The Canvas Barricade

In print for the first time, Donald Jack's comedy The Canvas Barricade was the first modern play performed on the main stage of the Stratford Festival (1961). The original cast included Peter Donat, Kate Reid, Jack Creley, Amelia Hall, Zoe Caldwell, and Bruno Gerussi. Misty Woodenbridge, a painter, has rejected the materialism of modern society for life in a tent by the Ottawa River, where he lives as carefree as the fabled grasshopper, eating stolen apples and painting masterpieces. But as summer draws to an end, reality rears its ugly head, and Misty must choose between starving in his tent and moving to the city with his fiance. Meanwhile, his in-laws-to-be smell a cash cow when a mysterious art buyer begins snapping up Misty's work - and naturally they keep the money. Out of kind consideration for Misty's artistic ideals, of course.