Stratford Festival review: Dangerous Liaisons is sumptuous, stylish satire Jesse Gervais and Jessica B. Hill are perfectly cast as the play's scheming, amoral aristocrats Author of the article:Published Sep 04, 2025 •Jessica B. Hill stars as La Marquise de Merteuil and Jesse Gervais stars as Le Vicomte de Valmont in the Stratford Festival's 2025 production of Dangerous Liaisons.
Director Esther Jun’s production of Dangerous Liaisons at the Festival Theatre revels in its excess. It is sumptuous in its look, sly in its tone and pointed in its depiction of aristocrats scheming their way toward inevitableruin.Article contentChristopher Hampton’s play, adapted from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ scandalous 1782 novel, centres on two former lovers who have turned cruelty into a pastime. In Jun’s staging, it becomes not just a tale of seduction and betrayal but a sharp-edged portrait of decadence on the verge of collapse. Stratford Festival review: Dangerous Liaisons is sumptuous, stylish satireArticle contentThe play’s simple premise hides its complexity. Bored and wealthy, Le Vicomte de Valmont and La Marquise de Merteuil conspire to seduce, corrupt and humiliate the people around them. Their plots intertwine: she, stung that her ex-lover is marrying the convent-raised Cécile Volanges, pushes Valmont to compromise the girl’s virtue. He resists at first, more interested in the seemingly untouchable Madame de Tourvel, whose piety and loyalty make her an enticing challenge. Seduction, though, is only part of the game. Valmont and Merteuil are kindred spirits — partners in cruelty — but what begins in jest leads to heartbreak, betrayal and, eventually, death.Article contentJesse Gervais delivers a star-making turn as Valmont. A Stratford regular, he strides across the stage with the ease of a man convinced he can charm anyone. His Valmont is a bored sociopath, a libertine who takes pleasure in ruining lives. Yet when he falls for Tourvel, his mask finally slips. Gervais lets us see the regret creeping in as he wrestles with the confusion of a man trapped by his own reputation. His eventual duel with Chevalier Danceny is both inevitable and strangely poignant — the end of a man who never quite understood the cost of his games.Jessica B. Hill is equally captivating as Merteuil. Cold and calculating, she shows a steely strength in a society determined to deny it. Hill plays her as a woman revelling in the power she has been forced to carve for herself, but she also shows brief flashes of vulnerability. When her machinations destroy the only man who mirrored her intelligence, she is left both triumphant and heartbroken. Together, Hill and Gervais are electric — soul mates locked in a bizarre courtship of mutual destruction.Article contentThe supporting cast only bolsters the intrigue. Celia Aloma’s Tourvel is graceful and devout, her fall into love — and despair — quietly devastating. Ashley Dingwell’s Cecile, wide-eyed and eager, becomes a tragic pawn. Leon Qin’s earnest Danceny and Nadine Villasin’s stern Madame de Volanges add texture to the production, while Sean McKenna, as Madame de Rosemonde, provides a receptive warmth as Valmont’s elderly aunt. Sara Farb, as Émile, Valmont’s prostitute confidante, injects a knowing humour that punctures the aristocrats’ pretensions during her brief scenes.Visually, the production is stunning. Teresa Przybylski’s sets are awash in bright pinks for Merteuil’s salons and aquamarines for Rosemonde’s estate, each filled with ornate period furniture. Mirrors line the back of the Festival Theatre stage, emphasizing the tension between reality and subterfuge at the heart of the play. A.M. Nadine Grant’s costumes are equally lush: Valmont draped in regal purples while Tourvel wears soft violets and mauves, each choice underlining character and mood. The effect underscores the decadence, showing the audience a world drowning in its own finery.Article contentJun overlays this splendour with a shot of punk energy. Some costumes nod to Vivienne Westwood, the icon of 1970s U.K. punk, and the soundtrack circles around a string motif drawn from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Heads Will Roll. The play’s final image is unforgettable: as the song blares, a guillotine blade slashes down from the ceiling, slicing through the aristocratic veneer. The French Revolution, long looming, arrives with a jolt.For all of its underlying darkness, the play is often very funny. Gervais’ Valmont, all sly grins and double-edged charm, draws much of the laughter, while the dramatic irony — we know his true nature while Tourvel, Cecile and Danceny remain oblivious — gives the comedy bite. Jun leans into that humour without losing the production’s sinister edge.Article contentStill, some moments remain troubling. Valmont’s rape of the underage Cecile drew some uneasy laughter on opening night. The production does not linger too long on the implications, preferring instead to keep momentum, but it does leave a residue of discomfort.What lingers longer, though, is the timeliness. Dangerous Liaisons unfolds in the months before the French Revolution, with the aristocracy indulging in its whims as society fractures beneath them. That sense of decline feels uncomfortably familiar. The parallels to our own era — widening inequality, indulgence in the face of so many looming crises — give this play an added sting.Jun, cast and crew deliver a production that is both lavish and lacerating, a trenchant satire wrapped in silks and feathers but edged with steel. As a stylish celebration of cruelty, decadence and downfall, it is irresistible.Dangerous Liaisons runs in repertory at the Festival Theatre until Oct. 25.
A Day In Stratford to Remember
Six friends, one musical and a great theatre adventure
Theatre • Theatre & Ballet • Arts • Entertainment
16 Aug 2025 REAGAN MCSWAIN STAFF REPORTER
"Where there's a will, there's a way" the saying goes - and somehow, six of us from the Toronto Star, all on different schedules, managed to plan a trip to the Stratford Festival.
Bottom Line Synopsis:
"The Stratford Festival's Annie' was stellar; it was heartfelt in all the right places, featured tremendous acting from performers young and old, and had all of the Broadway grandiosity that we’ve come to love in classic musical theatre”’ sald Godfrey. "The Festival Theatre's intimate setting made it a wonderful viewing experience”.
Scrambled morning
Of course, getting there was its own comedy of errors. Chong ended up taking an Uber to the departure point after realizing the TTC was down. I'd worked late the night before and was still chewing a breakfast sandwich as I dashed out the door. City hall reporter Ben Cohen had moved the day before and hadn't unpacked his kitchen yet. "So I forewent breakfast." he said. "Luckily, I was invigorated by the power of theatre," he added. Former Star intern Hayden Godfrey arrived and we knew we'd pulled it off - we were actually all there. It started with a message from arts critic and culture reporter Joshua Chong about an upcoming discount ticket offer. That was all the push we needed. After some back and forth, Chong our most seasoned theatregoer secured tickets for "Annie" and spots (at least for most of us) on the Stratford Direct bus. Not everything aligned perfectly: we sat in different rows and had to split up for the ride home. But that just made it feel more like an adventure.
First impressions of Stratford
Staff reporter Nathan Bawaan walked, but regretted it halfway. "The humidity was making me rethink some things," he said. Staff reporter Kevin Jiang skipped his morning coffee - a bold move. As we got closer to Stratford, the scenery changed - the trees were taller and there was more green space. Once we pulled into town, the architecture changed too, with late Victorian and Edwardian homes that made it easier to picture a bygone era.
"Simply adorable" Godfrey said. Bawaan, who's from the West Coast, said he's already planning a return visit. "To explore the town and lake more" he added. Cohen put it on his bucket list: "We didn't have much time to explore so I'm sure it has many virtues left to uncover” Jiang was sold: "It's a picturesque little town straight out of a Hallmark movie: cute buildings, lush gardens. It's a town l'd like to retire in" For me it was a nostalgic return the last time I'd been to Stratford I was racing in a Dragon Boat as a teenager. Coming back with friends felt like closing a loop.
Lunch time
We didn't have time for a real sit- down meal before the show. so we grabbed food at the Festival Theatre Cafe. Results were ... mixed. We pulled out chairs at one of the many tables that align large windows that look out at pretty gardens and sat down together to dig in."I packed nothing but my empty stomach, which was soon occupied by a cold BET wrap said liang. "It cost $14 and filled me with sadness.But I finally got my coffee, so not all was lost." Bawaan noted a nice touch. a chocolate bar at the concession stand I bought to share.
Unexpected moments
The musical itself brought a few surprises. "I had only watched the movie version of Annie' from the 80's a few times when I was growing up.(So during the play), when little orphan Annie walked into a cabinet meeting at the White House and broke out into a reprise of Tomorrow' that inspired FDR to create the New Deal, I was gagged." said Bawaan. "I guess five year old me didn't fully grasp who the man in the wheelchair was.
“The theatre was larger than I would have thought," said Cohen. Chong, used to seeing opening night performances packed with critics and donors, appreciated the more relaxed vibe. "I was particularly surprised by the number of young families and small children in attendance. It certainly changed the vibe of the show." Stratford Theatre, for all its glory, tends to attract an older crowd," said Godfrey "so I was thrilled that there were many younger families and groups of young theatregoers, as well.
One quirky moment stuck with Jiang: "There was this moment at the end or the intermission when a gaggle of musicians went out onto the terrace where we were and tooted their trumpets, as if to announce the entrance of a king. Sadly, no king appeared - it was only to signal the end of the intermission - but I did feel marginally like royalty shuffling back into the theatre.
Favourite parts of the trip
Beyond the show itself. Everyone had a standout moment. "Introducing the Stratford Festival to my friends who'd never been there before. It really is a gem of a town and one of this country's great theatre centres." said Chong. "I’ll most remember the distinctly school-like atmosphere of our entire trip. We chatted excitedly on the bus to the theatre, all ate lunch together in the lobby cafe and conferred after wards to share our thoughts about the production. If ever there was a time and place to escape from evervdav life and indulge in artistic bliss this was it, and I had a blast doing it. "The singing was terrific, said Cohen. "and the acrobatic performances by some or the cast, I thought, were quite something"
Mini reviews of Annie
"The child actors were phenomenal, especially Harper Rae Asch, the lead actress," said Jiang. "But I was unexpectedly charmed by the villains. Laura Condiln, who played Miss Aggie Hannigan, was perfectly over the top, and think I fell in love with Mark Uhre's rendition of the rascal Rooster.
"One of the joys of experiencing a classic work for the first time is noticing all the ways in which you have seen its influence all your life without knowing it." said Cohen. "Of course, any hip-hop fan will recognize the orphan's lament. 'Hard Knock Life, as a reprise in the JayZ song of the same name. But I did not realize "leapin' lizards!" was Annie's catch-phrase. Goodness knows when and where I heard someone say it before but I certainly had. And now I know its origin, which is somewhat satisfying."
"The dancing and choreography from the ensemble was so good. Especially from the girls playing all the orphans. I was amazed they could do all those flips and jumps at such a young age” said Bawaan. "This was my second time seeing this production. I loved it just as much as the first time. The cast, especially the children's ensemble, is formidable. And Donna Feore's acrobatic choreography still continues to wow me." said Chong.
"The Stratford Festival's Annie' was stellar; it was heartfelt in all the right places, featured tremendous acting from performers young and old, and had all of the Broadway grandiosity that we’ve come to love in classic musical theatre”’ sald Godfrey. "The Festival Theatre's intimate setting made it a wonderful viewing experience”.
DANGEROUS LIAISONS Now on Stage at the Stratford Festival
Dangerous Liaisons has its official opening on August 22 and runs until October 25 at the Festival Theatre.
By: Chloe RabinowitzAug. 06, 2025
Seduction, power and betrayal take centre stage this season as the Stratford Festival presents a provocative new production of Dangerous Liaisons, Christopher Hampton’s masterful stage adaptation of the classic novel. Under the direction of Esther Jun, this opulent tale of aristocratic excess unfolds on the eve of the French Revolution, as two cunning lovers engage in a ruthless game of desire and deceit.
At the heart of the story are the Marquise de Merteuil and her sometime lover, the Vicomte de Valmont – aristocrats who delight in using their considerable charms to manipulate those around them. Their latest game targets the virginal Cécile Volanges and the devout Madame de Tourvel, whose virtue they seek to destroy. As their schemes unfold, so too do the emotional stakes, turning what began as a calculated contest of seduction and manipulation into a devastating collision of pride, desire and revenge.
Bold, elegant and biting, Dangerous Liaisons is a richly layered period drama that lays bare the intoxicating allure and ultimate cost of power without conscience. Don’t miss this thrilling new production of a timeless theatrical masterpiece.
Dangerous Liaisons features Celia Aloma as Madame de Tourvel, Jesse Gervais as Le Vicomte de Valmont and Jessica B. Hill as La Marquise de Merteuil, with Ashley Dingwell as Cécile Volanges, Seana McKenna as Madame de Rosemonde, Leon Qin as Le Chevalier Danceny and Nadine Villasin as Madame de Volanges. The production also features Christopher Allen, Gabriel Antonacci, Thomas Duplessie as Azolan, Sara Farb as Émilie, Jacklyn Francis, Silvae Mercedes as Footman, Evan Mercer as Footman, Joe Perry as Footman, Glynis Ranney as Servant, Jade V. Robinson as Servant, Makambe K. Simamba as Servant, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, and Norman Yeung as Major-Domo.
Jun is joined by Set Designer Teresa Przybylski, Costume Designer A.W. Nadine Grant, Lighting Designer Arun Srinivasan and Composer and Sound Designer Richard Feren.
