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2009 Festival Season
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is the ideal place to explore the astonishingly varied dramatic universe that Shakespeare helped to create. Featuring 14 productions on four stages in a season running from April 11 to November 1, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival is the premier classical theatre in North America, among the finest theatres in the world.
- Surrender to the world’s greatest playwright: plunge into a nightmare world of eternal darkness and terror with Macbeth, Shakespeare’s definitive story of the descent into evil; enjoy a brilliantly orchestrated comedy of confusion and desire as A Midsummer Night’s Dream probes the very nature of love; marvel at the tense and tightly plotted political thriller that is Julius Caesar.
- Compare Shakespeare’s work with that of his friend Ben Johnson – whose Bartholomew Fair is a hilarious satire of life in Shakespeare’s adopted city – or with Jean Racine, whose Phèdre is searing drama from a very different dramatic tradition.
- Consider how Shakespeare’s unprecedented exploration of the human comedy paved the way for later dramatists such as Chekhov, Rostand and Wilde, with Three Sisters, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Importance of Being Earnest.
- See how Shakespeare’s influence reveals itself in the season’s two musicals: West Side Story, with its explosive dance numbers and unforgettable score, a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet; and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which, with mistaken identities, frantic chases, lascivious husbands and long-lost children, is one of the funniest musicals ever written.
- Be enthralled by the finest Canadian drama with the world premiere of a poignant, thought-provoking and sharply sardonic play by Morris Panych, The Trespassers; an award-winning drama that penetrates to the heart of the immigrant experience, Sunil Kuruvilla’s Rice Boy; and George F. Walker’s devilishly witty Canadian classic Zastrozzi, filled with suspense, swordplay and feverish sensuality.
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