The Farm Show

by Ted Johns, Paul Thompson

'This is a record of our version of grassroots theatre. The idea was to take a group of actors out to a farming community and build a play of what we could see and learn. There is no story or "plot" as such ... Nevertheless, we hope that you can see many stories woven into the themes of this play and that out of it will emerge a picture of a complex and living community.' - Paul Thompson

Genres: Read For School, Plays

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 1994

Reviews

[Cassandra Devost · Rating 2 out of 5]

i can't believe i have to make a 40 minute presentation on this play. I was so bored - at least until the last three bits. I am so grateful I wasn't in that room watching the actors pantomime everything. They need a set. I can appreciate some bits and pieces from this, but it really is NOT for me.

[Emmanuelle Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

hm. what?

[Oliver James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure this would be great for a certain kind of theatre reader, and I'm POSITIVE it would be more interesting when actually staged, but it is, unfortunately, a no for me.

[Scout Collins]

Read the script (at least part of it) for grade 12 English
2019

[Mikayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[Brandon Wicke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard about the Farm Show years ago in high school drama class and only now gotten around to reading it. The piece was the result of a company from Theatre Passe Muraille's six-week visit to a small farming community in southwestern Ontario. Having grown up about 60km away from the site of this collective creation, I can certainly recognize a lot of the experiences dramatized in this show from my own childhood, even 40 years later.

Organized as a series of brief and telling scenes and monologues indicative of farming life, The Farm Show paints a picture of the simplicity and the stresses of a dying (or at least rapidly changing) way of life for Canadian Families by using the words and experiences of these families.

A new addition to my list of plays I would one day like to produce, and certainly an example of great theatre with a very Canadian identity. Also, a great resource for monologues for both men and women.