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Three hours by car from Chicago -- slightly less from Buffalo, New York, or Toronto,
Canada -- the world seems to be all about Shakespeare. You drive through the
town of Shakespeare on your way to the town of Stratford which is pleasantly
situated on the banks of a dammed up section of the River Avon, and turn
right at Romeo Street. The theater festival that draws over a half million
patrons a year to this (you should pardon the expression) hamlet, started in
1953 when Alec Guinness starred as Richard III. Today the festival runs from
April through October each year offering over a dozen major productions of
plays from the classical repertory including Shakespeare, modern substantive
drama or comedy and even a musical or two. The company assembled for each
season has included frequent company members, new talent, and even a few
stars. Among the better known performers who have performed on the four
stages the Festival now operates have been Len Cariou, Brent Carver, Hume
Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, James Mason, Christopher Plummer,
Jason Robards, Maggie Smith and Peter Ustinov. Currently on the boards is
Brian Bedford performing in as well as directing a revival of a fabulous farce.
The Festival Theater is the
flagship of the operation -- a 1,826-seat wooden paneled gem with a modified
thrust stage surrounded by a semi-circle of patrons on the orchestra floor
and large balcony. (The extreme sides can give the feeling of peeking in at
a performance from the wings, especially from the rear of the orchestra or
any of the balcony side seats.) A more intimate experience can be had in the
Tom Patterson Theatre with its 481 seats arrayed on steep risers overlooking
a long thrust stage that seems almost like a runway. Both of these theaters
are in the lovely parkland along the banks of the river, while the Avon Theatre
and its adjoining Studio Theatre are in downtown Stratford, about a ten
minute walk from the park. The Avon, a converted movie theater, is a jewel
of a standard proscenium house seating 1,091 in the orchestra and one
balcony. Seats in the orchestra are quite comfortable but the leg room in
the balcony is awfully tight. The Studio Theatre is, on the other hand, a
small thrust house with just 260 seats.
The season includes a wide
variety of work.
Here's a sampling from the 2006 season:
One of the major
productions of a Shakespearean play this year is Coriolanus,
the last tragedy he wrote. Colm Feore, a headliner here for many years (this
being his 15th season) strides across the Festival Theatre's stage and
emotes with great personal energy as the Roman warrior brought down not by
military might but by political powers when it turns out that
his social skills are no match for his martial arts.
Feore is also center stage
for the darker of the two musicals of the season -- Lionel Bart's
Oliver!. As Fagin he demonstrates just how much weight a classically
trained actor can give the song "Reviewing the Situation," which often seems
a light comedy routine in less dramatic hands. Here, on Santo Loquasto's
towering set, the entire company is quite strong, but it is eleven year old
Tyler Pearse in the title role that may make the most lasting impression.
His singing is superb for one so young, and director Donna Feore draws from
him a solid piece of acting as well.
Lucy Peacock and Peter
Donaldson bring a heft based on maturity to the immature squabbling pair
Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare's romantic verbal challenge dance,
Much Ado About Nothing. Their battle of wits is a great deal of
fun to watch and contrasts nicely with the callow youths, Adrienne Gould as
Hero and Jeffrey Wetsch as the insufferably duped Claudio. (Who says "Kill
Claudio" isn't a reasonable request?) Unfortunately, Robert Persichini's
Dogberry just doesn't get beyond the malapropisms the bard provided. Still,
Peacock and Donaldson are so good, it is a fine night of Shakespearean
delights.
The smaller Tom Paterson
Theatre with its long thrust stage is well used by Peter Hinton in staging
John Webster's deep, dark and ultimately ugly early seventeenth century
tragedy of The Duchess of Malfi who is driven mad by her
brothers. She not only refuses to marry as they chose, she secretly
marries and then secretly delivers not one, not two but three children by
her secret husband, who is not only a commoner, he's her steward! Hinton
gives his star, Lucy Peacock, plenty to react to, what with the sight of her
husbands body hanging next to one of their children's, the delivery of a
severed hand in darkness and a host of quite naked and quite disturbing
specters. But it is what transpires in the darkness that is most impressive
as Hinton and lighting designer Bonnie Beecher make shards of flickering
candle light and even total darkness highly theatrical.
The delight of this sample
of shows is an inspired romp, the 1841 farce London
Assurance, which features Brian Bedford prancing all over the
beautiful sets in the most marvelous of all the costumes Desmond Heeley
designed for this comedy of manners. The only way to conceive of Bedford's
performance is to imagine that Elvis Presley hadn't really died, but
instead, had reached old age only to inherit the wardrobe of the late
Liberace - now there's an image! Bedford was nominated for a Tony when he
played the part in the 1997 revival. This time out he also directs.
Also
playing this season are:
-
Artistic Director Richard
Monette directing Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1
-
A new version of Henrik
Ibsen's Ghosts
-
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
South Pacific
-
Brian Bedford playing
Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
-
Steven Sutcliffe playing
Tom in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie
-
Colm Feore, on his nights
off from either Coriolanus or Oliver, takes on Moliere's Don
Juan
-
A play about 19th century
Shakespearean actress, Fanny Kemble
-
Pierre Corneille's The Liar in a translation/adaptation by
Ranjit Bolt
-
A new twist on
Shakespeare's Othello viewed through the eyes of the Moore's first
wife, Harlem Duet, by Djanet Sears
-
Lucy Peacock playing all
the parts in Australian playwright Robert Hewett's The Blonde, the
Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
The list price for tickets run from $25 to $117.30 in Canadian currency but
many special deals are available. Theatre lovers under age 30 can find seats
for $20 and those 30 - 35 can qualify for 50% off on some tickets. |
