The Last Mayor of Rusty River: A Cat, a Council and a Comedy with Something to Say

What happens when a play about small-town politics needs something to set the whole thing in motion?

Apparently, you add a cat.

Meet Captain Whiskers, the unlikely mayoral candidate at the centre of The Last Mayor of Rusty River, Blyth's hilarious new Canadian musical about a small-town election that goes spectacularly off the rails.

Playwright David Scott and co-writer/director Gil Garratt join host Joanne Wallace to talk about how the world of Rusty River grew over nearly eight years of development, and how one inspired idea finally gave its colourful cast of characters something to fight for.

Along the way, we'll discover how songwriter John Powers helped turn the show into a bluegrass musical, what happened when an extraordinary company of actors got into the rehearsal hall, and why sometimes laughter is the best way to start a serious conversation.

If you've already seen The Last Mayor of Rusty River, join us behind the scenes and discover how it all came together.

And if you haven't ... well. Don't you want to find out whether Captain Whiskers wins?

Tickets on sale now!

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Credits

Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace
Sound Designer/Engineer: Jim Park

Music: Theme: Gotta Give Me Something, River Run Dry; Mountain Shadows, Wanderer's Trove; So Many Roads, Headlund; all via Epidemic Sound. 

Transcript

The Last Mayor of Rusty River: A Cat, A Council and a Comedy With Something to Say

SPEAKERS

Joanne Wallace, Gil Garratt, David Scott

Joanne Wallace  01:03

Hi, I'm Joanne Wallace. Welcome to the Blyth Festival podcast, presented by Tuckersmith Communications Co-op. Today, we're heading to the small town of Rusty River, where a municipal election has gone completely off the rails. The incumbent mayor and his deputy are determined to avoid the inconvenience of democracy, meanwhile, two idealistic young councillors are trying to solve real problems facing their community, and then, thanks to one ill-timed outburst, an elderly cat somehow finds himself in the race for mayor. This new Canadian musical is packed with memorable characters, terrific songs, and more than a few surprises, but underneath all the laughter is a thoughtful story about community, leadership, and the challenges facing small towns today. Joining me to talk about all this are the play's co-writer and director, our own artistic director Gil Garrett, and playwright David Scott. Now, David knows a thing or two about municipal politics himself. In addition to a long career as a journalist, editor, and author, he actually was once the mayor of Seaforth, which is a small town not far from Blyth. We're going to talk about how this delightfully outrageous story came to life, how a cat became one of its leading characters, and why sometimes comedy is the best way to talk about something serious. Let's get to it. Gil, Dave, welcome, and thanks so much for being here.

Gil Garratt  02:34

Oh, thank you. So grateful to be here.

David Scott  02:36

Thanks for the invitation. Pleasure.

Joanne Wallace  02:39

Dave, before there was a cat, before there were any songs or courtroom shenanigans or anything else, there was a phone call from Gil. What did he ask you to write?

Speaker 2  02:51

Some reflections of life in municipal politics. I was a one-term mayor, but local and a playwright, so we thought there's got to be something here,

Joanne Wallace  03:04

Gil. Why did you why did you think that? Why municipal politics?

Gil Garratt  03:08

Well, Dave has a remarkable perspective, you know, having served in public office. But I mean, municipal politics impacts us all in so many ways. I mean, in you know, in many respects, and people talk about the idea that every issue is a local issue, and so your municipal council. I mean, this is where you can have the the greatest amount of effect. Yeah. So I think the idea of putting that work on stage somehow, somehow, this this other life just was to me really exciting,

Joanne Wallace  03:41

Dave. Once once you started thinking about this after Gil pitched the idea, what grabbed you first? Like, did did a character walk into your mind, or a situation, maybe something you'd actually seen at a council table when you were mayor yourself?

Speaker 2  03:55

I took it beyond that. I I went full circle to my first play, where there was about six, seven characters, and I thought, I want this to be equal men, equal women, but a voice of of strong women and kind of the old old boys club versus new ideas, and and how optimistic people can get Bert out in their first even year of council, and so a lot of that. Because I think people do naturally butt heads who run for council. They're they're opinionated, and you know you always hear the the word on the street, and and that doesn't always line up with what council actually does.

