Brodie celebrates rural life

For Home and Country performed in Millbrook farmyard

Leanna Brodie is a well-known actor and playwright around the Toronto scene (author of The Vic, among other work). Her downtown friends might be surprised by her current project, a play about the Ontario Women's Institutes - self-help organizations for women living in rural areas. Named for the group's motto, For Home and Country is about to see a remount at 4th Line Theatre, a farm property not far from Peterborough.
"I'm pretty darned urban now, but I was actually born on a horse farm," Brodie explains. Nonetheless, she didn't know much about the Women's Institutes until a chance encounter with a booth at the Royal Winter Fair a few years ago.
Some contemporary women might think of the Women's Institutes as conservative and old-fashioned; but they would be overlooking a powerful history of social change. Founded by a woman who had lost her son to unpasteurized milk, they sought to empower rural women with useful scientific and medical knowledge.
"A hundred years ago in Ontario, they were facing the same kinds of problems that women in poor countries are facing now," says Brodie. Some of the Institutes' victories have been wrapped bread instead of naked loaves handled by many people; white lines painted down the middle of rural roadways and, more recently, better access to women's health information and campaigns to end phone fraud against seniors.
"I was in despair at some points about making this play. The Women's Institutes have been devoted to consensus and grassroots activism; it's not very dramatic," Brodie laughs. Therefore, she went back to the Women's Institutes' own traditions of making up songs, skits and pageants, and to the local history collections known as the Tweedsmuir Histories.
"They also did a lot of arts and crafts," Brodie adds. Of course, quilt making was a big part of rural women's social lives, and the Women's Institutes were a jumping-off point for many quilt projects and quilting circles. So naturally Brodie incorporated a quilt into the play. "It's actually a talking quilt," she explains. "People come through the quilt and tell their stories."
As a linking device, Brodie chose the story of a younger, divorced woman who arrives from the city with her children, to be befriended ("sometimes against her will") by an older community member who's the keeper of the local Tweedsmuir History.
"Two things were very important to me," Brodie sums up. "The big important theatrical elements were just there, with no apology. But when the two women are together, it was important to me that we are where they are." Therefore, the unique performance space at 4th Line Theatre - literally in the barnyard of a real farm - was the perfect setting.
"I don't think women's history should be dull," Brodie sums up. "This play was about celebrating the accomplishments of these woman, and that's what I wanted to do."
For Home and Country runs from August 6 to 17 at the 4th Line Theatre near Millbrook, about two hours east of Toronto. For directions and ticket information, call toll-free 1,800,814,0055 or visit www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca.

Publication Date: 2003-08-03
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3018