The day before I was scheduled to see Guys & Dolls, I saw two productions back to back that were huge bummers- bad, sort of sad, wildly boring. When lamenting that horrible no-good very bad day, my spirits never fell too far because I knew the next day was Guys & Dolls. A girl needs […]
Waiting for Godot is a frustrating one for me because, unless something goes really wrong, it’s a pretty standardized piece of theatre. Beckett is famously a dictator with stage directions and design instructions, his estate keen to sue if you make too many creative decisions of your own, so the interpretive work of Godot tends […]
I do not know how well the Stratford kids programming sells and how that relates to their current strategy for executing said programming. There’s room somewhere in my brain for the possibility that this approach is working at both making and saving money and is therefore helping to fund better, more ambitious art elsewhere at […]
The Stratford Festival doesn’t usually do remounts but, for Antoni Cimolino’s last season, he gets to do whatever he wants and apparently that means bringing back a greatest hits of sorts when it comes to musical programming. Alongside a revisiting of perennial favourite Guys & Dolls (last done in 2017 with the same director and […]
I try to review the full Stratford season every year and, with very few exceptions, have done so with great consistency since 2010 (I missed the 2022 late openers and I think a Henry VIII at some point?). This year I’m supposed to be on maternity leave but the thought of missing out completely just […]
Before we announce the winners of our 2024 Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Stratford Festival stalwart Steve Ross not only had the season of his career at the festival this past summer, appearing in Something Rotten and taking on the flashy starring role in La Cage aux […]
My favourite Stratford production so far* this year is undoubtedly The Diviners, Verne Thiessen & Yvette Nolan’s grand adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s novel of the same name. Staged with beautiful fluidity by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier, the production contains some of the season’s grandest celebration and its quietest tenderness. The great Irene Poole […]
Coming off of last year’s superb 4-0 record for their Shakespeare work, Stratford’s 2024 season is quite a bit shakier. There are only three Shakespeare plays on the docket this year and it’s clear that they’re where the company is hoping to spare a few dollars on design as they all feature far less in […]