Dangerous Liaisons has its official opening on August 22 and runs until October 25 at the Festival Theatre.
Theater|On Canada’s Top Stage, Macbeth and Annie Are Talking to Americans
Aug. 1, 2025, Section C, Page 1 of the New York Times
On Canada’s Top Stage, Macbeth and Annie Are Talking to Americans
At this year’s Stratford Festival, kings, orphans and even a coffee shop have a message for their neighbors to the south.
A scene from Robert Lepage’s “Macbeth.”CreditCredit...
Jesse Green saw seven shows in six days at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario.
July 31, 2025
The Canadian “elbows up” attitude was showing. Driving through the countryside from Toronto, we noticed it everywhere, in the nicest northerly way. Maple leaf flaglets fluttering from car windows. “True North Strong” yard signs. Banners suggesting, as if in code, “Never 51.”
But once we arrived at the Stratford Festival, situated among the rolling plains of southwestern Ontario, the gloves came off. Though the season was planned well before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, this year’s productions at the country’s (and likely the continent’s) largest nonprofit theater seemed to be sending a message. The message was clearest in the three gripping Shakespeare productions I saw during a six-day, seven-show visit. But “Annie,” no less than Lady Macbeth, had something to say to Canada’s neighbor to the south.
Until experiencing those Shakespeares in quick succession here, I had never deeply absorbed how so many of the canonical plays are set in motion by the same chaotic figure: a man temperamentally unsuited to the wise use of great power. In “Macbeth” he is the quick-rising warrior whose wobbly personality (and overcompensating wife) bring on a blood bath of internecine carnage. In “The Winter’s Tale” he is Leontes, the king of Sicily, whose insecurity results in civil chaos. Likewise, Duke Fredrick, in “As You Like It,” having usurped his sibling’s throne, falls prey to fits of Freudian malice that send his country’s best people into exile.
In this environmentally minded production of “As You Like It,” the duke is now a duchess and played by Seana McKenna, left. At center, Sara Farb as Rosalind and Christopher Allen as Orlando.Credit...David Hou
No matter that “Macbeth” is a tragedy, “The Winter’s Tale” a romance and “As You Like It” a comedy. Regardless of genre, all are warnings. And though some suggest the possibility of reconciliation and recovery, not one offers a reliable map.
Certainly not “Macbeth.” (You can’t reconcile with a corpse.) Stratford’s production, directed by the chic avant-gardist Robert Lepage, imagines Banquo, Macduff and the others as members of a motorcycle gang during the Quebec Biker War of the 1990s, their clan affiliations displayed on the backs of their leather jackets. Macbeth has a greasy salt-and-pepper Prince Valiant; his lady is a groupie in a Bonnie Raitt wig. They live in a roadside motel where a mopey cleaner must mop up the blood. The witches’ cauldron is an oil canister.
That’s all pungent, stylish and a little silly; the thanes gliding their semifunctional motorcycles across the stage look like foosball figurines. But Lepage gives great magic: When Macbeth famously wonders, “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” there really is one, floating in virtual space. And I’ve never seen the play’s marital folie à deux as sickeningly rendered as it is here, by Tom McCamus and Lucy Peacock. Swapping their insanities along with their spit makes them equals in iniquity if nothing else.
Yet Lepage’s contemporizing — he stages Banquo’s murder as a gasoline immolation — has a paradoxical effect on a story that usually devolves into slasher excess. The bikers become a bloc, the pileup of deaths more political than personal. In this context, Lady M.’s “Out, damned spot!” is no longer a matter of mere hygiene: It’s a plea to erase the havoc of recent history.
Failed manhood is linked to a failed state in “The Winter’s Tale,” with André Sills as Polixenes and Sara Topham as Hermione.Credit...David Hou
If “The Winter’s Tale” is less bloody, with just two fatalities, it’s still recognizable in Antoni Cimolino’s haunting production as a story linking failed manhood to a failed state. With women reduced to trophy wives, despised dissidents or half-discarded daughters, there is no stay on the king’s impulsiveness, which in Graham Abbey’s lucid performance suggests a form of arrested development. He pouts like an adolescent.
No motorcycles here; the costumes are Greco-Roman and the magic is emotional. But modest means are sufficient for Cimolino, in his second-to-last season as Stratford’s artistic director, to drive home a big point: Though wayward nations are sometimes salvageable, it is never without grave loss. In this case the salvage happens mysteriously, through unaccountable self-reform and magic.
The loss, though, remains painfully clear. Making relatively little of the demise of a royal adviser — “exit, pursued by a bear” is the famous stage direction — Cimolino spends the stage’s full capacity for pathos on a final image of the king’s son, who dies as a casualty of his father’s volatility.
In outline, “As You Like It” seems to follow the same path, from chaos to order by way of “Hee Haw.” (Both plays make tiresome detours into hayseed high jinks.) The version directed here by Chris Abraham has an environmental theme, contrasting the luxurious corruption of Duke Frederick’s court with the healthful thrift of his exiles in the forest. The heroine’s bridal dress is an upcycled IKEA bag.
Despite the green gloss and the de rigueur quadruple wedding, “As You Like It” has a sting in its tail. Yes, Duke Frederick eventually decides to cede power to his usurped sibling. But why? All we are told, by an Act V messenger, is that he “was converted” by an “old religious man” — a scene I wish we could see. Failing that, we are left to wonder if there is any practical recourse to the despotism Shakespeare so memorably characterizes in these plays as an arachnid infestation: Macbeth with his mind “full of scorpions,” Leontes having “drunk, and seen the spider.”
Harper Rae Asch as Annie with, from left in the background, Sofia Grace Otta and Harmony Holder in “Annie.”Credit...David Hou
Caroline Toal as Anne Shirley, left, and Maev Beaty as Rachel Lynde in “Anne of Green Gables.”Credit...David Hou
Perhaps it’s not theater’s highest purpose to serve as a moral GPS. Stratford’s pairing of the 1977 musical “Annie” with a family-friendly adaptation of “Anne of Green Gables” turns out to be a brilliant compare-and-contrast opportunity in that regard, and a probably inadvertent sally in the Canada vs. U.S. squabble. Both feature upbeat redheaded orphans who start in dire circumstances and wind up in wonderful homes. But what looks dire and what looks wonderful to the American Annie and the Canadian Anne could not be more different.
Seen today, “Annie,” in a crowd-pleasing staging by Donna Feore, is somewhat shocking. Despite allusions to Depression Hoovervilles, its portrait of poverty is relentlessly jaunty, a common problem in musicals. (Lyrics about childhood cruelty probably shouldn’t be this delightful: “No one cares for you a smidge / When you’re in an orphanage.”) And did we never notice that, despite her pluck and aplomb, the moppet’s happy ending is completely the result of accidental intercession by, as it happens, a president of the United States and a Republican billionaire? The billionaire’s servants sell Annie on life in his Manhattan mansion with promises of satin sheets and tennis lessons.
On Prince Edward Island, where Anne comes to live in the house with the gables, success depends on hard work, not luck, and the ending is bittersweet. Her adoptive parents are spinster brother-and-sister farmers, not prone to exuberance; the luxuries they offer are quiet companionship and ethical guidance. In Kat Sandler’s adaptation, which moves some of the action to the present tense to suggest its timelessness, sadness is neither suppressed nor dwelt on. Poverty, if not exalted, is honorable. Anne becomes a teacher.
Is it overreaching to note that the musical is content to leave Annie, the American, merely an heiress? As if the point of striving were luxury, and the world’s fate is best left to the whims of the powerful?
If so, blame Stratford. Especially in a season as strong as this one, the themes overflow their banks and flood your impressions of everything you see. Even the excellent revival of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” directed by Tracey Flye, seems to have read the memo. It may be one of the funniest musicals ever written, but it’s still about irredeemable American con artists.
Cons and kings tend to have the upper hand onstage. But if neither Shakespeare nor the lighter fare I saw this season offer suggestions for progress and reconciliation, I did find two hopeful blueprints in Stratford — one in a play and one in the town’s central square.
“Forgiveness,” given a gripping production by Stafford Arima, concerns two Canadian citizens, alike in bitterness, during and after World War II.Credit...David Hou
The play’s title — “Forgiveness” — tells you exactly what its blueprint suggests. Adapted by Hiro Kanagawa from a memoir by Mark Sakamoto, and given a gripping production by Stafford Arima, it concerns two Canadian citizens, alike in bitterness, during and after World War II. One, Mitsue Sakamoto, is relocated to civilian internment camps along with her family, where they are subjected to vile conditions and forced labor. The other, Ralph MacLean, a soldier confined to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, is physically and psychologically tortured by a sadistic commandant. By a stroke of chance that would seem preposterous if it weren’t true, his daughter and one of her sons fall in love, requiring the families to master their anger and grief, and make peace.
How did this “Romeo and Juliet,” though filled with brutality, find a happy ending? (The memoir’s author is a grandson of Mitsue and Ralph.) One crucial ingredient is the characters’ willingness to see silent solidarity in their shared sense of injury. Pain recognizes pain, if you let it.
The other ingredient is time.
So if Canadians despair about the doings across the border, some are building the long path forward. Dropping by a coffee shop for a cold drink on a hot day mid-trip, I noticed a sign by the cash register: “If you are American, then we are friends. Tell us you’re visiting!”
It turns out that an anonymous Canadian benefactor was covering the cost of all orders for U.S. patrons. Sometimes, the iced mocha is mightier than the sword.
Stratford Festival
In repertory, with staggered closing dates through Dec. 14 at the Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario; stratfordfestival.ca.
Jesse Green is the chief theater critic for The Times. He writes reviews of Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, regional and sometimes international productions.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 1, 2025, Section C, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Those Quiet Neighbors Turn Bold Up Onstage.
Reviews: Three fascinating Stratford Festival productions to scratch your Shakespeare itch
By June 6, 2025
🔊 Play
Three directors at Stratford this season have grabbed Shakespeare by the throat and forced him to speak to 2025. Chris Abraham turns the comedy As You Like It into a tale of refugees building paradise after escaping a prison camp. Antoni Cimolino makes Time itself a character in romance The Winter’s Tale, using magical minimalism to bridge an impossible sixteen-year gap. And Robert Lepage transforms the tragedy of Macbeth into a blood-soaked biker noir, complete with leather cuts and switchblades.
These aren’t polite adaptations—they’re radical reimaginings that crack open Shakespeare’s texts to reveal their molten cores. What emerges is a season defined by duality and disruption. Characters slip between identities, sets transform from wastelands to wonderlands, and audiences find themselves caught between reality and illusion. Each production delivers its own mic-drop moments: a prison camp blooming into paradise, a statue coming to life, a motel morphing into a hall of mirrors. And each mounts a profoundly human drama.
These reviews will help you navigate Stratford’s audacious season: whether you’re drawn to Abraham’s tale of transformation, Cimolino’s time-bending magic, or Lepage’s noir-soaked mayhem, there’s revolutionary Shakespeare happening on these stages. The only question is which revolution you want to join.
As You Like It: A tale of 2 worlds
Shakespeare’s beloved pastoral comedy of love, exile, and transformation receives a boldly reimagined treatment under Chris Abraham’s direction. The tale follows Rosalind (Sara Farb), daughter of a banished Duchess (Seanna McKenna), who falls in love with Orlando (Christopher Allen), a young nobleman who is fleeing his murderous brother. When Rosalind is herself banished by her usurping uncle Duke Frederick (Sean Arbuckle), she disguises herself as a young man named Ganymede and escapes to the Forest of Arden with her cousin Celia (Makambe K. Simamba) and the court fool Touchstone (Steve Ross). There, amid a community of exiles led by her mother, Rosalind encounters Orlando again, and—maintaining her male disguise—proceeds to “cure” him of his lovesickness through an elaborate game of role-play that tests the depths of their mutual affection.
Members of the company in As You Like It. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou
Abraham’s production amounts to two plays in one remarkable whole, with each half offering a radically different theatrical experience.
This As You Like It begins in a stark, militaristic winter — where a warehouse setting and prison camp atmosphere bring urgency and high stakes to Duke Frederick’s tyrannical rule. The first half’s dark palette and falling snow create a disorienting atmosphere . . . in which grim past or future conflict have we found ourselves, exactly? Gun-toting guards patrol chain-link fences that separate the privileged from the condemned, while refugees huddle in the forest shadows, planning their escape. This dystopian framework lends unexpected weight to the political machinations that drive the play’s early acts.
The transformation to the Forest of Arden in the second act is nothing short of miraculous. As audiences return from intermission, they are greeted by Steve Ross’s masterfully funny Touchstone, who breaks the fourth wall with contemporary jokes and orchestrates mass audience participation that pre-signals the production’s tonal shift. The stark prison camp and dark forest give way to a sunny, pastoral paradise filled with the sounds of farm animals and the sight of verdant growth. Ross’s Touchstone becomes our, well, touchstone for this transformed world — his wit serving as a bridge between the play’s darker and lighter elements. This dramatic shift is also anchored by Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith’s original score, which helps weaves the production’s disparate elements into a harmonious whole. Sexsmith’s music ranges from haunting winter ballads to joyous summer reels and full-company productions that provide an emotional throughline that helps audiences navigate the production’s dramatic tonal shift.
