Playwright

• Collective Creation
• Susan Perly
• Ron Hynes Composer

Director

• Chris Brookes
• Dudley Cox Newfoundland Tour

Cast

• Rick Boland Skipper George/Various Characters
• Madeline Williams Skipper Eph/Various Characters
• Ron Hynes Performer/Musician
• Donna Butt Heehaw Chorus/Various Characters
• Wayne McNiven Heehaw Chorus/Various Characters
• Jeff Pitcher Heehaw Chorus/Various Characters
• Don Walsh Various Characters (Newfoundland Tour)

Crew

• Mark Allston Set Designer
• Derek Butt Set Builder/Technician

Description

The show looks at the struggle of local fishermen under Canadian federal fisheries policy, as the saltfish industry declines and foreign trawlers fish off Newfoundland’s coast. While there is now a 200-mile limit that foreign fishers are not legally allowed to cross, at the time of What’s That Got to Do with the Price of Fish? the limit was three to seven miles.  

In his 1988 book, A Public Nuisance: A History of the Mummers Troupe, Chris Brookes describes how these fishermen were not only competing for stock within their own waters, but also faced a market where fish were sold to locals at more than double the cost of what Newfoundland fishermen made—making merchants rich and fishermen frustrated. 

In the style of the Mummer’s Troupe, this show took both a critical and comedic look at how fishermen got the shortest end of the (slap) stick.

Production type

• Mummers Troupe Production