Joanne Wallace  04:41

So was it your concern to to show what council actually does? Because if that's what you were planning to do, I'm not sure where any of us are going to feel any better about it.

Speaker 2  04:51

Yes, well, there is some tedious tedium and in all those yes motions and seconders, but. Yeah, it's yeah, it's kind of the machinery that that people get caught in, and some people say that real work gets done in committees, whether that's you know federal government right down to municipal politics.

Joanne Wallace  05:25

Gil, let's talk a bit about the development of this play because I know it's been in development for a long time, and some people might think that a playwright vanishes into a room and emerges hollow-eyed, kind of you know needing something more than coffee with a finished script. Some of that may be true, but the entire reality is much less linear. And this is, in fact, the work we are most deeply engaged in at the Blyth Festival. So you yourself, well, go. I was going to ask because you've had your hands on this story as both a director and the co-writer. Can you talk about what this particular story kept teaching you as it evolved?

Gil Garratt  06:05

Absolutely. I mean, first of all, just to speak to that new play development piece that you're pointing at, something really important. I have never, in you know more than 30 years of doing this, been in a rehearsal hall, where a script didn't change because of the involvement of the people in the room, even printed text, even published scripts, right? Like, you you know, take something as as kind of as massively produced as as as the drawer boy, and even when we did it, you know, just a few years ago, there were still changes that Michael has made over the years. That he said, "Oh, you know what? Actually, we change this now. We change this now. We change this now because there's discoveries made all the time. Even work that is, you know, in print continues to change. Even Quiet in the Land when we did it last year, you know, Anne Chislett had some changes that she continued to make to that script decades later, so being in the room with a new play and the the kind of involvement of everyone in the room, it just we continue to grow and grow and grow. We talk about it as a collaborative art form, but I think sometimes we under enunciate what collaboration really looks like. It takes a it takes a village. So something like this works. So when when Dave first brought me his you know the last mayor of Rusty River, I was immediately struck by how funny it was, and he had kind of a cast of characters that I thought were very relatable, and you know they were dealing with all of these kind of problems in this fictitious town of Rusty River, and their antics and behaviour, their agendas, their backstabbing, their overtures-all of that to me was very very fun and suggested a world. And we did a workshop reading of I think at the first draft I gave Dave a bunch of feedback to it, and Dave wrote a second draft, and then we did read that version even before we had attached John as a as a songwriter to it, and we had actors in a room and were able to get a bunch more feedback from them about you know where they were at and what was happening and and then I thought you know what goes great with municipal politics songs so then I introduced John Powers to Dave Scott, or I thought I was introducing them. Turned out that they actually knew each other, and I'd met a few times before that. But I put them together. Yeah, yeah. Dave was already a fan, and I'd seen John perform and heard some of his songs, and I thought, okay, well, this is a great chance for a collaboration between these two. So I asked Dave if he would be open to a songwriter joining, and then we engaged John. John started writing a bunch of songs for the piece. He was still very new to writing music for the stage, and so while he had written hundreds and hundreds of songs, there was a you know a need for songs in the show, and we actually, as John started writing songs, we realised oh you know what John would really benefit from some time spent working with a songwriter whose whose oeuvre is writing for the stage, and so we put him together with Britta Johnson, and John actually went to Toronto and spent a weekend as part of the development of this play, just taking the songs and the story that he already had to get Britta's thoughts on what was there. And Britta really talked to him about how to write songs in first person, how to think about what as a change song. What is a song that is about, you know, what is really the the role of the song in the play?

Gil Garratt  10:06

That it it has a different kind of narrative importance and function, and so then he came back with a whole new like throughout basically all of those songs and wrote brand new songs as part of what we then would would do for a workshop draft, but I would say one of the things that we were really throwing around for at that time was, in a way, what Dave had created was this cast of characters and a world, Rusty River, and what the show needed at that time. After a couple of workshops and a lot of conversation, was we need an event,

Joanne Wallace  10:42

and let me guess. That event turned out to be a cat.