Sara Farb delivers a tour-de-force performance as Rosalind, masterfully navigating both her courtly persona and her disguise as Ganymede with compelling charm, strength and authenticity. Her Rosalind begins as a sharp-witted courtier whose intelligence is clearly constrained by circumstance, then blossoms in exile as she leans into the liberating possibilities of her male disguise. Farb makes Ganymede distinctly different from Rosalind – and winkingly credible as a man – not a simple thing. Meanwhile, Christopher Allen provides the perfect counterpoint as Orlando, bringing energy, earnest strength and endearing passion to the role.
Members of the company in As You Like It, Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou
Aaron Krohn’s Jaques, styled as a brooding outsider in the vein of Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings. emerged as a personal favourite, His melancholy observations serve as a necessary counterpoint to the forest’s increasing joviality, yet Krohn ensures that the character never becomes a mere killjoy. And his delivery of the famous “Seven Ages of Man” speech achieves something rare: it feels like an organic expression of character rather than a scheduled showcase moment. We understand why this particular Jaques would pause to reflect on life’s stages, and why others would stop to listen.
Abraham’s kinetic direction keeps the energy high throughout, with characters moving fluidly through and around set pieces, often venturing into and through the audience at high speed. The constant motion reflects the story’s themes of transformation. Characters scale fences, weave through audience aisles, and create impromptu performance spaces throughout the theatre. This immersive approach, combined with Sexsmith’s music, creates a unifying dynamism that transforms the entire theatre into the Forest of Arden, and makes us part of the new, sunnier world the exiles build in the show’s second half.
The production’s epilogue, delivered with knowing charm by Farb, becomes a meditation on the show’s duality itself, inviting audiences to embrace both the light and dark elements of the story—and by extension, of life itself. Her direct address to the audience feels less like Shakespeare’s traditional plea for approval and more like a provocative challenge: what will we make of these contrasting halves of the story? How do we reconcile darkness and light? The questions linger after the final bow, making this As You Like It not just a evening’s entertainment, but a profound exploration of how change—whether chosen or forced upon us—can lead to transformation.
The Winter’s Tale: Moving, minimalist magic
One of Shakespeare’s most intriguing and rarely performed works, The Winter’s Tale weaves together elements of tragedy and comedy into what scholars term a “romance.” The plot follows King Leontes of Sicily (Graham Abbey), whose unfounded jealousy sets in motion a chain of events that tears his family apart. Convinced that his pregnant wife Hermione (Sara Topham) is having an affair with his childhood friend King Polixenes of Bohemia (Andre Sills), Leontes orders his friend’s death, imprisons his wife, and ultimately causes the death of his young son Mamillius. When his newborn daughter Perdita is abandoned on the shores of Bohemia, Time itself intervenes to heal these wounds, leading to one of theatre’s most magical reconciliations . . . some sixteen years later.
Yanna McIntosh (centre) with David Collins and members of the company in The Winter’s Tale, Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou
For The Winter’s Tale, director Antoni Cimolino transforms the minimalist stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre into a canvas for exploring redemption, renewal, and the healing power of time. The production begins in an atmosphere of celebration, with games and revelry creating a deceptively light tone. Graham Abbey’s Leontes masterfully guides us through the king’s devastating psychological deterioration — his jealousy emerging not in grand gestures, but in simple observations, paired with the subtle acceleration of his verbalized paranoid thoughts. Each sentence builds hypnotically upon the last, until suspicion becomes certainty. Abbey makes the character’s descent believable through careful attention to the progression of his madness, turning what could be an implausible plot point into a devastating study of self-destruction.
The first half’s sparse staging emphasizes the human drama — with few props, but lots of people, and an intense focus on the relationships being severed. As Leontes’ paranoia grows, the initial collective celebration fractures into a series of banishments and separations, each exile carrying its own weight of tragedy. Yanna McIntosh delivers a tour-de-force performance as Paulina, the truth-telling noblewoman who becomes both the conscience of Sicily and the keeper of its greatest secret. Her confrontations with Leontes crackle with righteous fury, while Sara Topham’s Hermione brings grace and dignity to her trial scene, making her apparent death all the more heartbreaking.
In a dramatic transition that is a lesser version of that which occurs between the two halves of As You Like It, the production’s second half — which is set in Bohemia sixteen years later — explodes with fresh color and movement. Here, the stark simplicity of the Sicilian court gives way to a pastoral celebration where shepherdesses in flowing saris dance with prancing, priapic satyrs. Tom McCamus brings warmth and comic timing to his role as the shepherd who raised the abandoned Perdita (Marissa Orjalo), while Geraint Wyn-Davies’ scene-stealing Autolycus provides comic relief and welcome distraction as a charming rogue.
Members of the company in The Winter’s Tale, Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou
Lucy Peacock’s Time serves as more than just a narrator of the sixteen-year gap—she becomes a central figure in the production’s meditation on mortality and redemption. Her appearances frame the play’s action, beginning with a haunting silent moment with young Mamillius, and returning at the end to remind us of time’s inexorable flow. The production makes wonderful use of rolling balls throughout, creating a visual metaphor for fate’s unpredictable course. An especially enjoyable moment comes during a casual game of bocce between Polixenes (Andre Sills) and Camillo (Tom Rooney), where their friendly competition (in which the audience takes a keen interest) adds layers of meaning to their discussion of change and constancy.
As the play moves toward its famous statue scene, where art and life mysteriously merge, Cimolino’s production achieves a rare balance between skepticism and wonder. The final tableau leaves audiences suspended between joy and sorrow, understanding that while some wounds can heal, others leave permanent scars. Time may bring redemption, but it cannot erase the consequences of our actions—a truth embodied in the exquisite, bittersweet silent reunion of the play’s closing moments.
This Winter’s Tale affirms that second chances are certainly possible, but it reminds us that they come at a cost. The production’s elegant simplicity, compelling performances, and thoughtful integration of Time as both theme and character make this a deeply moving, magical exploration of loss, forgiveness, and the possibility of renewal.
Macbeth: Bikers and blood
Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest tragedy receives an electrifying reimagining in Robert Lepage’s audacious new production. The Scottish play’s tale of murderous ambition centres Macbeth (Tom McCamus), a trusted warrior who is spurred by supernatural prophecy and the goading of his wife Lady Macbeth (Lucy Peacock), to murder his way to the crown, only to descend into paranoid tyranny. Here, the tale finds startling contemporary resonance in the violent world of 1990s Canadian biker gangs.
Members of the company in Macbeth, Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou
Aesthetically, this Macbeth filters Shakespeare through the lens of Sons of Anarchy, with the thanes reimagined as leather-clad bikers, whose “patches” and “cuts” visually track their rising and falling fortunes. Lucy Peacock’s Lady Macbeth — channeling fierce maternal crime boss energy, in her jeans and red wig — could be SoA’s Gemma Teller Morrow transplanted to the Stratford stage. Lepage trades medieval daggers for switchblades and arrows for bullets, in the process turning the brutality up to 11.
The true star here is the stunning visual design by Creative Director Steve Blanchet and Set/Props Designer Ariane Sauvé. The production opens with a full cinematic credit sequence backed by pulsing rock music, immediately establishing its contemporary aesthetic. The core set, a two-storey 1970s motel that serves as the gang’s headquarters, is a masterwork of theatrical engineering. Like an enormous puzzle, its multiple rooms swing around and connect, disconnect and reconfigure themselves continuously, creating ever-shifting perspectives that mirror Macbeth’s increasingly fractured reality.
The opening scene sets the tone for the production’s visual innovation, featuring a perspective-bending sequence on water that is later echoed in Lady Macbeth’s haunting death scene. The witches, reimagined as edgy drag performers, emerge from this noir-ish world with unsettling authenticity. And a translucent curtain enables ghost effects that genuinely startle, while cleverly manipulating depth perception to make both the stage space and gang numbers seem larger than life.
However, the spectacular staging and visual innovation overshadow the human drama at the play’s core. Unlike a film or tv show, where the director can guide audience focus through close-ups and careful framing, this production’s massive scale and split-screen effects sometimes leave viewers struggling to connect with the performers’ emotional journeys. It feels at times like the actors are competing with the massive set’s constant motion and the production’s cinematic flourishes — which makes it challenging to fully engage with the play’s central question: whether Macbeth’s bloody acts are crimes of opportunity, prompted by supernatural manipulation, or inevitabilities that follow directly from the hubris and rot at the core of his character.
The production leaves us with an ultimate, visceral and over-the-top mic drop finale. The restoration of order—typically a perfunctory, subdued conclusion—becomes a stunning final assertion of this production’s biker aesthetic, delivering one last jolt of adrenaline as the curtain falls. While this Macbeth sacrifices psychological intimacy for spectacular effect, it offers a truly unforgettable ride through Shakespeare’s exploration of ambition, violence, and the price of power.
Final thoughts
Graham Abbey (front-left) and Tom McCamus with Lucy Peacock in Macbeth, Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou
Stratford’s 2025 Shakespeare season demonstrates once again the Festival’s remarkable ability to make centuries-old texts feel urgently contemporary. Each production finds its own unique path to relevance: Chris Abraham’s “As You Like It” uses stark contrasts to explore transformation and renewal; Antoni Cimolino’s “The Winter’s Tale” employs masterful and magical minimalism to probe time’s healing power; and Robert Lepage’s Macbeth boldly reimagines tragedy through a contemporary lens.
These innovative and compelling productions — from three different genres, with three different aesthetics — remind us that Shakespeare’s works are not museum pieces, but living entities which are hungry to meet us where we are, and speak to us with urgency and imagination.
Check out one, two or all three. You’ll be captivated: they’ve got a lot to say.
Tickets to the Stratford Festival productions of As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale and Macbeth are available at stratfordfestival.ca.
© Scott Sneddon, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
Column: The Stratford Festival of theater rediscovers a beating Canadian heart
Jennifer Rider Shaw as Grace Farrell, Harper Rae Asch as Annie and Dan Chameroy as Oliver Warbucks, with members of the company, in “Annie” at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada for summer 2025. (David Hou)
By Chris Jones | cjones5@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHED: July 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM CDT
STRATFORD, ONTARIO — Settling in my seat for “Annie” at the Stratford Festival of Canada, I awaited with perennial pleasure the overture’s trumpet solo for “Tomorrow,” followed by the chirpy sounds of “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” a masterful little combo that first argues for optimism at all times before empathizing with our daily grinds.
But it didn’t happen. Instead, the 1,800 people inside the sold-out Festival Theatre here rose to their feet and sang the music of Calixa Lavallée, not Charles Strouse: “O Canada, Our Home and Native Land.”
The moment was striking because in some 30 years of attending Canada’s most prominent theater festival every summer, I’d never heard the Canadian national anthem sung at a regular performance of a show. The Stratford Festival, founded by a British man, dedicated to a British playwright and popular with Chicagoans and other Americans for decades, had always existed within a kind of multinational, English-language detente. This year, surely as a reaction to President Donald Trump’s rhetorical campaign to render Canada the 51st state, it just felt a whole lot more Canadian. At the Avon Theatre, during the intermission for that most Canadian of stories, “Anne of Green Gables,” my eyes fell on the ice cream case, as they are wont to do. The outside of the fridge said Breyers. But inside was a local Ontario brand, McFadden’s. Delicious.
All that said, Americans, the festival says, have been returning to Stratford this year: U.S. visitation is up by 4% year-over-year. There is also something of a local campaign in town to make them feel especially welcome. At Revel, a local coffee house and distinguished pastry purveyor, a sign on the counter asks American visitors to identify themselves. If they do, they are treated to a free coffee beverage, courtesy not of the cafe but of a local benefactor who prefers to just go by Stuart and who gets billed daily, and who wants Americans to feel welcome to the point of funding their cappuccinos. He’s the local version of Daddy Warbucks, whose crew likes to sing about how Annie “put sweet dreams upon our menu.” As indeed she does.
The year’s Canadian vibe, a very lively and ebulliently choreographed “Annie” aside, extends to most of the shows I saw here. The big hit this year is “Anne of Green Gables,” a beloved Canadian coming-of-age story by Lucy Maud Montgomery about another outspoken redheaded orphan, this one a denizen not of N.Y.C. but of Canada’s Prince Edward Island. As played by Caroline Toal, Anne “with an e” captures her audience almost the moment she walks out on stage.
A pre-existing relationship and familiarity surely helped, although that can be a double-edged sword. I watched young Canadian girls and women all around me sizing up the ebullient but vulnerable Toal in a matter of seconds and deciding she will do very, very well. Indeed. Improbably, the spunky Toal is the star of the Stratford summer.
Caroline Toal as Anne Shirley and Sarah Dodd as Marilla Cuthbert in "Anne of Green Gables" at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada for summer 2025. (David Hou)
The new adaptation, written and directed by Kat Sandler, first sets the story within an outer frame, a book club taking on Montgomery’s novel, which is a conventional meta approach. It then makes the far bolder choice of abandoning the period setting halfway through and asking the question, “What would Anne be like today?”
