brussels and Blyth, in the
Festival Theatre at Stratford. Then
it will 6e on to Ottawa.
The show that will win the praises
of critics in the gaudy centres of cul-
ture not only began in Huron, it is
about Huron and the people that make
it what it is. It has its roots in that
old barn and others like it, in farm
kitchens and in auction barns. And
it is a hit.
It began when director Paul Thom-
pson of Theatre Passe Murallle in