Gil Garratt  10:47

Good guess. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Yeah, but so okay. So at some point, at

Joanne Wallace  10:55

some point, one of you said, "Oh, you know what this play needs? It needs a cat. So, like, how did we get here?

Speaker 2  11:02

Well, let's see. Hmm. Yes, that's a Gil thing. But I was thinking earlier versions. If I could just hop in, so you want to do do you know event we had or this cooked out of my head that I thought, oh well, Blyth has already done Cake Walk, and that was the first play I ever saw it by. But I thought, no, there's got to be a pie contest, pie baking contest, where we find out secretly that Jerry is a vegetarian.

Joanne Wallace  11:33

Okay, so all of that goes to to show that the the the play that the audience sees when they come into the theatre is something that has emerged from a very deep cauldron that's been going on and on. Oh yeah, but Dave, while you're talking about this, when you look back, because I know you've been working on this play off and on for upward like I'm on eight years, is that right?

Speaker 2  11:56

Seven or eight years. Seven or eight

Joanne Wallace  11:58

years. So, and that wasn't interrupted by COVID, of course, but looking back now, what what surprised you the most about where the play eventually landed?

Speaker 2  12:07

That's a great question. I it was always about you know getting kind of getting rid of the incumbent mayor who who people were getting tired of. It was what's changed. I guess is the the approach who was running and various earlier drafts had different people running, including Harmony the reporter. We explored that for a while.

Joanne Wallace  12:36

That would have been fun.

Speaker 2  12:38

And one thing that can't be left out, though, I know Gil at the time wanted to tap in to not only local kind of anger with municipal politics, but right up to the national and international level with populist leaders, and you know there is it's delivered with humour at the play, but there are some dark undertones there about you know kind of mob mentality and the introduction of social media as a force for influencing people.

Joanne Wallace  13:16

Yeah, yeah, and I I do I want to talk about that too because like another show we've got on our playbill this summer called Dry Streak, this is a really hilarious comedy. But there's there's something quite serious underneath it. But Gil, I want to go back to you because I know you shared this story with me before about where where Captain Whiskers the the cat came from. So can you share that story?

Gil Garratt  13:41

Yeah. So I, I, so John and and Dave had done a couple of versions of of the play, and we'd had a couple of readings. And the one thing that I thought was still missing was, you know, what is this event that could be a real catalyst for all the action in the play? And then as I was kind of searching a certain age, trying to think about it, I stumbled upon an article that was actually from a newspaper in Alaska, where a cat, indeed a domestic house cat, had been elected the mayor of the town. And when I looked into it, it was kind of you know surprise, surprise, a slightly libertarian leaning town, and they were quite happy to end having a human mayor and to go for a cat instead, because the cat would tell them a lot less what to do. And I thought that's hilarious, and also wouldn't that be remarkable? And as I got looking into it further, I found out you know that there was a cat that ran actually in Halifax named Tuxedo Stan. He ran 2012, and there was another cat that ran in Montreal. Just in 2015, and I thought, okay, this is there's something here.

Joanne Wallace  15:04

I know. I hope we don't start a trend. Yeah. So

Gil Garratt  15:07

then I reached out to to John and to Dave, and I said, hey, what about if Tim? Because Tim was a fairly full fleshed character at this point. Yeah. I said, you know, what if Tim actually decided to run his cat for office, and this become, and we actually have the mayoral race be kind of the centre of the of the play. So yeah, that's how Captain Whiskers kind of came to be.

Joanne Wallace  15:33

And Dave, like you've been living in this world and with these characters for so long, what did Captain Whiskers unlock that the play hadn't quite found before.

Speaker 2  15:42

It it perked people's ears up, you know, and that's what it introduced. It introduced kind of yes, there there's it's a little ludicrous, but I was picturing yes, Kim out there campaigning, and we had an earlier scenes of of live him talking to to crowds out on the street, and the and and members of the crowds shouting back their answers.