The idea works strikingly well, partly because we’ve already experienced the heroine in her actual period, so it doesn’t feel as much like an imposition as other modernizations but instead feels helpfully ruminative, a stand-in for what every contemporary fan of the book typically wonders as they read.
“Anne of Green Gables” engages in a reconstruction of a broken family (not unlike “Annie,” which builds its own) and the key, whatever the period, is the relationship between Anne and her two surrogate parents, wound-tight Marilla (Sarah Dodd) and deadened Matthew (Tim Campbell). Although possessive of a very Canadian stoicism, the two siblings blossom once Anne comes into their lives and all three of these actors understand what they are about and their journeys are consistently honest and moving. I’d argue Sandler’s conceit, which is just as fun when Anne is dealing with her friends and love interests, overstays its welcome by a few minutes in the contemporary section. But with some judicious cutting, “Anne of Green Gables,” which has much akin with “John Proctor is the Villain,” and the same target demographic, strikes me as a very viable Broadway show.
Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue with Jeff Lillico as Ralph in "Forgiveness" at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada for summer 2025. (David Hou)
Other evidence here suggests that Canadian theater, and Canadians in general, are doing better than their neighbors to the south at focusing on the core values that hold the nation together. Take, for example, “Forgiveness,” a new play by Hiro Kanagawa that is based on a memoir by Mark Sakamoto exploring how Canadians of Japanese origin with treated during World War II. As was the case in the U.S., anyone who looked Japanese was rounded up in Canada and treated poorly in work camps and the like, decimating families and traumatizing those who felt as Canadian as anyone else. “Oh Canada,” one Japanese Canadian character cries out. “I don’t know if I can ever forgive you,” which is a central question of the show.
There are, of course, many angry plays looking back on radicalized ill-treatment from the past. Most of such U.S. pieces fundamentally are accusatory. But the aptly named “Forgiveness” also explores how conscripted Canadian servicemen were treated by the Japanese forces, who subjected them to horrific camps of their own, thus in part explaining (in this play) the challenges Canadian veterans in supporting the subsequent interracial marriage of their own children. The piece, which is directed by Stafford Arima, is too subtle and sophisticated to claim equivalence, or to try and argue which was worse than the other. But the reality of most theater, of course is that the audience skews older, whatever efforts are made to the contrary, and the retirees who flock to genteel Stratford each summer are only one generation removed from those remembering World War II. “Forgiveness” functions not as a reckoning but as a dramatic truth and reconciliation committee that takes its viewers by the hand and helps them move forward to a multi-cultural and unified nation together. The piece is a tad lugubrious and struggles some with the common issues of dramatized memoirs that range across space and time. But Arima and his excellent cast keep us focused on arriving at the most moving of conclusions.
Yanna McIntosh as Paulina and Graham Abbey as Leontes in "The Winter's Tale" at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada for summer 2025. (David Hou)
I took a while getting out of my seat after director Antony Cimolino’s production of “The Winter’s Tale,” which I’ve long felt to be the most moving of Shakespeare’s last plays, given that it proffers the ability to bring a loved one back from the dead, and someone who died due to the main character’s folly of myopia and narcissism. If you know the play, you’ll recall that the jealous King Leontes not only effectively kills his faithful wife, Hermione, but tries to get rid of his daughter, Perdita, who is saved only by an underling whisking her away in the nick of time. Thanks to merciful powers and his own much delayed self-knowledge, Leontes gets another chance with both of those loved ones. That’s always moving, especially when you have a deep well of an actor like Graham Abbey playing Leontes. But Shakespeare leaves Leontes and Hermione’s son, Mamillius, dead. He died from distress at his mother’s arrest and he usually just lingers at the end, unseen and unspoken.
Not here. In this production, he arrives accompanied by an angel. Leontes thinks he has got him back, too. But no. Not all of our mistakes can be corrected, Cimolino first seems to be saying. But the exquisite moment then suggests that Mamillius can still forgive from immortality, and thus Leontes still can be forgiven. It’s affirmative and deeply sad. I won’t quickly forget the end of this summer telling of “The Winter’s Tale.”
Tom Rooney as Macduff and Tom McCamus as Macbeth in "Macbeth" at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada for summer 2025. (David Hou)
On this trip, that leaves me with director Robert Lepage’s “Macbeth,” a wacky production that imagines the Scottish play as a feud between coke-snorting bikers. Settings include a roadside motel, from a balcony wherein Lucy Peacock’s all-in Lady M falls most theatrically, a gas station and a parking lot with outdoor grills, the flame-throwing lair of the twisted sisters. When Macbeth meets his pre-ordained fate, Birnam Wood arrives in the form of bikers riding what look like real bikes, all carrying little verdant trees on their handlebars.
There’s another rub too. Tom McCamus, who plays Macbeth, is a 70-year-old actor and a great veteran star of this festival, as is Peacock, a fine foil. That’s a cool idea. Most of Shakespeare’s characters shift in age according to which scene you are in. No reason not to push that envelope a bit with an actor of this skill and lucidity,
Alas the concept, which uses the cinematically fused iconography familiar to we longtime fans of LaPage, doesn’t really work because it doesn’t establish enough gravitas among the biker gangs to really make you believe they are dealing with matters of honor and destiny; it is as if the characters are putting on the drama, which can work fine with many of the Bard’s works, but not this one. Macbeth is meta all by itself. It does not need any frame for it work its horrors.
Still, any festival of Canadian identity — even if I think that mostly is unconscious — has to deal with the Quebecois, the yang to the yin of rural Ontario, which isn’t far removed from Minnesota nice. That only gets you so far with the Scottish play. Lepage always offers a little Francophone disruption wheresoever he roams, disruptingly, and “Macbeth” never really works, anyway. Except on us poor suckers who fall prey to its curses.
Stratford’s ‘Macbeth’ thrills beyond smoke and mirrors
Director Robert Lepage reclaims the play for its modern ideas
Lucy Peacock (Lady Macbeth) and Tom McCamus (Macbeth) speak with NEXT about modern take on timeless classic
What: Macbeth
Where: Avon Theatre, 99 Downie St., Stratford, ON
When: Now, until Sat., Nov. 22
Why you should go: The sheer scale of the theatrical spectacle deserves applause.
STRATFORD, ON — How can a nearly 500-year-old theatrical play become a modern work of art? At this year’s Stratford Festival, one adaptation of William Shakespeare’s work stands out in its attempt to answer this question. Showing at the expansive Avon Theatre, Macbeth — directed and designed by legendary Canadian theatre innovator Robert Lepage — offers a spectacular study of how Shakespeare’s dramas, though centuries old and woven into the fabric of modern culture, can surface around us with the banal familiarity of contemporary news headlines.
To grasp a deeper understanding of this play’s theatrical achievement as a modern work of art, NEXT catches up with leading actors Tom McCamus (Macbeth) and Lucy Peacock (Lady Macbeth).
“We have folks come to Stratford who want it very traditional, and they might go, ‘What is this?’” Peacock says, speaking with NEXT between performances at Stratford’s Avon Theatre. “But the younger folks coming to see this — I think we’re changing lives.” Lofty as this statement may seem, Peacock — equal parts desperate and steely in her turn as Lady Macbeth — perfectly captures the play’s novel quality. McCamus — measured and exact in tone, far from the lilt of uncertainty he deploys as Macbeth — adds, “I always like doing Shakespeare in a modern setting, [Lepage’s production] is a little bit more specific because of, you know, the biker stuff.”
You heard that right. In its unprecedented vision, Lepage’s Macbeth sets a story about ancient Scottish ambition and fatal prophecy far into the future as a play about bikers, their bikes and their all-too-human passions. But here, Lepage only begins to capture the currency of Shakespeare’s alarmingly prophetic script for a contemporary audience.
Cognizant that a tragedy about a despotic leader with unchecked ambition is “all too timely,” as Lepage posits in the play’s director’s note, he justifies his approach to Macbeth arguing that the director should not try to “modernize” the original script but rather “choose a context in which contemporary audiences can better grasp [the play’s] twists and turns.”
One way to achieve this, Lepage writes, “is to set a plot of epic proportion in a small and compact microcosm.” As his unique microcosm of choice, Lepage chose the 1990s’ Montreal biker wars. Remaining faithful to Shakespeare’s plot, characters and script, he submerges us into this world of growling motorbikes, leather jackets, denim jeans and equally sexy and sinister sunglasses. The result is a very literal smoke and mirrors spectacle in Stratford’s expansive Avon theatre; it’s a technically awe-inspiring production so close to cinematic spectacle that you can’t help but leave renewed in your belief in the visceral magic and the endless potential of well-produced theatre.
“One of the events in the play — throwing the guy into the lake — happened in Lennoxville, right at the top of the show. I grew up in that whole area. I went to school there!” Peacock exclaims. Lepage, who also grew up in Quebec, understands modernizing Shakespeare requires such self-awareness from the setting right down to the costumes. As such, this theatrical rendition does not remove Shakespeare from his historical context so much as it repositions Macbeth through a sensitivity to the play’s already existing modern perspective. By setting the events of Macbeth in a recognizable part of Montreal, in a way that visually “reads very French,” as Peacock says, Lepage illuminates the tense continuity between pre-modernity and modernity that makes Shakespeare the timeless genius we know and love him to be.
“It’s almost like he’s come back from the future where he’s already seen the show, and he knows it works,” McCamus says of the director. Adding divine heft to her co-star’s statement, Peacock maintains that “if you wanted to, Shakespeare will let you do it. He’ll let you explore it, and he won’t punish you.” If anything, Lepage’s Macbeth stands out among Stratford’s selection of Shakespeare’s plays this year — The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It and Macbeth — as a singular vision of dissent against the literary puritanism of Shakespeare traditionalism.
For all its booming spectacle, Macbeth remains, in both narrative and technical execution, what Peacock aptly describes as a “simple, theatrical thing.” As she speaks, she twirls a lock of silver hair pleasantly, a gesture unlike the fiery pragmatism she builds into Lady Macbeth on stage. McCamus too, appears serene, perfectly composed, and I am impressed with how easily they oscillate between character and the self: performance object versus living subject. If they are exhausted, they don’t look it. Whether the production itself means to look simpler than it actually is remains another question but altogether matters less than the fact that this simplicity, this look of effortlessness, makes the difference between an impressive display of craft versus a theatrical exercise that transcends its very form.
In the story itself, we get what we came for by an understated method: Lepage’s total belief in the prescience of Shakespeare’s original old-English script. McCamus as Macbeth, a once-honourable general, loses himself to a prophecy and the spurring of his ambitious wife (Peacock) to murder King Duncan (David Collins) and seize the throne. Wracked by guilt and paranoia thereafter, he descends into tyranny, bloodshed and madness, until he is finally undone by the very fate he sought to master.
In the creative direction (Steve Blanchet), set design (Ariane Sauvé), lighting (Kimberly Purtell) and sound (John Gzowski), a little goes a long way too. For example, early in the play, one might notice the massive two-way mirror on stage. Against and within this simple theatrical thing, the play’s most important, most poignant dramaturgy takes place. Lit — so to speak — from the rolled-up joint in his hand, biker Macbeth sees the witches (Aidan deSalaiz, Paul Dunn, Anthony Palermo) inside this mirror.
“Technically, it’s really difficult,” McCamus explains, “those witches behind the mirror can’t see us, so there are marks on the floor. That’s how they know where to go.” In this engagement alone, Shakespeare’s text elevates, raising the three iconic prophecy-spouting witches from material facts within the drama to possible self-generated or internalized hallucinations born from a union of psychoactive drugs, low self-esteem and a paradoxically inflated ego.
Knowing this, McCamus transmits a convincing pathos in his portrayal of Macbeth as more aloof and passive than evidently cunning or greedy. It helps too that McCamus performance itself incorporates confusing visual trickery, allowing McCamus to find his footing by surrendering himself to this disorienting display.
“We can’t look at the images in the mirror,” he explains, “We’re acting to an empty space so that you see me looking at the witches at the same time as you see me looking at nothing.”
Peacock too brings some important subtlety to her Lady Macbeth. “At the beginning, I’m the strong, powerful one — I’m sort of the alpha in the relationship — and he’s like the child, the one being directed, cajoled and moved by Lady Macbeth,” Peacock explains. “But by the end of the play, that dynamic has completely reversed. She’s lost that power, and she’s the one who has become the child.” In its layering, Peacock’s performance builds a figure easily taken for a pure villain into a woman striving for happiness despite her circumstances.
Having played Lady Macbeth at Stratford’s festival theatre in 2004, 21 years ago, Peacock returned to this character with an appreciation for how time and memory make a marriage, and how patriarchy under capitalism reduces a family to a unit of production. “One of the first discussions is ‘Did they have a child? Do they have a child? What happened to the child?’” Peacock explains. Without said production, marriage as time and memory seems wasted. Hearts break. Desperation drips in. The only way to make up for such loss is by accumulating power. The tragedy happens here, Peacock understands, just when it looks like some hope remains. How poetic that, in her failed effort to uplift their marriage — and achieve her own continuity and totality through her husband’s tyranny — Lady Macbeth is reduced to the one thing she does not have: a thing devoid of agency or being; nothingness. A child.
