The Stratford Festival, renowned as North America’s leading repertory theatre company, welcomes visitors from Michigan to immerse themselves in the spectacular 71st season. With over a dozen productions scheduled until October, attendees can indulge in a captivating playbill that includes four Shakespeare plays, two major musicals, comedies, and a family show. These remarkable performances occur in the Festival’s four stunning theatres, including the newly constructed Tom Patterson Theatre, an architectural marvel worth $70 million along the picturesque Avon River.
FESTIVAL THEATRE:
Rave reviews pour in for the Festival Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, King Lear. Stage and screen star Paul Gross takes on the title role, delivering a mesmerizing performance. King Lear narrates the tale of an aging king who inadvertently plunges his kingdom into division, destruction, and chaos by demanding a display of devotion from his three daughters.
Rent, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical by Jonathan Larson, captivates audiences at the Festival Theatre. Set in 1990s Manhattan and inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, this production, directed by Thom Allison, features a stellar cast and a memorable song list, including the iconic “Seasons of Love.” It follows a group of young East Village artists navigating poverty, societal discord, and the AIDS epidemic in their quest for life, love, and art.
Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s beloved comedies, delights audiences during early previews at the Festival Theatre. The story revolves around the witty and sarcastic duo, Benedick and Beatrice, who become targets of their friends’ matchmaking efforts despite their contentment with singlehood. Set in the Early Modern world, the play explores the clash between progressive feminist ideals and traditional patriarchal values regarding marriage and power.
Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles-Soeurs, directed by Esther Jun, graces the Festival Theatre stage in August. Returning to Stratford after 32 years, this Québécois masterpiece revolutionized theatre and gained global acclaim. Written in 1965, Les Belles-Soeurs fearlessly portrays the struggles of 15 Québécois women, expressing their anger, desperation, and frustration with unapologetic audacity.
AVON THEATRE:
At the Avon Theatre, audiences can revel in Monty Python’s Spamalot, a hilarious spoof of the tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table on their quest for the Holy Grail. This irreverent comedy allows us to laugh at the flaws and foibles that define our shared humanity.
The Schulich Children’s Play, A Wrinkle in Time, enchants audiences with its new adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic fantasy. Directed by Thomas Morgan Jones, this captivating journey follows a young heroine, her brother, and a friend as they embark on a spectacular adventure across space and time to save the world and rescue her father, who mysteriously disappeared while working on a groundbreaking scientific concept. With a captivating cast of characters, this adaptation caters to families with children of all ages.
Frankenstein Revived, a thrilling new work by Morris Panych, takes center stage at the Avon Theatre. This exuberant and thought-provoking play focuses on Mary Shelley, who, at the tender age of 18, penned the celebrated horror story that has endured as a masterpiece of English literature. Panych’s production explores the profound question at the heart of Shelley’s work: what does it truly mean to be human?
TOM PATTERSON THEATRE:
The Tom Patterson Theatre presents Grand Magic, a funny, thought-provoking, and deeply moving play in a new version by John Murrell and Donato Santeramo. Directed by Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, this comedy follows Otto Marvuglia, a former master illusionist who finds himself performing tricks for money at a seaside resort. When one of his illusions appears awry, a guest is transported into a world of illusion while another escapes an unhappy reality.
Jillian Keiley returns to the Festival to direct Shakespeare’s Richard II, featuring a revolutionary adaptation by Brad Fraser. This rendition of Richard II unfolds in the vibrant world of Studio 54 during the late 1970s and early ’80s, a period of great freedom for gay men that was tragically cut short by a mystery virus and suffocating conservatism and fear.
Detroit-based director Sam White brings Alice Childress’s rarely produced play, Wedding Band, to the Stratford Festival for the first time. This compelling work, characterized by powerful storytelling, explores the emotional journey of a relationship between Julia, a Black seamstress, and Herman, a white baker, set against the backdrop of the First World War and the 1918 flu epidemic in Charleston, South Carolina. Their deep love and commitment are tested by the harsh realities of societal racism, oppressive laws, and heartbreaking judgment from their families and communities. Written during the Civil Rights era, the play resonates with modern-day racial reckonings, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the current pandemic’s tragic impact. The production features Cyrus Lane and Antonette Rudder.
STUDIO THEATRE:
The Studio Theatre presents two new plays and a Shakespearean comedy throughout the season. Audiences are encouraged to seize the opportunity to experience these exceptional productions before their run concludes.
Frances Koncan’s Women of the Fur Trade, directed by Yvette Nolan, offers a comic history play set in the early 1800s upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory. This lively satire focuses on three diverse women who, with a penchant for 21st-century slang, gather in a fort to share their views on life, love, and the intriguing figure of Louis Riel. Shifting the perspective away from the male gaze, the play explores women’s power in the past and present against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade. Starring Jenna-Lee Hyde, Kathleen MacLean, and Joelle Peters, the production runs from July 8 to 30.
Peter Pasyk directs Love’s Labour’s Lost, one of Shakespeare’s beloved early comedies, at the Studio Theatre. The play presents a touching and humorous coming-of-age story with a twist ending. As the King of Navarre and his three best friends commit to three years of abstinence from love and pleasure, the arrival of the Princess of France and her entourage on a diplomatic mission complicates their plans. Pasyk infuses the classic play with a fresh and modern take. Featuring Amaka Umeh and Tyrone Savage, the production runs from August 23 to September 9.
For further information, including tickets and showtimes, please visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.
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