Gil Garratt  16:12

Really, the thing with Captain Whiskers that you have to recognise is that he became a great catalyst for brilliant for the other characters in the play, because you know he he as a cat, you know it may be no surprise to your listeners can't talk, and so the people who are running for council they have him as the ultimate feline foil that they can really run their opinions through him in a in a in a way that you you might not be able to do with a you know a human candidate.

Joanne Wallace  17:00

Dave, I wanted to ask when we were having the discussion about Gil bringing John Powers in to write music and turn this play that you've been working on for all these years into a musical. Did the songs change the way you saw any of the characters or any part of the story?

Speaker 2  17:17

For sure, it deepened everyone's character and trajectory, and and John is an incredibly quick study, and he's a he's a really talented song writer. But for me, they are like you know soliloquies or similar to that too, and or you know Shakespeare the verse or what whatever, and it it really did allow the audience to see some of that background that was probably written as script in earlier versions of the play. So it it's very character revealing, also moves things forward. So yeah, I thought it was a great compliment.

Joanne Wallace  18:00

Gil, I was going to ask you this because one of the real pleasures of this production, especially for folks who've seen this same cast in Dry Streak, is watching audiences discover that the actors they think they know also have these extraordinary musical talents, including Bronte Hunter, who plays harmony and has a voice that can just like, you know, stop you in your tracks. What's it been like for you watching those moments land with our audiences?

Gil Garratt  18:27

Oh, it's magical. I mean, I I I love watching actors play live instruments on stage. To me, that's always it. Always feels a little bit like magic, and I and it's remarkable to me. Audiences consistently-that's the reaction that they have, especially when they watch, you know, someone get up there and one song they're playing a guitar, and the next song they're playing the piano, and then the next song they're playing the bass, and it's just-it becomes this kind of magic feat.

Speaker 2  18:58

Landon is incredible with musicians, and I'd never seen that exact process. And I just show up, and I had to make a point. No, I'm not here to criticise on if you're hitting a you know B flat or C major. I just I'm I just love this process, and he and he works so well with the individual actors. And there's it's so complex. The blocking was the switching of instruments. I just found that all incredibly fascinating.

Joanne Wallace  19:26

I should just let our listeners know: Landon Doc is who you're referring to, an actor with our company for for several seasons, but also an extremely skilled and talented musician and composer. And we were lucky enough to to have Landon come and be the musical director for this piece. So far, we've been talking about why audiences are laughing so hard, and there's many, many reasons. But as I said earlier, underneath all this is a community facing a challenge that's becoming disturbingly familiar across rural. Ontario, and that is homelessness, and this is the the I don't even want to say pet project, but the the highest concern of Councillor Tina, and some of the comedy arises from the fact that she can't get anybody to pay serious attention to this, but but it is a very serious issue. Dave, for you, why was it important that Rusty River be dealing with something real rather than just providing a backdrop for political jokes.

Speaker 2  20:27

I just wanted to make it as contemporary as possible, and and even if you look at the latest federal survey, provincial municipal housing is up there, cost of living under that umbrella, but housing, especially right from the very first draft, Tina owned the trailer park. Tim lived there, and a cornerstone of the play is that she believed in tiny homes, and and so that has been there right from the start.

Joanne Wallace  21:01

Gil, you've explored rural homelessness and as well as substance abuse in some of your other work. Did this piece deepen your thinking about the homelessness issue?

Gil Garratt  21:14

Well, I think the big homelessness discovery of this piece. I mean, and for the folks who haven't seen it yet, I don't think I'm giving too much away. But one of the big things that Councillor Tina is really pushing for at the council table is to widen the room in terms of whose voices are at the table while we're setting housing policy, and I think it's a it's a major problem in this country. I mean, I know you. You look at kind of some of the housing challenges that we've talked about federally, and yet you know there's been many, many years where people have talked about things like rent controls and things like kinds of subsidies for renters, and yet you have a body, an elected body, who is making the determination on what will happen with those kinds of policies, and the vast bulk of them are themselves landlords. One of the things that Tina is really pushing for is how to further democratise the conversation about housing, and that's a big, big one. And it's interesting since the play has opened. I've actually heard from. We had a wonderful night. The very first preview was something we call municipal night, and so we had councillors and mayors and senior staff, junior staff from yeah wardens from 27 municipalities all over the region who all came one night together, had a reception, and then went upstairs and saw the show, and they loved it. We had some amazing response, but I got some notes afterwards, and some of them were from you know folks who work in a bunch of these positions in municipalities, saying you know I've been trying to deal with this for years. I've been trying to have conversations about this for years, and I've been met with so much resistance. I've been met with people who think that the best solution to housing issues in a small town is just to get the OPP to pick those people up and drive them to the outskirts, and they think that that is a sufficient policy for dealing with housing. And I think at the centre of it is really this conversation about how do we come together as a community and really choose to solve it, choose to find a way to alleviate the precariousness and the suffering. I mean, that's that. I think is the core of the issue. Is that Councillor Tina is trying to raise in the play? Is how do we actually have a respectful conversation with the most affected in order to find a path through this?