Witnessing this cast manage performances of such incredible depth as they navigate actual electronic bikes (captained by Austin Eckert), massive moving stage pieces is a truly unique experience. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen a crew backstage doing stretches so they can move those things,” McCamus says, frowning in perpetual disbelief and awe. Lepage exhibits a theatrical machine as well-oiled as it is beautiful.
All in all, this year’s Macbeth directs its audience back to the source material, giving itself as proof of the importance of considering classics in our modern age. “What a genius, right?” Peacock says wondrously of Shakespeare, “But also, an incredible understanding of humanity and human behaviour. Which, of course, in some ways — unfortunately — never changes. We never learn.” Beyond the original text’s ethic against despotism and political greed, even beyond a modern reading against patriarchal structures that suffocate families and drive husbands and wives to mutual destruction, Lepage sets up a subliminal challenge to apply the lessons of the classics — and history itself — so that we do not repeat the mistakes these lessons sprouted from.
Come and see Macbeth at Stratford expecting a feast of fun. But save some room for growth, too.
July 19 2025
Theatre Review: Annie directed by Donna Feore, Stratford Festival, July 19, 2025
Donna Feore has directed a peppy and polished version of the beloved Broadway hit Annie, filling the stage with irresistible energy and heart. From the opening moments in a bustling New York City orphanage to the show's triumphant finale, this production roars with life and colour.
At the heart of the show is 11-year-old Harper Rae Asch as Annie — a true triple threat. She sings, dances, and acts with remarkable panache, commanding the stage with confidence and charm well beyond her years. Asch’s rendition of “Tomorrow” is delivered with such earnest clarity that it left both children and grandparents in the seats beaming.
The audience, largely made up of young girls with their parents in tow, was visibly agog throughout, clearly caught up in the magic. And rightly so. Feore’s direction ensures that every beat is sharp and joyful, and the show’s pacing never lags.
Scene-stealing performances abound, particularly from Dan Chameroy as a warm-hearted “Daddy” Warbucks and Laura Condlin, who is gleefully wicked as Miss Hannigan. Both actors lean into their characters with gusto, delivering laughs and pathos in equal measure.
The choreography sparkles — no surprise, given Feore’s renowned talent in that department. The ensemble of nine orphan girls is packed with charm and talent, each one holding their own in the show’s many high-energy numbers. From “It’s the Hard Knock Life” to “Fully Dressed,” each song is crisply executed and full of Broadway dazzle. Even Sandy the dog gets his moment in the spotlight, delighting the crowd with perfect timing and on-cue tail wags.
All in all, Feore’s Annie is a joy-filled treat that bursts with youthful exuberance, nostalgia, and showbiz flair — a must-see for the young and the young at heart.
09jul-02aug
Beehive: The 60s Musical
a Drayton Entertainment presentation(All Day)(GMT+00:00)King's Wharf Theatre, 97 Jury Drive, Penetanguishene L9M 1G7
Flower power meets girl power in Beehive, a musical celebration of the most powerful and iconic female voices of the 1960s.
Told from the perspective of six women who come of age in this enigmatic decade, Beehive takes audiences on a nostalgic journey through timeless hits of the era such as “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” “Natural Woman,” “It’s My Party,” “Where the Boys Are,” and “You Don’t Own Me.” From Leslie Gore to Janis Joplin, the Shirelles to the Supremes, and Aretha Franklin to Tina Turner, this toe-tapping production features 40 classic chart-toppers that will put a song in your heart and leave you dancing in the aisles.
Join us for this uplifting and upbeat salute to female empowerment.
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Performances are offered Tuesday to Sunday, from July 9th to August 2nd, with matinee and evening performances.
For tickets and more information, visit www.draytonentertainment.com
About Drayton Entertainment
An award-winning, not-for-profit charitable organization, Drayton Entertainment produces the finest in live theatre at seven venues in southwestern Ontario. Each theatre maintains its distinct identity, but at the same time, combines the strengths and energy of all to provide an entertainment experience that is unparalleled. The King’s Wharf Theatre in Penetanguishene was established in 1999. Nestled within Discovery Harbour on Georgian Bay, the rustic theatre was a perfect complement with the venues in Drayton and St. Jacobs.
Review: 'The Wind Coming Over The Sea' is the Blyth Festival's best original in years
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Thursday July 3, 2025
In The Wind Coming Over The Sea, Emma Donoghue has crafted - in this reviewer’s humble opinion - the best original offering at the Blyth Festival since 2017’s The Pigeon King. She’s also written something that only an Irish author could write.
It is often said of the Irish - and I say this as a Loughlin - that they have a wickedly dark sense of humour and that they can laugh about anything, including themselves, because they’ve endured such hardship in their history. It is to that end that Donoghue - a celebrated author, playwright and screenwriter - has created a show that can be heartbreakingly sad and tragic in one minute and uproariously funny in the next. It has a laugh at some Irish stereotypes, while not being offensive about them as it tells the mostly true story of a not-particularly-special Irish family navigating its way from the famine-ravished island to the hope and promise offered by Canada in the mid-1800s.
I say not particularly special in that Henry and Jane Johnson, the couple at the centre of the story, were real people who exchanged letters. Henry went ahead to Canada to find a better life and Jane followed shortly thereafter with their children in tow. Donoghue has crafted the story from real letters, researched others from the era to fill in the blanks and has further filled in the blanks with the imagination and credentials of the author that she is. The result, of course, is a masterpiece of the Blyth Festival theatre, but, in the end, it’s one story of many as immigrants from that part of the world made their way to Canada in droves during that time; a story that has echoed through time as the years have gone on.
Donoghue is helped, of course, by her director, Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt, and a stellar cast and tremendous set, sound and lighting design; something I don’t always discuss in my reviews, but the work on this show is particularly impressive.
Leading the charge are Landon Doak as Henry and Shelayna Christante as Jane, the young-and-in-love couple living in Ireland and seeking a better life not just for themselves, but for their growing family; this, at a time when travelling across the Atlantic Ocean took weeks and those aboard these ships risked illness, danger and even death to reach their destination.
Doak and Christante are at once excellent in these demanding leading roles. Doak, particularly, is truly impressive and they have surely earned the confidence the Festival has shown in them, handing over this role and the co-leading role of Yock in next week’s Quiet in the Land.
Supporting the two leads are the always-excellent Michelle Fisk and Geoffrey Armour, along with Masae Day and George Meanwell, who nail their dramatic assignments, while doing much of the heavy lifting in this very musical affair with Day on violin and Meanwell in his usual jack-of-all-trades musical role, playing most of the instruments you knew existed and others that you didn’t.
The story at the core of The Wind Coming Over The Sea is simple, in a way, as a family seeks to rise above its circumstances and improve its lot in life. Henry and Jane want to earn a living and build a foundation upon which an easier life than theirs can be created for their children. In Ireland, in the mid-1800s, it was the devastation of the potato famine, but in more recent years, it’s been war or authoritarian regimes that have driven families to the (somewhat) more stable environs of North America. They all want the same things and, if they can’t get them where they happened to be born, sometimes a move is the only way forward. As former President Barack Obama said to the late, great Anthony Bourdain over a meal in Vietnam when asked about the knowledge that can come from travel, “It confirms the basic truth that people everywhere are pretty much the same; with the same hopes and dreams....”
Donoghue - an Irish immigrant herself now living in London, Ontario, first making the trip in the late 1990s - clearly has great care and empathy for the characters whose stories she’s telling. Even as faults are revealed and grim fates are met, there is a love between her and the people being portrayed on stage that can be felt by those in the audience.
Garratt’s direction is equally caring, balancing the fun, the harrowing and the heartbreaking, all against a backdrop that never physically changes - another tribute to the designers of the show whose work is brilliant in its simplicity.
And, of course, there’s the music. Traditional Irish songs, some more well-known than others, are peppered throughout the show at moments both joyous and sad. While the performers themselves are as talented as the show demands, it’s no surprise to discover that they are being guided by the steady hand of Anne Lederman whose musical reputation is beyond reproach when it comes to her Blyth Festival work.
The year-round team at the Blyth Festival couldn’t believe its luck in being part of Emma Donoghue’s world when the decision to produce this play was reached. Audiences are sure to feel the same way.
The Wind Coming Over The Sea is on the Memorial Hall stage until Tuesday, Aug. 12.
"If you're chomping at the bit for the next season of Bridgerton, head to the Stratford Festival, for a splashy, earnest production of Sense and Sensibility"
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Dear Gentle Readers,
A little birdie has shared that the quaint streets of Stratford are a buzz with excitement about Kate Hamill's delectable adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Audiences and critics are raving: this production is light, vibrant and oh-so-funny, with a delightful cast of quirky characters. Rumour has it that this exquisite blend of romance and comedy simply can't be missed this summer!
"For theatre audiences hungry for a hearty comedy this summer, Sense and Sensibility is the production to see."
TORONTO STAR
"If you choose to miss this boisterous new production, I have but two words for you, which I shall borrow from the play's sororal protagonists: 'For shame!' "
TORONTO STAR
"High-energy farce"
POSTMEDIA
"Delightfully funny"
TORONTO STAR
"The vibes are just right for such a classic rom-com"
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"Playful, charming and uniformly well-acted"
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
"Revels in wit, warmth and whimsy"
POSTMEDIA
"I've never said this before, but this was one of the BEST all-round productions I've seen! Casting, blocking, costumes, sound, props, lighting, set, pacing... Perfection. Or dang close. Don't miss this one."
AUDIENCE REVIEW
"Can confirm, it is PERFECT!!!"
AUDIENCE REVIEW
"A refreshingly irreverent take on the original novel, yet one that maintains every bit of the source material's dry and sarcastic humour”
TORONTO STAR
REVIEW: Annie glitters with heart - and a bit of revolution
Stratford's joyful new production proves a musical can be both wildly entertaining and quietly radical
June 28, 2025
Listen to this article
00:05:56
If you think it’s political to say that the wealthy people of today owe something to the poor people of tomorrow, then you will consider Stratford’s new production of Annie a political statement. But also, if you love a feel-good musical featuring singing and dancing by talented kids, you will want to see Annie.
The opening night’s gala performance, featuring a cast of thrilling-to-watch young performers, proves that a play can be both a political statement and incredibly enjoyable to watch.
The pluck and energy of lead actor Harper Rae Asch shone through like a bright star in a pretty dress. But her lead energy was supported by a cast of children and adults who sparkled like a clear night sky around their bright star. Director Donna Feore has assembled a deeply skilled cast and equipped them to speak in a collective voice.
Asch’s voice was undeniably strong during her solos, but the opening night audience basked in the light of every single actor who crossed the stage. The crowd was rapt by musical numbers that included as many as 16 actors at once.
The show featured gymnastic tumbling runs by some of its youngest stars, as well as an adorable dog. Like as in, a real live dog on stage.
Among the young performers, I’m tempted to say that Cydnee Abbott stood out as Pepper, the slightly nasty orphan who gently teases Annie for her trademark optimism. That’s when she’s not handspringing across the stage. But to point out Abbott would mean pointing out each of the young players, who each shine brightly in their own unique way.
Shall I name Isla Horner as July, and Evony Harker as Clara? Cambridge's Olivia Padfield as Audrey? They're all amazing.
This iconic musical, which was first performed on Broadway in 1977, is immediately infectious. The opening night’s crowd got on board immediately, rising to its feet after the show’s iconic first song, ‘Maybe.’
Does it go without saying that when Sandy the dog was on stage, the love was palpable? You could hear the crowd going ‘aawww…’ whenever the dog looked out at the crowd during songs.
But a dog, however cute and well trained, can’t hold up a show of this scale. Daddy Warbucks must act as the structural and emotional heart of the story, and Dan Chameroy succeeds in the role. He projects Good Dad Energy when he moves about his opulent home. Yes, he’s disgustingly wealthy amidst a crashing economy, but his wealth saves the day for a whole bunch of children.
As the plot progresses, Chameroy as Warbucks becomes more vulnerable and loving, developing an emotional relationship with Annie as well as a growing emotional interest in Grace, his “assistant” who’s beginning to look very much like a mother figure for Annie. By opening his heart to Annie and Grace, and by delivering his numbers with just the right amount of strength and softness, he shows how a man’s humanity and love can shine right through a pinstriped corporate suit.
As Grace, Jennifer Rider-Shaw brought last night’s audience to the edge of their seats with her crystalline voice and her character’s gorgeous dresses.
The women characters of this show truly steal the stage, and their wardrobe plays a big role in their ability to do that. Yes, these women look feminine. But they can also move and express themselves freely in the beautiful clothes they wear. Even the poor women and orphans express a subtle beauty through their dress. These women are safe to look feminine while moving their bodies in public spaces.
This is a kind of utopia.
As Miss Aggie Hannigan, Laura Condlin’s frowsy bosslady is a joy to watch. She fills the room with Mean Lady Energy every time she walks into the orphanage, but somehow she manages to look weirdly sexy. Who else could inhabit this part so fully and joyfully but Condlin.
Carol Burnett, look out!
But it’s not just about how the women look in this show. This play represents another kind of utopia, one that lies wrapped in its plot. It’s the idea that a little girl can have actual influence on patriarchal power structures. It’s the idea that politicians might prioritize tomorrow’s voters rather than today’s.
