Ben Page's ALL THE COWS ARE DEAD to Have World Premiere at Talk Is Free Theatre

Talk Is Free Theatre has revealed the cast and creative team behind the world premiere of All The Cows Are Dead by Ben Page, running for a limited time in Barrie from January 22 to 31, 2026. 

A new Canadian musical, All The Cows Are Dead follows an artisan butcher who instructs his petulant and misanthropic nephew how to be more like him, leading both to discover how the butcher and the poet are, in fact, the same. All The Cows Are Dead stars Mike Nadajewski and Taylor Garwood, directed by Will Dao.

Said Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak: "All The Cows Are Dead is one of those rare works that proves theatre is at its most powerful when it reconciles the seemingly irreconcilable. The piece is at once epic yet deeply intimate; unflinchingly dark yet insistently hopeful; generous in its embrace of musical theatre while simultaneously turning the form on its head, questioning not only its conventions but its purpose. Finally, though written by an emerging writer, the work arrives with a level of conceptual confidence, moral clarity, and artistic ambition more often associated with a mature and established voice."

Added playwright Ben Page: "This show came to me as all my best ideas do: at two a.m. down a YouTube rabbit hole about bluefin tuna butchers. "How do you learn to do that? How do you master it? And why?" I am beyond thankful to Talk Is Free Theatre for championing my passion piece and for this world premiere."