Joanne Wallace  23:39

We're going to take a quick break now, but please don't go away. When we come back, we'll talk more about our guests here chose a comedy to discuss a serious issue like rural homelessness, and we'll talk about the characters you'll meet when you come to see this play, about the actors who bring them to life, and about how you too might be able to participate in this story when you come to the theatre. Stay with us. Tickets are on sale right now at www.blythfestival.com, and I'll leave that address and the box office number in the show notes for you below. There's lots more to come, but first I need to thank our exclusive communications partner, Tuckersmith Communications Co-op. TCC is a full-service telecom provider serving Huron County, and we are so grateful for their support-not just of this podcast, but of our member newsletter and several other ways we stay connected with you. TCC also provides all our internet services, and it's a lot. It's not just in our office in the theatre, but in all the billets and rental spaces we need to house our actors every summer. So thank you again to the good folks at TCC. The Blyth Festival is a not-for-profit arts organisation, and everything we do is made possible by an amazing community of supporters. That includes TCC, but it also includes you, whether you're a donor, a member, a. A sponsor, a volunteer, or somebody sitting in the audience helping to bring our work to life. This work exists because of you. Thank you for making it possible. Welcome back. I'm speaking with playwright David Scott and Blyth artistic director Gil Garrett, and we are discussing their latest collaboration, The Last mayor of Rusty River. Before our break, we were talking about how there's a serious issue underneath all the laughter of this story, and I want to explore that a little more. Gil, one of the things Blyth seems to be doing particularly well this season is using comedy to explore serious questions. Why do you think audiences sometimes become more open to difficult conversations when they're laughing.

Gil Garratt  25:49

Oh, that's a great question. I think, in some ways, it inoculates us to some of the ache that comes of contemplating some of these difficult things. I think that laughter actually gives us a sense of of connection too. That's a wonderful thing to to get in a room together and have you know two 300 people all laughing together. I think provides us a real sense of safety. We feel really connected to each other, and it's when we're in those kinds of spaces, having those kinds of experiences. That I think that's when we can have some of these more difficult conversations because we're open. I think laughter really opens us.

Joanne Wallace  26:32

It makes us feel safe. I love that, Dave. What are your thoughts on this?

Speaker 2  26:36

Yeah, absolutely. It breaks the tension, right? If you're talking about super serious things, and you can tell by body language and natural language, people are getting their backs up. Once they're able to relax with a laugh, then then they're they're open, they're more trusting, and just and it it is a great vehicle.

Joanne Wallace  26:58

Dave, was there a character who surprised you once the rehearsal started, like a character who maybe became richer or funnier or just different from the way you'd imagined while you were writing.

Speaker 2  27:12

I'd absolutely have to say Tim.

Joanne Wallace  27:14

Yeah,

Speaker 2  27:15

Tim was kind of the you know this dark horse shadowy character, and and and he had his character took a few different avenues, and and we kind of had him more of like a heavy trailer park boys regular, and and he was you know would campaign for I put the mayor in marijuana, but yes, we had him as more of yes this kind of underground hippie type of person, and I just really like how that character evolved. There was always, always a relationship right from the beginning with Tina and first drafts, and how that relationship worked worked through or worked out is is really been a joy to see evolve with help from my collaborators, the music, the actors.