It’s mostly women who do the work of showing us how a utopia like this might look. How Jennifer Rider-Shaw can sing like that and dance like that while wearing shoes like that will inspire awe in the feet of anyone who has ever worn heels.
But the men are equally stars of this show, never being outshone amidst the swirl of beauty. The lavish uniforms worn by Daddy Warbucks’s male staff members fill the need for structure and line on stage, and the male dancers here bring incredibly athletic energy to every number.
How Mark Uhre as Rooster Hannigan can pour every single drop of his rudest, sexiest self into his dance numbers is simply beyond understanding. How Derek Kwan as Drake steals the comedic moments of the show is another sight to behold. He becomes an instant crowd favourite during his fleeting moments of spotlight.
To be in the same room with this kind of talent is why musical theatre can be so satisfying. Our phones are turned off and our attention is turned on to the present moment. This is why theatre and performing arts are so needed in Canada – and the world – this summer.
To be in the same room with this political message also feels special. There’s a Canadian vibe flowing underneath it all. With subtle nods to Manitoba in the script, and through the colour palette of Annie’s red and white dresses, this production feels like a patriotic nod to Canada’s present-moment predicament. For a crowd that enthusiastically sang the anthem while standing before the show, Annie felt a bit like encouragement.
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Annie, Scoundrels, and a Biker Macbeth: What’s Really Happening at Stratford This Season?
By Keith Tomasek, June 11, 2025
The 2025 Stratford Festival season opened with a lineup that had audiences and critics buzzing.
From Shakespearean classics to crowd-pleasing musicals and a fresh adaptation of a Canadian classic, the Festival’s first set of opening nights offered a mix of bold choices and familiar favourites. The Festival’s 2025 season features 11 productions, five have opened with six more openings to come. I’ve read every show review and publish them on this website’s “Shows” page.
Harper Rae Asch as Annie.Photo: David Hou
Before I get to my summary, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Trying to capture the spirit of a theatre production just by reading reviews is a bit like the story of those five blind guys describing an elephant — everyone’s got a different take, and none of them are quite the whole story. So, what follows is just my perspective, based on what I’ve read and heard. It’s not the full picture of the beast.
Here’s a look at what the critics are saying.
SHAKESPEAREAN SURPRISES
As You Like It at the Stratford Festival
Under the direction of Chris Abraham, this production reimagines the pastoral comedy as a politically charged narrative. The first half presents a dark, militaristic setting, while the second half shifts to a lighter, more whimsical tone. Critics have noted the contrast, with some feeling the two halves don’t quite mesh.
Performances, particularly by Sara Farb as Rosalind, Makambe K. Simamba as Celia, and Aaron Krohn as Jacques have been consistently praised.
Sara Farb as Rosalind and Christopher Allen as Orlando. Photo: David Hou
Writing in The Globe and Mail Aisling Murphy sums up the performances with this line: “As You Like It is a production of extremes, and Abraham’s cast, a veritable “greatest hits” of Stratford Festival actors and frequent Toronto players, drives the tale home without any weak links.”
Until Oct. 24 at the Festival Theatre.
Macbeth at the Stratford Festival
Robert Lepage’s ambitious reimagining of “Macbeth,” set against the backdrop of 1980s Quebec biker gangs, has received mixed reviews.
Lucy Peacock as Lady Macbeth. Photo: David Hou
Critics are unanimous in praising the concept as bold and agree the production is visually striking; some critics feel the execution doesn’t fully capture the intensity of Shakespeare’s text, especially since Lepage has trimmed dialogue and cut entire scenes.
Writing in the Toronto Star, Joshua Chong pulled no punches: “Indeed, it’s an expensive, extravagant and altogether epic endeavour. And yet, this highly anticipated staging amounts to nothing more than a feeble letdown, despite some glimpses of brilliance and its starry cast of Stratford favourites. ”
Until Nov. 2 at the Avon Theatre.
The Winter’s Tale at the Stratford Festival
Antoni Cimolino’s direction of “The Winter’s Tale” has been met with acclaim. In a season dominated by high-profile productions, Cimolino’s nuanced and visually elegant staging offers a quiet counterpoint. Sara Topham’s portrayal of Hermione and Graham Abbey’s performance as Leontes have been praised as particularly compelling.
Yanna McIntosh as Paulina with David Collins as Antigonus and members of the company. Photo: David Hou
Writing in Stratford Today, Daphne Gordon observes that Antoni Cimolino explores themes of redemption and grief noting that Graham Abbey, as the tyrannical King Leontes, grounds the production with a compelling performance. Gordon adds that “we still don’t talk much about male grief. This play carves out a moment to wonder why that is.”
Until Sept. 27 at the Tom Patterson Theatre.
MUSICALS THAT HIT THE MARK
Annie at the Stratford Festival
Directed and choreographed by Donna Feore, critics are celebrating “Annie” for its vibrant energy and strong performances. In the title role, Harper Rae Asch has garnered consistent praise for her stage presence and vocal ability.
Members of the company. Photo: Ann Baggley.
Writing in Broadway World, Lauren Gienow highlighted the astounding dance and acrobatic skills of the young artists portraying the orphans, noting, “The performers who received the most cheers on Opening Night, however, were most certainly the orphans. Along with Asch, Cydnee Abbott, Evonny Harker, Harmony Holder, Isla Horner, Sofia Grace Otta, Olivia Padfield, Jessica Reddy, and Addison Wagman are utterly stellar every moment they are on stage.”
Until Nov. 2 at the Festival Theatre.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Stratford Festival
This production has garnered attention for its comedic timing and engaging performances. Liam Tobin (Book of Mormon on Broadway and North American Tour), as Freddy Benson, has been singled out for his energy and charisma.
Liam Tobin and members of the company. Photo: David Hou
The show earned a “Critic’s Pick” from The Globe and Mail’s Aisling Murphy, who enjoyed director Tracey Flye’s production so much that she wrote, “I’ll probably catch it again before it closes this fall: Never before has cheering for the bad guys been so fun.”
Until Oct. 25 at the Avon Theatre.
Anne of Green Gables at the Stratford Festival
Kat Sandler’s new adaptation of “Anne of Green Gables” offers a fresh perspective on the beloved story. Some are suggesting that this show is the surprise hit of the Festival. Critics are celebrating Caroline Toal’s portrayal of Anne with some emphasis on Toal’s dynamic energy and emotional depth.
Josue Laboucane as Mr. Phillips, Jordin Hall as Gilbert Blythe, Caroline Toal as Anne Shirley, Steven Hao as Jane Andrews. Photo: David Hou.
Here’s what Joshua Chong wrote in the Toronto Star: “No matter if you love the book or hate it, or are totally unfamiliar with its story, Sandler’s new production is unmissable. It’s charming, tender and incredibly heartfelt, and it left me laughing in one moment and in tears by the next.
Sandler’s updates, while respectful of the original material, breathe new-found relevance into this classic Canadian tale. And it’s all told by a wondrous company of actors who are not only immersed in the storytelling but also seem to have a deep love for the story itself. ”
Until Oct. 25 at the Avon Theatre.
This Season at Stratford
Incredibly Special New Piece of Art
“Nothing quite matches the magic you feel when everyone in a room – both on stage, and in the audience, basks in the knowledge that an incredibly special new piece of Art is being shared with the world.
This delightful piece of metatheatre is comedically self-aware when it comes to updates and changes it makes and to how ‘Anne’ purists might react to this…but it is also self-aware in that the heart and the soul of the story remain firmly intact…
This adaptation takes liberties when it comes to the original story – in more ways than one, updating elements of it for today’s world. It is clear that Sandler takes great care in doing this – always centering the novel, and utilizing the established metatheatrical device to literally reassure us all that even if things have changed slightly, this is still our Anne and everything will be ok.”
One of Canada's most beloved
novels has a new adaptation at the
Stratford Festival - and it's
unmissable, whatever the purists
might think
This new stage adaptation of "'Anne of Green Gables," written and directed by Kat Sandler, lends the
classic story some contemporary relevance.
June 3,2025
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It’s one of Shakespeare’s so-called ‘problem plays,’ but in the hands of the Stratford company it’s a must-see production
Director Antoni Cimolino’s “The Winter’s Tale” places complete trust in the material and in the skill of its cast. The result is astounding.
Updated 7 hrs ago
June 2, 2025
3
André Sills as Polixenes and Sara Topham as Hermione, front, with members of the company in “The Winter’s Tale.”
REVIEW: Banjos and boxers…a comical, musical spin on a Shakespearean classic
Sara Farb as Rosalind (centre) with members of the company in As You Like It. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou.
Tuesday, May. 27th, 2025
Theatre goers were left whistling a tune after a modern version of a Shakespearean classic.
As You Like It, directed by Chris Abraham, carried us through a difficult time period (mostly) in the Forest of Arden, where Rosalind and her cousin Celia fled into exile, meeting up with a spirited cast of characters as complicated as they were enticing.
Sara Farb excels as the banished duchess hiding some important personal details – sometimes courtesy of a trucker hat – from Orlando (Christopher Allen), whose physicality throughout the play (including a spirited fight scene early on) hides a more sensitive side.
Makambe K. Simamba brings her talent to Celia, burning youthful energy with her cousin and trying to keep everyone none the wiser, even as Rosalind starts to melt for Orlando.
Along the way, some memorable actors come in and out – with Seana McKenna as the Duchess and Evan Mercer and Andrew Chown as Orlando’s brothers.
The show moves from darker to lighter and takes a comedic deep dive courtesy of Steve Ross.
Always a master of physical comedy, his Touchstone character exuded a style of sexiness found attractive by perhaps only his love interest, and their inability to keep their hands off each other, or his clothes on, led to a memorable, almost Full Monty, love scene.
Where those lipstick lips on Touchstone’s boxers?
No need to verify that.
Set and costume designer Julie Fox kept audiences enthralled as conservative dress gave way to increasingly more modern fair near the end.
Winter snow fell on stage and fires were going in the woods, while soldiers with long guns were stationed on the theatre steps. A musically inclined Jaques (Aaron Krohn) and his frenemy Amiens (Gabriel Antonucci) entertained with their witty one-liners and catchy tunes.
In the boy, we didn’t see that coming department, the music was a sign of things to come.
As You Like It wrapped up with everyone finding love and dancing some jigs to the rhythmic strums of a banjo and claps of support from a sold out Festival Theatre.
As You Like It runs until Oct. 24.
From left: Evan Mercer as Jaques de Boys, Joe Perry as Charles and Gabriel Antonacci as Amiens in As You Like It. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou.
REVIEW: Stratford’s As You Like It Offers No Refuge in the Forest
This take on Shakespeare’s comedy reimagines the court as a fascist regime and the forest as a fragile space of survival
Makambe K. Simamba as Celia (left) and Sara Farb as Rosalind in As You Like It. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou.
Listen to this article
00:07:00
As As You Like It opened on the main stage in Stratford last night, King Charles and Queen Camilla were touching down on Canadian soil in a symbolic bid to reinforce Canada’s sovereignty. The timing was uncanny. Director Chris Abraham’s sharply political production reimagines Shakespeare’s beloved comedy not as a pastoral romp, but as a portrait of a post-imperial world – where order has collapsed into brutality, and kindness survives only at the margins.
Act One unfolds across a starkly lit, wintry set. This is not a medieval court. It’s a future regime that resembles a shipping dock or warehouse. Low-ranking courtiers must haul heavy sacks in grim, mechanized repetition. Snow falls throughout the early scenes, and the world is utterly devoid of beauty, comfort or joy.
Amidst this cold world, Christopher Allen’s Orlando quickly comes to represent a hero who must stand against a fascist state. Here is a man whose strength and labour enrich others, but earn him nothing. In this world, oppression is an economic logic that prolongs empires.
Violence prolongs this empire, too. In an era when audiences are numbed by screen violence, Abraham’s production introduces threat to the stage in ways that seem designed to make audiences feel the visceral sensations of fear.
Women wear armour-like garments, suggesting that their bodies require protection. The court is surrounded by fences and security personnel. Armed men in military uniforms patrol the aisles of the theatre, their presence a constant reminder that the violence of the regime extends beyond the stage and into the audience’s space.
The effect is disorienting and immediate, blurring the line between theatrical conflict and real-world fear. In one scene, a character is shot; his body flies sideways and the lights go to black. It is unmistakably contemporary and very uncomfortable.
So when Orlando demands that his older brother Oliver give him his due as the son of their well-born father, it doesn’t just sound like a personal grievance. It hints at class consciousness that threatens the very foundations of capitalism. Audiences find themselves rooting for a new, more humane reality.
But first, we must feel the humiliation of displacement. After Oliver denies Orlando his due and threatens his safety, the hero flees court in order to survive. With help from his trusted servant Adam, he sets out for the Forest of Arden, hoping to join a banished Duchess who has made a home there, along with a band of loyal supporters.
In the forest, life isn’t easy, but at least kindness can exist. When Orlando first encounters the banished Duchess, he is stunned to be offered a meal with no expectations. In this world, food is offered to a stranger simply because he is in need. These banished courtiers don’t have much, but what they do have, they will share.
