Blyth Festival, Summer Season 2026
Indoors, on the Margaret Stephens Stage
Sisters of ‘78
By Kristen Da Silva
Drama | World Premiere
June 10 – August 9 | Opens June 12
Inspired by the Fleck Strike in Centralia, Ontario, Sisters of ’78 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.
Dry Streak
By Leeann Minogue
Contemporary Comedy
June 17 – August 16 | Opens June 19
It’s the summer of 1988, and drought is scorching the Richards family’s rural Saskatchewan farm. And then 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. A fresh re-write of Minogue’s 2006 smash hit from Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre.
The Last Mayor of Rusty River
By David Scott, John Powers, and Gil Garratt
Musical Comedy | World Premiere
July 29 – September 13 | Opens July 31
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.
Off-Island Odyssey
Written and performed by Justin Shaw
Solo comedy | World Premiere
August 2 – 30 | Opens August 2
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. A brand-new work from the sold-out Island comedian and Yuk Yuk’s headliner, based on Shaw’s sold-out run of Have Jokes, Will Travel at the 2025 Charlottetown Festival.
Outdoors, on the Harvest Stage
Curveball: The Fast-Pitch Ladies from the Factory Floor
By Kelly McIntosh, Andy Pogson and Stacy Smith
Original songs by Dayna Manning
Outdoor Musical | World Premiere
July 8 – August 22 | Opens July 10
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. Curveball is adapted from Kroehler Girls! by Blyth favourite, playwright and actor Kelly McIntosh (In the Wake of Wettlaufer), and features original songs by Juno-award nominated singer-songwriter Dayna Manning. It lands squarely in today’s zeitgeist, arriving just as interest in professional women’s baseball surges. A remarkable 14 of the players recently drafted into the Women’s Professional Baseball League—the first league of its kind in decades – are Canadian. This big-hearted outdoor musical celebrates teamwork, grit, and the women whose athletic achievements finally move from centre field to centre stage.
The 2026 season of the Blyth Festival runs from June 10 to September 13.