Joanne Wallace  28:06

Gil, who made who kept making you laugh in the rehearsal hall?

Gil Garratt  28:12

Oh, it was. I mean, I was laughing constantly in the rehearsal hall. It was one of the things. I think to a certain point, the actors started to distrust that things were actually funny just because I was just laughing all the time until they finally got in front of a real live audience and that audience was laughing too. Then they sort of went, "Oh, okay, he was. It wasn't just him. But yeah, I I just found it to be a constant sense of of play and and they all brought from the very very beginning, this sense of playfulness with each other. I mean, there were many many times in rehearsal where we would get into some of the silliest these scenes, especially some of the more heated scenes between the counsellors, which are also a tremendous source of hilarity, and they would end up breaking each other up, right? So, like, there were some numbers too. Like, there's the the early song that, not to give anything away, but that Tim and Tina have together, and I think it was not until first preview that I ever saw those two actors get through that song without breaking each other up, right? They would just laugh every time they did it, so yeah, I mean, I think everybody was bringing so much fun into the room.

Speaker 2  29:26

Great chemistry, absolutely.

Gil Garratt  29:29

If I can add one thing, I would say part of the joy of the laughter too was the more serious they got with the kind of the harder elements of the play, that actually the tension and the fighting at council becomes a tremendous source of hilarity in the play, and so it was actually one of those things where when the actors really invested in the angrier they would get, more frustrated they would get with each other, that that then became funnier and funnier and funnier to watch them lose their temp. It was so great.

Joanne Wallace  30:02

I think I mentioned earlier that this cast or this show is cross cast with dry streaks, so the the same actors do both shows, and so you had the benefit as a director of a cast that had been working together already on a different show. Can you comment on how what that that like is it help does it or is it harder for them to shed their dry street characters when they walk into your rehearsal hall?

Gil Garratt  30:30

Across the board, this is one of the greatest joys of working at the Blyth Festival is the sense of company that is created by having artists work on multiple shows together to live in the same small town together, spend all of their time together when everybody's getting along and you know and living this sort of in a way you know I talk about it as almost like a retreat because artists come out here they're away from the city they get to really deepen these relationships and the kind of trust that gets built by the time they're on stage-it's just so exciting. So meeting this company after they'd already opened Dry Streak and already were, you know, finding that kind of vocabulary with each other-it's such a gift as a director because they already have such support for each other, and that's a thing you're trying to build all the time.

Joanne Wallace  31:24

And I should mention they are all extraordinary. This is really an opportunity to see to some of our best actors in this country.

Gil Garratt  31:32

Absolutely, and I would say too, one of the things that we spent a lot of time trying to calibrate in the room was, you know, we didn't want it to. We wanted these characters to be still relatable, still people that we could connect to. So we didn't want them to turn into complete clowns. Like it wasn't about making them totally absurd, even if some of their goals are a little absurd. We wanted still for them to be real people that we could feel. You know that we could cheer for or very much cheer against, right? That's one of the fun things about it.

Joanne Wallace  32:16

Dave, Blyth audiences have certainly enjoyed your previous work here at the festival, ranging from your first play, "There's Nothing in the Paper, long ago in the '70s, and I know you also wrote

Speaker 2  32:30

'90. But that's okay. I'm

Joanne Wallace  32:32

sorry. You can predate

Speaker 2  32:33

me. I just look old. Sorry, I beg your pardon. Not the '70s. The '90s. The

Joanne Wallace  32:37

late '90s.

Speaker 2  32:38

'97.

Joanne Wallace  32:39

But you also wrote a popular, very popular play about Stomp and Tom, and another one about Guy Lombardo. Those all seem like very different worlds from Rusty River. But do you find themes inside these stories that you keep coming back

Speaker 2  32:55

to? Oh, I think I do absolutely well. This this one is more of a full circle back to to the newspaper, but I'd say with Stompin Tom and with Guy Lombardo, it's just amazing Canadians that aren't. I'd say well, more people now in this era would know Stomp and Tom, but at the time, Guy Lombardo, you know, incredibly well known, influential in the U.S. and I, I think for both of those stories, the musician pieces were just a sense of justice and the sense of these need to be told on stage as many mediums as possible.

