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The Stratford Festival of Canada -- 2003
By Rob Ormsby
In its fifty-first season, the Stratford Festival of Canada steps into its second half-century with a slate of plays organized around the principle of "Tales Told and Retold" The season offers five Shakespeares, (The Taming of the Shrew, Pericles, Love's Labour's Lost, Antony and Cleopatra, and Troilus and Cressida).
Pericles and Love's Labour's, both playing in the large Festival theatre, disappoint with wayward artistic vision and uneven casts. Stratford's return to the ancient Greek theatre is more satisfying.
The Atreus Series -- Aristophanes' The Birds and a reworking of Aeschylus' Oresteia includes Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Jean Giraudoux's Electra, and Jean-Paul Sartre's The Flies. Here the work of director Leon Rubin more than makes up for some questionable decisions he makes in Pericles.
There is also the usual collection of big, lavish productions guaranteed to draw large houses, including Gigi, The King and I, a dramatization of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Noël Coward's Present Laughter in which Brian Bedford stars in and directs brilliantly. Indeed, Bedford is so fine as the comic lead, Garry Essendine, that it is hard to believe the same actor delivered this season's awkward and cartoonish Don Armado in Love's Labour's.
Among this season's best productions are two Canadian plays, Quiet in the Land and The Swanne: Princess Charlotte. The first is a remounting of Anne Chislett's award-winning drama about an Amish community in southern Ontario during World War I. It gets powerful and dedicated performances from its cast, particularly Stephen Russell and Michael Therriault, two of the best actors now working at the Festival. The second play is part two of Peter Hinton's historical Swanne trilogy with Queen Victoria. This installment is a theatrical marvel, though it is hard to say which is superior, the magnificent acting that this sweeping piece is graced with, or Hinton's inspired direction of his own work.
The Stratford Festival of Canada 2003 is dedicated to the memory of Tanya Moiseiwitsch, the Festival's founding designer who passed away earlier this year. It runs until early November. Regular tickets are priced from $28.15 to $105.40 (prices in Canadian dollars), with discounts available for students and seniors. For tickets and information call 1-800-567-1600 (Monday-Saturday 9am-8pm, Sunday 9am-2pm).
Below are links to plays reviewed for CurtainUp. For all that the Festival has to offer, check out their website.
LINKS TO SHOWS REVIEWED
Love's Labour's Lost
Present Laughter
Pericles
The Swanne: Princess Charlotte (The Acts of Venus)
Quiet In the Land
Mendes at the Donmar
Our Review
At This Theater
Leonard Maltin's 2003 Movie and Video Guide
Ridiculous!The Theatrical Life & Times of Charles Ludlam
Somewhere For Me, a Biography of Richard Rodgers
The New York Times Book of Broadway: On the Aisle for the Unforgettable Plays of the Last Century
6, 500 Comparative Phrases including 800 Shakespearean Metaphors by CurtainUp's editor.
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