Stratford Festival to stage 6 plays, 5 cabarets in open-air theatre season this summer

The Stratford Festival has announced it will stage six plays and five cabarets in an open-air season this summer.

The performances will be held underneath two open-air canopies at the Festival Theatre and the Tom Patterson Theatre, each with space for about 100 people although that may change depending on public health guidance. The performances will also be streamed online.  

Each production will be approximately an hour and a half long and there won't be any intermissions. Shows will be held at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. All in-person audience members will need to wear masks and undergo health screening before taking their seats.

The theme for this upcoming season is "metamorphosis," and it's a fitting one, says artistic director Antoni Cimolino.

He said last year, organizers felt like they could just put the 2020 season on pause and remount the performances this year.

"But as the months went by we realized that's just not appropriate. The world has changed and we've changed," he said in an interview with CBC.

"This massive world event with the deaths that have followed and also the changes in society, the realization of the injustice in our world, and on a personal level, what's happened to each one of us."

He said it made him think of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pyramus and Thisbe, which Shakespeare was inspired by when writing Romeo and Juliet. It's also included as a play-within-a-play in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Come together over 'great theatre'

He says the festival knows the COVID-19 situation is changing and evolving, and they are ready to make changes and modify productions and audience capacity if necessary.

But he says he hopes to see many people out.

"Boy, will it be joyful to come back together again over some great theatre," he said.

Joani Gerber of InvestStratford says local businesses are excited for the newest season to get underway in a few months.

"None of us should be surprised that an organization known so well for its creativity and its bootstrapping and how Tom Patterson started the theater at its infancy, that we should be surprised that they've gotten so creative and interesting for what they're going to offer this year," she said. "I'm excited to see what they can pull off."

What's on this summer

The Festival Theatre canopy will have:

• Three Tall Women by Edward Albee from June 24 to July 25.
• Why We Tell the Story: A Celebration of Black Musical Theatre curated and directed by Marcus Nance from June 24 to July 11.
• You Can't Stop the Beat: The Enduring Power of Musical Theatre curated and directed by Thom Allison from July 15 to July 31.
• Play On! A Shakespeare-Inspired Mixtape curated by Robert Markus, Julia Nish-Lapidus and James Wallis from July 29 to Aug. 15.
• R&J (a reimagined version of Romeo and Juliet) by William Shakespeare from Aug. 12 to Sept. 26.
• Freedom: Spirit and Legacy of Black Music curated and directed by Beau Dixon from Aug. 19 to Sept. 5.
• Finally There's Sun: A Cabaret of Resilience curated and directed by Sara Farb and Steve Ross from Sept. 9 to Sept. 26.

The Tom Patterson Theatre canopy will have:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare from June 22 to July 25.
• The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway from July 13 to Aug. 15.
• I Am William by Rébecca Déraspe from Aug. 4 to Sept. 5.
• Serving Elizabeth by Marcia Johnson from Aug. 24 to Sept. 26.

Tickets will go on sale to the members on May 24. People who donated the cost of their ticket in 2020 or who did not request a refund and instead had the money placed on their account will be given priority access to tickets.

The general public will be able to buy tickets starting June 4.