Joanne Wallace  33:38

Right. So you're interested in telling stories that might otherwise just sink below the radar, but also to give voice to local stories.

Speaker 2  33:51

Absolutely, like you know, we're we have so much Americana instilled in us through you know English English classes in high school or just our education system, you know, people can think about *To Kill a Mockingbird* and where that was set. But we have equally, if not more, rich settings in southern Ontario, in the Maritimes prairies, everywhere, Vancouver Island, the far north, and we forget. I think, or need reminding that we do lead interesting lives here in Canada.

Gil Garratt  34:30

Here, here.

Joanne Wallace  34:31

I was just going to say, Gil. I know this is a topic near and dear to your heart. Do you have anything else to add to that? The

Gil Garratt  34:36

only thing I would add is, I also think each of these plays, in their own way have heroes in them who are looking to change the world for the better. I mean, I think that one of the things that really comes forward in the Guy Lombardo piece that Dave wrote was about a man trying to to blaze a trail of joy and. Celebration in his life, and he brought along this band and all these people to celebrate, and that became the iconic New Year's Eve celebration. I mean, in New York, the apple going up and down, and Stomping Tom in a very similar way. Somebody who wanted to celebrate the people that he knew, the the folks, the true folks, and I think that this play, the last mayor of Rusty River, also at its core is about public service. It's about people who have chosen to stand up in their community and say, "I want to be counted, and I want to be influencing our direction, and I want to make change in my community. And that's that's something that we need so much in this world right now. I think that kind of ignited civic imagination is so critical to us getting through the moment that we're in.

Speaker 2  35:50

And even though that dry streak is set in the '80s, it had incredible, incredibly strong parallels with with Rusty River and and even the individual characters taking similar roles in that. I don't know that's by chance or accident, but I I was really wowed by that. And in in that play as well, you've got twists and turns. You've got young versus old. You've got you know radical new thinking versus you know traditional farm life, and it it was a joy to watch that play. Just incredible.

Joanne Wallace  36:27

That play doesn't have a cat in it, though.

Speaker 2  36:32

Got cows, doesn't it? Couch, yeah, milk a cow. That's right. But but Gil,

Joanne Wallace  36:37

since since Dave has raised that, was that by brilliant artistic decision making, or was it just a happy coincidence?

Gil Garratt  36:50

I did want to feature this year people standing up in their community and making their voices heard, and so that goes right from Sisters of 78 and those women who went on that strike and went on that protest. It goes to the women of curveball who wanted to, you know, stand up and win that championship and and be there front and centre. Refused to be, you know, held down right up to dry streak again. You know, ultimately, not to give anything away, but the reason the streak is proposed is ultimately as a as a community fundraising initiative. Somebody who wanted to do something lasting and important for the town, and then in last mayor of Rusty River, what you really have are you know four, if not five, competing visions all trying to contribute to stand up and and be a voice of change in their community, yeah, and even you know Justin Shaw, his beautiful play, which we just opened this past weekend, also Off Island Odyssey, is ultimately about you know trying to recognise your community, recognise who where you came from, and why it matters, and how to be a voice for the place you came from. You know, at at the heart of that story, what Justin is talking about is how to stand up and enunciate his home. Yeah, it's powerful. All of these are very powerful, and I think we're living in a moment of transformation and change in Canada. We're talking about it constantly in our news cycle and politically. And I think that really what we're we're trying to figure out is how do we stop being, you know, purely an audience who are watching. We we don't want to be in the passenger seat anymore as a country, we really want to take the wheel, and if we're going to do that, then that is going to take brave people standing up and choosing to be leaders. And I think that every single, you know, all the heroes in this season are all. It's really a season about leadership.

Joanne Wallace  39:07

My colleague Lindsey, who handles many things, including our audience engagement portfolio, has been creating these interactive museum-quality displays about each one of our shows, and they are there for you to enjoy in our lower hall, and for the last mayor, she decided to create a fake polling booth so our audience members can actually vote in this election. This whole thing has been hilariously, massively successful, and people seem to love the opportunity to actually participate in the world of the play, so Dave, have you checked the results in the ballot box? Like, is Captain Whiskers winning?