This dreamlike forest is a space of reinvention. And at the centre of this reinvention is Rosalind, played with luminous clarity by Sara Farb. Her performance anchors the production with emotional intelligence and buoyant joy at having escaped the court’s oppressive grip.
Disguised as a male shepherd named Ganymede, Rosalind moves fluidly between genders and social roles in the forest. Her cousin and steady friend Celia accompanies her. Together, the two friends are free to imagine how chosen families might continue to exist beyond the constraints imposed by capitalism.
After falling in love with Orlando at first sight, Rosalind develops an elaborate scheme to get close to Orlando while maintaining her disguise. A slightly ridiculous love story begins to unfold, offering relief from the brutality of Act One. The audience can finally exhale. Our fears for the lives of the characters recede and we are no longer flanked by heavily armed guards.
The tone shift from the court to forest is most intensely felt during the play’s moving musical interludes. Featuring original compositions by Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, the music takes Shakespeare’s words and turns them into a soothing balm. A guitarist on stage underscores the fact that this is music made by bodies, not machines. It is creative labour – willingly shared rather than cruelly extracted – and offers moments of simple joy.
In the role of Jacques, Aaron Krohn brings a kind of cowboy coolness to the Forest of Arden. Dressed in a long coat and wide-brimmed hat, he moves through the forest like an outsider who intends to live on his own terms. His gritty delivery of the famous Seven Ages of Man speech reminds us that human life will continue even after powerful empires fall.
And comedy pushes through in the forest, arriving in the form of Touchstone. The jester, played with boorish charm by Steve Ross, travels with Rosalind and Celia, offering commentary on the absurd expectations we place on romantic love. He also brings moments of physical, sometimes uncomfortable humour. In one scene, he drops his pants while his love interest Audrey spreads her legs for him. Like the violence of the first act, this salacious scene seems intended to jar audiences who are accustomed to extreme content. But if it’s improper, at least it’s not cruel.
Farb’s Rosalind uses the forest to imagine new ways of being. Her scenes with Orlando are alive with bawdy comedy, but her bond with Celia, a steady friend played by Makambe K. Simamba is what makes the forest feel momentarily safe. Exiled from their own world by fascist men, Rosalind and Celia manage to restore their own humanity by caring for each other.
To provide the requisite wedding scene, Rosalind abandons her disguise and re-enters as herself. But she wears a wedding dress fashioned from a blue IKEA bag. It’s an emblem of survival, rather than wealth or tradition. With bare legs and a joyful smile, she reunites with her mother, marries Orlando, and congratulates both Celia and Touchstone on their marriages.
But this song and dance scene feels a bit forced. The brutality of the court still lurks at the edges of the audience’s consciousness. There will be no joyful return home for these characters. It’s obvious that they must continue their lives in exile – and now it’s until death do us part.
This is no utopia. It’s an ingenious reality stitched together from the scraps of capitalism, consumerism, and colonial inheritance. When Rosalind delivers the play’s famous epilogue, she entreats the audience to carry something of the story with them. In this version, it’s not just charm or comedy we’re asked to remember, but the possibility of joy rescued from the wreckage of modern society.
REVIEW: Annie glitters with heart - and a bit of revolution
Stratford's joyful new production proves a musical can be both wildly entertaining and quietly radical
Harper Rae Asch as Annie and Dan Chameroy as Oliver Warbucks in Annie. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou.
If you think it’s political to say that the wealthy people of today owe something to the poor people of tomorrow, then you will consider Stratford’s new production of Annie a political statement. But also, if you love a feel-good musical featuring singing and dancing by talented kids, you will want to see Annie.
Last night’s gala performance, featuring a cast of thrilling-to-watch young performers, proves that a play can be both a political statement and incredibly enjoyable to watch.
The pluck and energy of lead actor Harper Rae Asch shone through like a bright star in a pretty dress. But her lead energy was supported by a cast of children and adults who sparkled like a clear night sky around their bright star. Director Donna Feore has assembled a deeply skilled cast and equipped them to speak in a collective voice.
Asch’s voice was undeniably strong during her solos, but the opening night audience basked in the light of every single actor who crossed the stage. The crowd was rapt by musical numbers that included as many as 16 actors at once.
The show featured gymnastic tumbling runs by some of its youngest stars, as well as an adorable dog. Like as in, a real live dog on stage.
Among the young performers, I’m tempted to say that Cydnee Abbott stood out as Pepper, the slightly nasty orphan who gently teases Annie for her trademark optimism. That’s when she’s not handspringing across the stage. But to point out Abbott would mean pointing out each of the young players, who each shine brightly in their own unique way. Shall I name Isla Horner as July, and Evony Harker as Clara? Olivia Padfield as Audrey? They're all amazing.
This iconic musical, which was first performed on Broadway in 1977, is immediately infectious. Last night’s crowd got on board immediately, rising to its feet after the show’s iconic first song, ‘Maybe’.
Does it go without saying that when Sandy the dog was on stage, the love was palpable? You could hear the crowd going ‘aawww…’ whenever the dog looked out at the crowd during songs.
But a dog, however cute and well trained, can’t hold up a show of this scale. Daddy Warbucks must act as the structural and emotional heart of the story, and Dan Chameroy succeeds in the role. He projects Good Dad Energy when he moves about his opulent home. Yes, he’s disgustingly wealthy amidst a crashing economy, but his wealth saves the day for a whole bunch of children.
As the plot progresses, Chameroy as Warbucks becomes more vulnerable and loving, developing an emotional relationship with Annie as well as a growing emotional interest in Grace, his “assistant” who’s beginning to look very much like a mother figure for Annie. By opening his heart to Annie and Grace, and by delivering his numbers with just the right amount of strength and softness, he shows how a man’s humanity and love can shine right through a pinstriped corporate suit.
As Grace, Jennifer Rider-Shaw brought last night’s audience to the edge of their seats with her crystalline voice and her character’s gorgeous dresses.
The women characters of this show truly steal the stage, and their wardrobe plays a big role in their ability to do that. Yes, these women look feminine. But they can also move and express themselves freely in the beautiful clothes they wear. Even the poor women and orphans express a subtle beauty through their dress. These women are safe to look feminine while moving their bodies in public spaces.
This is a kind of utopia.
As Miss Aggie Hannigan, Laura Condlin’s frowsy bosslady is a joy to watch. She fills the room with Mean Lady Energy every time she walks into the orphanage, but somehow she manages to look weirdly sexy. Who else could inhabit this part so fully and joyfully but Condlin.
Carol Burnett, look out!
But it’s not just about how the women look in this show. This play represents another kind of utopia, one that lies wrapped in its plot. It’s the idea that a little girl can have actual influence on patriarchal power structures. It’s the idea that politicians might prioritize tomorrow’s voters rather than today’s.
It’s mostly women who do the work of showing us how a utopia like this might look. How Jennifer Rider-Shaw can sing like that and dance like that while wearing shoes like that will inspire awe in the feet of anyone who has ever worn heels.
But the men are equally stars of this show, never being outshone amidst the swirl of beauty. The lavish uniforms worn by Daddy Warbucks’s male staff members fill the need for structure and line on stage, and the male dancers here bring incredibly athletic energy to every number.
How Mark Uhre as Rooster Hannigan can pour every single drop of his rudest, sexiest self into his dance numbers is simply beyond understanding. How Derek Kwan as Drake steals the comedic moments of the show is another sight to behold. He becomes an instant crowd favourite during his fleeting moments of spotlight.
To be in the same room with this kind of talent is why musical theatre can be so satisfying. Our phones are turned off and our attention is turned on to the present moment. This is why theatre and performing arts are so needed in Canada – and the world – this summer.
To be in the same room with this political message also feels special. There’s a Canadian vibe flowing underneath it all. With subtle nods to Manitoba in the script, and through the colour palette of Annie’s red and white dresses, this production feels like a patriotic nod to Canada’s present-moment predicament. For a crowd that enthusiastically sang the anthem while standing before the show, Annie felt a bit like encouragement.
'Sense and Sensibility' opens at Stratford Festival next month
The 2025 season also features 'As You Like It,' 'Annie,' 'Dangerous Liaisons,' 'Macbeth,' 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,' 'Anne of Green Gables,' 'The Winter’s Tale,' 'Forgiveness,' 'Ransacking Troy' and 'The Art of War'
Jessica B. Hill as Elinor Dashwood (left) and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane as Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility. Stratford Festival 2025.
NEWS RELEASE
STRATFORD FESTIVAL
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Mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen with a trip to the Stratford Festival for a beautiful and captivating production of Sense and Sensibility. Filled with simmering gossip, swooning assemblies and fierce wit, Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of the classic novel hits the stage today. Directed by Daryl Cloran and led by Jessica B. Hill and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, this tale of sisters bound by love is a pure Regency Period delight.
Sense and Sensibility follows the travails of the Dashwood sisters – sensible, subdued Elinor and the passionately emotional Marianne – after their father’s death leaves their family dependent on the whims of wealthy relations. When suitors, both suitable and otherwise, start courting the Dashwood girls, the sisters must blend sense with sensibility to protect their hearts and their reputations. Bristling with cutting social commentary and old-fashioned romance, the production is brimming with romantic longing and tender affection.
“This is a story about love in its many forms. Romantic love. Love between sisters. Love between a mother and her daughters,” says Cloran. “We follow two young women who are finding their voices and agency to make their own choices in the face of societal expectations. We experience Marianne and Elinor’s personal growth through the growth of their relationship as they both wrestle with the complexities of romantic love.”
Sense and Sensibility features Jessica B. Hill as Elinor Dashwood and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane as Marianne Dashwood, with Andrew Chown as John Dashwood/John Willoughby and Seana McKenna as Mrs. Jennings/Mrs. Ferrars. The production also features Christopher Allen as Gossip 1, Celia Aloma as Gossip 3, Shane Carty as Colonel Brandon/Thomas, Ashley Dingwell, Thomas Duplessie as Edward Ferrars/Robert Ferrars, Sara Farb as Fanny (Ferrars) Dashwood/Lady Middleton, Jesse Gervais as Gossip 4, Jordin Hall, Jenna-Lee Hyde as Gossip 2, Aaron Krohn, Josue Laboucane, Julie Lumsden as Gossip 5, Glynis Ranney as Mrs. Dashwood/Anne Steele, Jade V. Robinson as Margaret Dashwood/Lucy Steele, Steve Ross as Sir John Middleton/Doctor, Makambe K. Simamba and Caroline Toal.
Cloran is joined by Set and Costume Designer Dana Osborne, Lighting Designer Jareth Li, Composer and Sound Designer Jonathan Lewis, Fight and Intimacy Director Anita Nittoly and Movement Director Julie Tomaino.
Sense and Sensibility has its official opening on June 19 and runs until October 25 at the Festival Theatre. Tickets are available at stratfordfestival.ca or by calling 1.800.567.1600.
The 2025 season also features As You Like It, Annie, Dangerous Liaisons, Macbeth, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Anne of Green Gables, The Winter’s Tale, Forgiveness, Ransacking Troy and The Art of War. For more information, visit stratfordfestival.ca.
A writer’s take on Annie & Macbeth in Stratford
By Dan White – Special to the Sydenham Current
Last week Joni and I travelled to Stratford three times in eight days to take in preview performances of Annie, Macbeth, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. For the last two shows our friend Janet Barnes and her friend Britany joined us. I believe this marks fifty consecutive years of me taking in at least one show in The Festival City. It was great fun introducing Janet and Britany to one of my favourite places as neither of them had been to a show in a great many years.
Annie was on the boards at the Festival Theatre and it was a nostalgic show for me as it was the first musical I ever attended. Back in the 70’s my drama teacher, Linda Gibb, arranged a school trip to see it at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. This was Joni’s first time seeing it live.
We began our experience by stopping in the hall and standing in front of the musicians playing the fanfare. They are always excellent and we took a moment to acknowledge that fact. After they played we noted that only brass players would stand in front of four herald trumpets and a parade snare drum, and love it. They did appreciate the attention. It’s always nice to be appreciated for what you do, especially when you are often in a role that is taken for granted. As a tuba player married to a French Horn player, we get that. We play key roles within our ensembles, but the spotlight always drifts to the flashy instruments.
From the opening song to the finale, Annie was wonderful. Child actors can be a risk and this show relies heavily on 9 of them. Harper Rae Asch in the title role was superb. She has just the right balance of attitude and adorable mischievousness to make the character lovable. Her voice is beautifully suited to the role and we got lost in the story.
The balance of the girls were excellent. The dance numbers had energy to burn, were fun and the cast pulled off the playful choreography perfectly. The acting was solid throughout and the singing exceptional. These girls were having fun and it was contagious.
Laura Condlln played a deliciously nasty, and often inebriated, Miss Hannigan. Her comic timing was stellar and you couldn’t wait for her to get a kick in the shin or another well-deserved prank pulled on her by the girls.
If you have children that you would like to introduce to theatre, this is a great one. Watch for sales or call the box office to inquire. Full price in Stratford is a tough sell for families. Joni and I took advantage of a “pay what you wish” promotion.
(Full disclosure, Joni almost cried when Sandy, the dog, entered the stage.)
