The Stratford Shakespeare Festival

The Bard's Playground has a New Name.

Jul 18, 2007 Coral Andrews

For the first time in its 55-year history, The Stratford Festival of Canada is changing its name. And that's not all, folks!

Hang onto your seats, theatre lovers and pundits all.

Next year at Stratford could be an extremely provocative season once The Creative Trinity takes centre stage.

The Three's First Big Decision - as of November 2007, The Stratford Festival of Canada will henceforth be called The Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

For those who love The Bard's beloved works, 2008 will be a banner year.The playbill is – Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Taming of the Shrew, All's Well That Ends Well and Hamlet. Sounds like the standard fare, or is it?

Marti Maraden, Des McAnuff and Don Shipley will soon replace Richard Monette and they, along with the Festival General Manager Antoni Cimolino, have some serious plans.

The 2008 season also includes The Trojan Women by Euripides, the Canadian première of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Emilia Galotti, and Fuente Ovejuna, by Shakespeare’s Spanish contemporary Lope de Vega.

The Trinity intends to strengthen the festival by ensuring more of a global profile, and bringing in internationally renowned directors. Stratford will continue its play development strategy making Canadian works an essential part of its mandate. Martha Henry will soon take over as Artistic Director of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training.

This young company will also be working with venerable Festival visionary Michael Langham who returns to direct Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Tom Patterson Theatre.

Michael Latham was the Festival’s second artistic director. Like first artistic director, the late Tyrone Guthrie, Latham's a no–nonsense Scot, a noted master of the thrust stage who guided the Festival from 1956 to 1967. Latham was known for his abrupt treatment of the actors, and many a young player felt his brusque insults including William Needles, (Latham talked him into coming back!) but Latham was also a genius known for developing stellar Canadian actors of that time like Lorne Greene, Kate Reid, Jackie Burroughs and John Colicos. Here's a legendary case in point - Latham’s ground breaking production of Henry V starring young Christopher Plummer in the leading role.

Latham insisted on having Canadian actors play leading roles while importing other stars of the world stage like Paul Scofield, Zoe Caldwell, Jason Robards, and Irene Worth to Stratford. In seasons to come, he paved the way for more stars to perform at Stratford including Maggie Smith, Peter Ustinov, Alan Bates, Uta Hagen and Jessica Tandy.

For 2008, McAnuff, Maraden, and Shipley want to bring some of the world’s most exciting directors to Stratford and all specialize in a unique director’s vision.

Adrian Noble, former artistic director of Royal Shakespeare Company, who recently directed Kean, starring Sir Anthony Sher, will be directing Hamlet for the Festival Stage. Noble’s known for shaking things up so expect an intriguing incarnation of The Danish Play.

Peter Hinton (The Duchess of Malfi, Into the Woods, The Swanne Trilogy) will direct Taming of the Shrew for the Festival Stage. Hinton, as many actors will attest to, has a deep passion for the theatre and its plays, and this director / playwright’s work is never dull. But for some less adventurous theatre patrons, it may well be an acquired taste.

Award winning German director Micheal Thalheimer has been called a “radical reductionist” noted for stripping classic works of "language, gesture and historical content." Thalhemier directed Frank Wedekind’s Lulu for Hamburg's Thalia Theatre. In Canada, in 1991, Lulu caused an audience stir seasons back at The Shaw Festival with Helen Taylor in the title role. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Emilia Galotti ,has been called a “cult production” and has toured around the world including Rome, Prague, Moscow and Tokyo. Directed by Thalheimer, the play will have its Canadian premiere at The Avon Theatre and will presented in German with English sub titles.

Laurence Boswell was former director of London’s Gate Theatre, and no stranger to Shakespeare’s Spanish contemporary Lope de Vega having done four of his works, as part of The Spanish Golden Age at The Gate for the sheer love and exhilaration of it.

Boswell won an Olivier Award for this innovative piece and will be directing Fuenta Ovejuna by Lope de Vega from the Spanish Golden Age for Stratford. Boswell, a self described theatre revolutionary, says –“let the agenda be creativity and the work will flourish.”

If these are the directors for next season, what actors will be gracing The Stratford Shakespeare Festival boards? Zounds! Is Stratford sounding a rebel yell?

Stay tuned.

The copyright of the article The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Playwrights & Stage Actors is owned by Coral Andrews. Permission to republish The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.