In his 1998 book The Greatest Generation, American broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw introduced us to very ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things when the clouds of war darkened the skies over Europe and the Pacific Ocean.
Brokaw could well have included ‘Farmerettes’ — teenage girls who stepped up during the Second World War, working on farms across Canada while young men were overseas fighting, thus helping to feed not only Canadian troops but those right here at home.
Their contributions remained relatively unknown until 2019, when Shirleyan English and Bonnie Sitter co-authored Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes.
When a copy of English and Sitter’s book found its way into the hands of 4th Line Theatre managing artistic director Kim Blackwell, her creative wheels started to turn as she envisioned bringing the story of the Farmerettes to the Winslow Farm outdoor theatre venue near Millbrook.
Fast forward to 4th Line Theatre’s media day event on Tuesday (June 18), two weeks out from the opening of the theatre company’s 32nd summer season and the world premiere of Onion Skins & Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes, written by actor, writer, and independent theatre creator Alison Lawrence after she was approached by Blackwell to do so.
“Somebody had been in Stratford, I think it was, and picked up a copy of the book and brought it back and said to Kim, ‘I think you would be interested in this’, and she said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re really interested in this,'” Lawrence tells kawarthaNOW.
“I spent my teenage years here,” Lawrence recalls. “My parents lived for a long time in the next township over. I’ve seen shows here. I’ve known Kim (Blackwell) for many years. (4th Line Theatre founder) Robert (Winslow) too. I’ve always hoped that I could write something for here. Kim approached me and I said yes. That was before the pandemic. I spent a long time with the book and the internet, alone in my office working on it.”
With some of the Farmerettes still living, Lawrence acknowledges feeling “a responsibility” to get the story right and do them the justice they have earned and deserve.
“But there also certain rules of drama. There has to be conflict. There has to be tension. There has a narrative story arc. It’s like Tetris — taking all of that and fitting it with the rules of a play.”
“What stories from the book do you want to highlight? What stories really leap out? What has been really gratifying is talking to surviving Farmerettes. We had a gathering at the Peterborough Museum and Archives and there were three surviving Farmerettes there. All three of them said (it was) ‘The best summer of my life’. I feel I have a responsibility to that.”
For her part, Onion Skins & Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes director Autumn Smith says being at the helm of a real-life depiction required a shift in her approach.
“The story is paramount for me,” Smith explains. “It’s a bit weightier, as a director, because you want to honour the story. How do we do that? How do we make sure that this now becomes part of the conversation every Remembrance Day — every time we talk about the war? How can we ensure this legacy is safe and secure?”
Smith says the tenacity and determination of the Farmerettes to stick with it, despite personal hardships, gifts a still important lesson to be learned.
“I call it the resiliency of hope,” Smith says, adding “There’s something miraculous about that … about how they found comfort in one another.”
“You have these fierce young women who were forced into new worlds and harnessed energy and paved the path for feminism. They were like ‘We can do anything that men do. Look at us go.’ I got to sit with some of the Farmerettes. The joy and the community and the freedom that they found, to find their own way, was evident in spite of the world crashing around them and most them being in an active state of waiting possibly for the worse. But they rallied. Like that age-old British saying, ‘They kept calm and carried on’.”
Returning to the Winslow Farm as one of the Farmerettes is Peterborough-raised actor Rebecca Birrell, who made her 4th Line Theatre debut last summer in The Tilco Strike.
“There is a feeling of wanting to get it right and do it well on their behalf,” Birrell says of the characters portrayed, including her role as Jay. “As with any story connected to the Second World War, the people who were directly involved aren’t going to be around forever. There’s a bit of a time crunch. We need to do this story now.”
Birrell describes Jay as “a bit on the shyer side. She’s quite introspective and a huge bookworm. She’s also very empathetic. She cares a lot about other people and feels things quite deeply on other’s behalf.”
“Throughout the play, she’s trying to navigate what she’s feeling after her dad has signed up to go fight in the war. It’s the first time she has been away from her dad, so there’s that struggle of suddenly losing that feeling of home, when you’re not quite sure of who you are as a person in the world.”
As the director, Smith “has a real gift for creating an atmosphere where actors can be vulnerable and connect to the story,” Birrell notes. “But she also gives us the freedom to play and experiment. She’s open to our suggestions and, even if they may not work, says ‘Yeah, let’s try that. Let’s give it a go.'”
As for her fellow cast members, Birrell feels “very privileged to work with them. I would have never have had the opportunity to meet all these extraordinary people otherwise.”
Meanwhile, Lawrence and Smith agree that if you’re going to tell the story of the Farmerettes, what better place than a farm to do so?
“I wouldn’t want to see it anywhere else — it’s utopia for this piece,” says Smith. “I love immersive work. I love when the atmosphere becomes a character in the piece, because then the actors can just engage it and can see the world around them every day with fresh eyes. It’s amazing.”
“This certainly does seem to be the place for it,” concurs Lawrence.
“There are six young actors in this piece. Autumn (Smith) has done an amazing job of helping them fill this big space, like when they’re picking asparagus. They go out into the field and you can see their heads popping up and calling out to one another. When I wrote it, I thought ‘Don’t figure out how to stage this. That’s somebody else’s job. Just write it and then somebody will figure it out.’ That’s what’s happened.”
Sponsored by Miskin Law, Onion Skins & Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes also stars Aimée Gordon, Reena Goze, Megan Murphy, Carina Salajan, and Alicia Salvador as the other Farmerettes.
Behind the scenes, musical direction is by Justin Hiscox and costume design is by Korin Cormier, with dramaturgy by Severn Thompson and Blackwell. Performance dates are July 3 to 6, July 8 to 13 and July 15 to 20 with curtain at 6 p.m., with preview nights on July 1 and 2.
Tickets are $50 ($45 for children and youth ages five to 16), with $38 tickets available for preview nights. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 705-932-4445 or toll-free at 800-814-0055, online at www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca/, or in person at at 4th Line Theatre’s box office at 9 Tupper Street in Millbrook (hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Fridays).
30 years and counting for 4th Line’s Kim Blackwell
With all the hoopla around the new summer season dawning at 4th Line Theatre, it’s easy to forget that managing artistic director Kim Blackwell is marking a major milestone this year. Easy but inexcusable.
2024 marks Blackwell’s 30th year with the company, for which she has directed 28 productions, including 15 world premieres. Inducted into the Peterborough Pathway of Fame in 2016, Blackwell has, next to the theatre founder Robert Winslow, become synonymous with the consistently acclaimed work staged at the Winslow Farm.
“It’s a real blessing,” says Blackwell of her years with the company, adding “Sometimes, I’m like ‘Wow. I have a job I love, going into my fourth decade.'”
“I’ve looked at other jobs over the years and thought ‘Should I apply and go somewhere else? Try to be an artistic director at another theatre in the country?’ But I really do have the best job in the country and it would be hard to go anywhere else. It’s come with sacrifices in the summer, especially in terms of family, but it’s also given me a great deal of freedom the rest of the year.”
“I’m here until they walk me to the end of the laneway and hand me my suitcase, or they take me out in a pine box. I’ll settle for a nice retirement cake — a white slab cake with yellow pudding inside. I’ll take that, whenever it is.”
Besides directing 4th Line Theatre’s upcoming production of Jim Watts: Girl Reporter, Blackwell is working on The Lost Souls, her first solo full-length play for the company.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of 4th Line Theatre’s 32nd season.
