Village Squire, 1977-05, Page 35:;';F 4: i:•l ryi:: }:::: � +i:•iiii i•i i<i•iii: � i?ii
A scene from last year's production of The Blood is Strong, which is being revived
for this year's Bh ill Summer Festival.
Canadian theatre still the emphasis at Blyth
The success of the improvised play
Mostly in Clover at the first season of the
Blvih Summer Festival two seasons ago set
Artistic Director James Roy on his policy
of producing new Canadian theatre and the
policy is mote in evidence than ever at
Festival '77.
Only one of the plays this summer will
have been produced before and that will be
the musical version of The Blood is Strong,
which was introduced at the Festival last
year and packed the house. The show was
originally a straight drama about the
troubles of Scottish pioneers in Cape
Breton but Roy felt it leant itself to musical
adaptation and so commissioned music for
it. Critics, though praising the show didn't
think the music was an especially welcome
addition. Audiences, however, disagreed
and went away humming the songs.
That's about as close to a "safe" play as
Mr. Roy has scheduled for this year.
however. The biggest production of the
season in terms of length of run will go to A
Summer Burning, based on the novel by
Harry J. Boyle. The play was earlier made
into a musical at the Charlottetown Festival
but unhappy with that version, Mr. Roy
commissioned a new adaptation complete
with music. It deals with a slum -hardened
youngster who comes to a farm and the
community's reaction to him. It will open
the Festival on July 1 and will have a total
of 12 performances.
Both shows will open at the Festival,
then visit the Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia
for two weeks in late July while the Petrolia
theatre brings two of its shows, Artichoke,
by Joanna Glass and Man with a Toad of
Mischief by Ben Tarves to the Blyth
Theatre.
When the Blyth company returns home,
it will open its third production, The Blyth
Memorial History Show, a tribute to the
Blyth Centennial. The play is written by
actor -writer Jim Schaefer who played a
large part in the creation of Mostly in
Clover and wrote Shape for last year's
Festival. The play takes a rural Ontario
Village from 1633 through pioneering and
settlement and railroading in a series of
vignettes.
"It's a patchwork quilt of tall -tales, silly
songs, a few true blue facts and a bear
named Beatrice," Schaefer says. Though
the play is about the Blyth area, it is
designed tor the enjoyment of audiences
from anywhere.
The final opening on August 9 is a
comedy called The Shortest Distance
Between Two Points, written by local
writer -publisher Keith Roulston. The play
deals with the action taken by a frustrated
village that finally says enough to being
pushed around by big government.
This year's Festival runs from July 1 to
August 20:
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STUDIOS
VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1977, 33