The Rural Voice, 2006-08, Page 26STAGING
THE FARM STORY
New Blgth Festival plag tells story of one family's
struggle of the farm crisis, starting with BSE
By Kate Procter
Jn a world where entertainment
options seem endless, the Blyth
Festival Theatre still manages to
pack the house. A large part of its
appeal is its willingness to go beyond
the fluff and portray life as it really is
— warts and all. Another Season's
Harvest is premiering at Blyth this
summer and will hit close to home
for a lot of rural people.
Written by Anne Chislett and
Keith Roulston, the play is the sequel
to the much -acclaimed Another
Season's Promise, written in 1986.
Another Season's Promise followed a
fictional family through the interest -
rate crisis that hit rural Ontario in the
mid-1980s.
Chislett says Another Season's
Promise was quite well received. As
well as being revived at Blyth the
following year, it also went on to
play in several cities in Canada and
will be playing in Japan this year. In
Texas, the play was performed in
almost every high school in the state
and was included in the curriculum.
The play dealt with the harsh facts
many farm families were facing at
the time and touched on political and
22 THE RURAL VOICE
economic realities, as well as the
struggles that occur behind closed
doors. The play brought to light the
difficulties that arise between and
within families when the business is
also the home and the way of life. If
the business fails, the home, the
income and the savings all go with it.
Another Season's Harvest follows
the same family, but this time they
are facing the crisis of the border
closure between the United States
and Canada when a cow tests
Anne Chislett: returns to story of
the Purves family 20 years later.
The crisis caused by BSE affects a
family in Another Season's
Harvest.
positive for BSE in Alberta. As with
the first play, Harvest looks at the
family dynamics as well as the
politics, economics and physical
realities of farming.
The family includes three
generations — each representing
unique perspectives and ideas. The
grandfather, Ken, has retired after a
long fight to regain ownership of the
farm he lost when interest rates
skyrocketed. His son, Robert, has
returned to a career in farming and
built up a successful feedlot business.
He runs a tight ship and keeps a
sharp pencil. His son, Sandy, a
recent graduate of the University of
Guelph, wants to try niche marketing
his organic produce and getting into
agri-tourism. There is plenty of
conflict as the three struggle to stay
on the land and make their own ideas
work without relying on off -farm
jobs.
Robert's second wife, Jane, whose
first husband committed suicide in
Another Season's Promise, went
back on her vow never to marry
another farmer, but is determined to
keep her business entirely separate
from her husband's. She forbids any
discussion of farm business in her
home and deliberately refuses to look
at the finances as Robert tries to get
out of the mess caused by the border
closure by buying more and more
cattle.
"We measure our success by the
response of the local audience for
which it was written," says Anne