Speaker 2  39:49

No. Do you know I haven't? I saw my first ballot the other night, and somebody scrawled their their phone number on it for me, and then I realised when I got home, oh my, it's. The ballot, I I love it. No, I haven't taken a peek. I have not taken a peek, and I'll take a law against that.

Joanne Wallace  40:06

Well, I would like to assure our audiences that the the polls will be open until the final performance on september 13. So yes, please come and see the play and and make sure you cast your vote. But Gil, if Captain Whiskers is winning, should we be worried?

Gil Garratt  40:22

I mean, I think the thing that should worry us more is if there's low voter turnout. I think really what we want to see here is him be elected by a sweeping majority. If he's going to be elected, I think you know we have to respect the will of the people. And the thing I'm most interested in is making sure that you know, just as in any Canadian election, we want to make sure that you know the people who are coming actually vote, so that we have a you know a good percentage of the voting public making their voices heard.

Joanne Wallace  40:53

Hear, hear! Yeah, people are going to be leaving this show laughing, but what do you hope will sneak home with them with them after the laughter fades, Dave?

Speaker 2  41:06

That's a great question. Well, I guess ultimately it would be great if we had full candidate cards in every municipality in Huron. That's a pipe dream. But no, at least if there are a few challengers out there who are sitting on the fence, thinking, you know what? I I think I'll do that this year. Whether that's a council position, school board position, mayor, deputy mayor, reef, but um, or just you know, have a laugh and a healthy take at the state of our situation, all the way from municipal up to federal and and elsewhere, and just do some reflecting.

Joanne Wallace  41:49

Gil,

Gil Garratt  41:50

yeah, I hope that it does. I mean, lofty as this is, I hope that it does encourage a bit more participation. I think that people getting engaged, whether that is simply you know whether they're running, but also if they're simply voting, to me that's that's really important. Paying attention to those local issues. I mean, the people who are sitting on your council, you know, it is true. You know, even within my own experience here in Blyth in North Huron, you know, at one time, these were hotly contested. Every one of those those council seats, and all too often, you know, they fall to acclimation because we only have one person run in a particular ward or one person run in another ward, and you know, which is not to in any way denigrate the service of those people who choose to step up and volunteer. But wouldn't it be amazing if we could get back to a point where we really encourage and support, you know, a healthy ecosystem of multiple species running for office

Speaker 2  42:53

and voices being heard, right? And yes, and actual conversations and intelligent debate.

Joanne Wallace  43:01

Well, thank you both so much for this. It's been a wonderful conversation, and I know audiences are going to love meeting Captain Whiskers and all the other hilarious characters you've both created for us in this new show.

Speaker 2  43:14

My pleasure. Thank you.

Gil Garratt  43:16

Thank you, Joanne. Had so much fun.

Joanne Wallace  43:22

That was playwright David Scott and artistic director Gil Garrett. We've been speaking about their latest collaboration, The Last Mayor of Rusty River, which is now open at the Blyth Festival and running until September 13th. Tickets are on sale now, and you can get yours at www.blythfestival.com. If you've never been to the Blyth Festival, I hope you come to see us this summer. We're in southwestern Ontario, just east of Lake Huron's beautiful west coast beaches. Our summer runs from mid June to late September, and we are proud to be the only summer theatre festival in Canada. As crazy as this sounds, dedicated completely to commissioning, developing, and producing new Canadian plays. So far, we've premiered over 160 plays, and I guarantee you, you can see things here you will not see anywhere else. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to subscribe and maybe even tell a friend. Incredibly, we just celebrated our 5,000th download, which is pretty impressive for a niche podcast about Canadian theatre. So thank you all so very much for being such loyal listeners. If you happen to be a new listener, please check out our back catalogue. I've had the privilege of chatting here with an amazing group of Canadian playwrights, directors, and more over the past four seasons, and I'd love to share it all with you. Until then, I'm Joanne Wallace. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you at the theatre.