It’s a big story ingrained in the history of Southwestern Ontario, and it’s being re-enacted at the Blyth Festival.
In its 45th season, the festival’s premiere brings the story of Jumbo the Elephant on stage.
“Jumbo the Elephant was the highest paid entertainer in the world,” says artistic director Gil Garratt. “He was the biggest deal on any stage in North America in the late eighteen hundreds.”
P.T. Barnum, an American showman, brought Jumbo to Southwestern Ontario in his Greatest Show on Earth tour.
The show featured snake charmers, aerialists and tightrope walkers. It played at several stops including Toronto, Guelph, and St. Thomas.
At the time, it was the pinnacle of live entertainment.
“The play is set in [1885], which was Jumbo’s fateful final performance in St. Thomas, Ontario,” Garratt explains.
Jumbo was killed in St. Thomas in a railway accident.
The Blyth Festival runs from June 12 to Sept. 28. You can see a preview of the play on In Your Backyard with Stu Gooden next week on CTV News at 5.
A previous version of this article indicated that the show ran until Aug. 28. In fact, it runs until Sept. 28.