A few days after Annie Joni and I returned to Stratford with Janet and Britany to see Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
I have attended a great many productions of this show and even directed it at SCITS. Our pre-show was great fun. We bumped into friends from Sarnia and met up with our friend Mark from Stratford. Mark always has interesting stories to share about the season as he is a scenic carpenter there.
The show was sold out! This is outstanding as it is in previews, and it is a Shakespearian play, which often has the same appeal as cod liver oil to those subjected to Shakespeare dissection in English class.
This production had a very different feel from the opening. We knew that Robert Lepage directed the play and that it was set in a biker war in Quebec rather than medieval Scotland.
Lepage has a stellar reputation as a director, playwright and the founder and artistic director of a multidisciplinary production company, Ex Machina. I have never witnessed the excitement and anticipation the audience had as the house lights went down.
The opening looked and felt like a movie theatre with projection scrolling through the production team, the title and the act. Thunderous applause arose as Lepage’s name graced the set… and that was the bell that summoned the disappointment that arose over the ensuing two hours.
Rarely does a director in theatre take center stage and pull the focus toward themselves. Lepage’s opening credits did just that.
The set was truly stunning. It was a two-story roadside motel that moved and shifted from interior to exterior views, a single section or an entire row of rooms, stairs and doors. It was impressive to see. The cast wore microphones as they were often behind plexiglass and projection was impossible.
There were incredibly cool scenes with projection and the use of a scrim/mirror. I’ve never seen something like that in a theatre and it truly was an impressive effect. Actors could “appear” and multiply using lighting and the scrim.
That pretty much ends what I was impressed by.
The biker gangs used e-motorcycles with a “Harley” sound effect to rumble across the stage. While this was effective initially, the bikes were omnipresent and the effect lost its roar through overuse. If they were horses, the cast would not constantly be on their mounts.
The largest frustration was with the acting of the leads. I have seen most of these actors in other shows over the years and they are some of Stratford’s best and most experienced thespians. Yet, as I struggled to decipher what was missing for me in this show I realized what I found lacking. Depth.
There was no depth in the dialogue. The characters did not emote anything from me, the words were simply that, words. I did not believe the evil arose in the Macbeths, nor did I believe that the couple truly loved one another. I didn’t feel the growing distrust, envy and fear in Banquo. I felt nothing… and I wanted to!
My friend Jay from Sarnia, an avid theatre consumer and someone whose opinion I respect, even if I don’t always concur, texted me as we made our way home. “So, what did you think of THAT?!” I called him the next day to see if I had missed something that he saw. He had the same opinion… spectacle without substance.
So, if you want to see a fun and entertaining show, I recommend Annie. If you can get really cheap tickets and want to check out a very interesting set and can look past the fact that this production hath murdered emotion… go see Macbeth.
I’ve run out of space for this column, so, in my next column, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. And a teaser, as Meatloaf said, “Two out of three ain’t bad”.
Stratford Festival’s ‘As You Like It’ is not as you know it — with one risky swing that somewhat misses
Chris Abraham’s modern-dress production is perfectly paced. But its two halves feel disconnected.
Updated 15 hrs ago
May 27, 2025
3 min read
Sara Farb as Rosalind, centre, with members of the company in “As You Like It.”
By
As You Like It
3 stars (out of 4)
By William Shakespeare, directed by Chris Abraham. Until Oct. 24 at the Stratford Festival’s Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St., Stratford, Ont. stratfordfestival.ca or 1-800-567-1600
STRATFORD — I like my Shakespeare served with a side of risk. None more so than a work like “As You Like It,” one of the most popular plays by the Bard, which a professional critic will likely see more than several times throughout his or her career.
To directors, I say: Take a big swing. Deliver something new.
Chris Abraham does exactly that with his modern-dress revival, which opened the Stratford Festival’s 73rd season on Monday at the Festival Theatre. And even if his concept somewhat misses in execution, it still unveils new shades of meaning to this malleably deceptive and slippery comedy.
The bold choices begin off the top. Abraham makes clear that his version of “As You Like It” is more of a thriller than a carefree pastoral comedy.
Duke Frederick’s (Sean Arbuckle) court is violent and uncompromising, with Julie Fox’s militaristic set and costumes depicting a world under martial law. Armed soldiers guard the premises, their fingers always on the trigger.
To borrow a line from another Shakespeare play, “fair is foul and foul is fair.” Indeed, after the corrupt Duke exiles his sister (played with bravura by Seana McKenna), it’s only inevitable that he shall also banish his niece, the fair Rosalind (Sara Farb), with her doting cousin Celia (Makambe K. Simamba) in tow. Likewise, young Orlando (Christopher Allen), abused and neglected by his older brother Oliver (Andrew Chown), is also forced to flee.
But in Abraham’s production, the Forest of Arden where these nomads seek refuge is the most unidyllic one that I have yet seen. It’s an environment that’s cruelly barren, cold and harsh, with snow steadily falling on Fox’s rural set. To stay warm, the Duchess and her entourage (of what looks like a band of rebel forces) must tend to a small fire.
Seana McKenna as the Duchess with members of the company in “As You Like It.”
Abraham’s darker — and bleaker — staging of the material offers his characters no paradisiac escape. For his audience, too, this “As You Like It,” or the first half of it, at least, is no bucolic entertainment.
Instead, his interpretation seems to underscore the show’s themes of finding strength — or love, in the case of Rosalind and Orlando — in the face of adversity. No one can truly escape his or her circumstances, Abraham suggests. But hell, as the saying goes, is what you ultimately make of it.
The issue with this reading, however, is that as you push the first half of “As You Like It” into darker and grittier territory, it becomes far more difficult to tie everything back up in its home-stretch. The show is a Shakespearean comedy: old grudges are reconciled, the lovebirds are eventually wed, and the show ends on a note of joyful song and dance.
Abraham, however, can’t quite meld his vision for the play with the material itself. And by raising the stakes early on, some of the lighter storylines come across as out of place.
After intermission, the weighty, severe esthetic of the first half is all but abandoned. Fox’s wintery designs give way to summer flowers and foliage, paired with lighting by Imogen Wilson that’s far more expansive than before. Even the percussive compositions, by Ron Sexsmith and Thomas Ryder Payne, are soon replaced with tuneful folk numbers (sung gorgeously by Gabriel Antonacci and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane).
Tonally, the two halves of this “As You Like It” feel like they belong in separate productions. Joined together, their juxtaposition is simply jarring.
From left: John Ng as Adam, Andrew Chown as Oliver and Christopher Allen as Orlando in “As You Like It.”
Still, even if Abraham’s macro vision somewhat misses the mark, there are rich rewards to be had in this staging.
As Abraham has proved in his previous Stratford outings and recent productions at Crow’s Theatre, where he currently serves as artistic director, he has a keen eye for detail. His blocking on the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage is fluid, making especially great use of the aisles.
And despite the brisk pacing, the production still lands each of the play’s emotional and comic beats, delivered by a cast that’s almost entirely up to the task. Farb, finding nuance and expressivity in her line readings, is wonderful as the headstrong Rosalind, and Simamba nails the physical comedy as Celia.
As Orlando, Allen’s opening night performance was initially somewhat shouty, but he greatly improved through the evening, eventually making for a charming Orlando. (The character still comes across as rather one-dimensional, but blame that on the writing.).
Of the forest dwellers, Michael Man evokes pity as the lovelorn young shepherd Silvius, scorned by the shepherdess Phoebe (Jessica B. Hill), who instead has her eyes set on Rosalind, disguised as the manly Ganymede. The melancholic Jaques, meanwhile, is played here by Aaron Krohn with a country singer’s swagger.
Aaron Krohn as Jaques in “As You Like It.”
It’s Steve Ross, however, as the fool Touchstone, who lends the play some much-needed levity, highlighted by an interactive comic bit at the top of the second half.
For many, including myself, this “As You Like It” is not as you probably know it. Abraham finds new colour and resonance in this very serious staging. And if his interpretation doesn’t entirely succeed, just heed Rosalind’s wise words in the epilogue: “to take from this play what you like of it.” Of this production, I will. And so should you, too.
REVIEW: Lepage's Macbeth shows that men are still full of sound and fury
Shakespeare's tragedy gets a '90s biker makeover that asks what today's men are fighting for, and what they've already lost
about an hour ago
1 / 5 Lucy Peacock as Lady Macbeth and Tom McCamus as Macbeth in Macbeth. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou.
Listen to this article
00:05:19
If there’s a reason to see Shakespeare’s plays in 2025, it’s to witness the timeless human follies that continue to afflict our societies, 400 years after The Bard put them down.
Stratford’s production of Macbeth, starring Tom McCamus as Macbeth and Lucy Peacock as Lady Macbeth, does just that. It explores why today’s men still make a practice of killing other men – and their sons – just so they can continue riding their noisy vehicles across the stage. Or rather, the land.
Renowned director Robert Lepage, with his ‘90s Montreal biker-gang presentation of the age-old story about a king who overreaches, is unapologetically telling a story about men. What has happened to them in the past several decades? What is happening now, and what will happen in the future?
Perhaps the need to say something about men today justifies the presence of massive moving motorcycles on the stage at the Avon Theatre. Sometimes, eight of them at once! Yes, it’s a bit gimmicky, but it really does create an enjoyable spectacle.
And these stage bikes look incredibly real, as per Stratford’s epically high standards for set and prop design. Fortunately, they don’t belch out real gas fumes. They’re actually electric bikes, but with the addition of realistically rumbly soundtracks for a ‘90s vibe.
In this production, even the Scottish play’s famous witches are men — sort of. Played by male actors in exaggerated drag, they walk the blurred lines between gender and sex, prophecy and seduction. Sad, strung-out, and not at all glamorous or attractive, they resemble hallucinations from a back alley. Their herbs come from a dumpster, and their magic comes from discarded needles.
The elaborate set of this production successfully creates an immersive mood, and somehow Shakespeare’s text makes sense on the outskirts of Montreal, circa 1993. Stagecraft provides movement and action, a nimble crew constantly pushing and pulling massive pieces of architecture around the stage. This creates a feeling of flow in play that can sometimes feel static.
John Gzowski’s sound and Kimberly Purtell’s lighting design are strokes of precision. The growl of a motorcycle replaces the thunder of hooves. Then there’s the subtly nostalgic chirping of crickets when the men cut their engines in the parking lot. The flickering lights, the grubby bathrooms, the wood panelling and mass produced ‘art’. Bullet holes are suggested by sudden splashes of light across the set.
Across this set, men move up and down, left and right. With a large cast of men wearing nearly identical chaps, jackets, beards, and tattoos, it’s a bit hard to tell them apart. Perhaps that is intentional. Is it the fate of men to be one bland face in a homogenous group of men?
The two women in this production stand out against the male backdrop. Maria Vacratsis’ Porter is a hardworking hotel manager and every inch a Québécois grandmother. And as Lady Macbeth in a moto jacket, Lucy Peacock brings her famous fire and feist to the ambitious queen. Denied a path to legitimate power over her own existence in this guy-guy world, it makes sense that this sexy, older Lady would remove her jeans to get what she wants.
This is not an empire, it’s a motel at the edge of the world, and would you like a rye and Coke? Macbeth’s descent is not accompanied by drums or trumpets, but by the hollow echo of a styrofoam cup, a bit of sugary coffee stirred with a wooden stick. The soundscape transforms ordinary moments into something mythic.
At times, this production seems detached, set back from the audience. Certain actions happen behind what looks to be a giant plexiglass screen. Other scenes unfold inside a building, and we can only see the players through small, square windows, as though we are voyeurs on the street.
It all has a muffling effect that might be the message. Does this staging mimic the experience of men who flatten their feelings so they can play the loyal soldier to whatever decrepit king they were born to serve?
McCamus’ bike, boots, and jackets suggest a hardened cool, but they’re clearly a costume, part of the macho performance his Macbeth can’t escape. And when he does become king, there are no royal robes. Just the same old uniform, but now with an added need for “armour,” also known as a bulletproof vest.
As Banquo, Graham Abbey fulfills the need for a masc silhouette, with his deep voice and wide walk. Tom Rooney’s lean, longhaired Macduff is a contrast. When Macduff realizes – on stage – that his wife and children have been killed because of his participation in immoral wars, we witness what’s behind a soldier’s bravado.
Macduff gives himself permission to feel something, and even dehumanized soldiers are shown to have a beating heart. Rooney is up to the job of providing a glimmer of hope. His Macduff is vengeful, but ultimately, loyal to truth. He’s a receptacle for hope that men can find a way through the moment we’re in – without compromising their psyches and souls.
REVIEW: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a sun-drenched romp through lies and love
Is there any more ridiculous but enjoyable fantasy than the one in which a financially predatory con man might cease swindling beautiful young women just because he falls in love with one? Ha ha ha.
Michele Shuster as Jolene Oakes, centre, with members of the company in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou.
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00:05:36
Is there any more ridiculous but enjoyable fantasy than the one in which a financially predatory con man might cease swindling beautiful young women just because he falls in love with one? Ha ha ha.
How about the fantasy that his target – a beautiful, young gal with a heart of gold and great singing voice – is actually conning the con man while living her best life in the South of France?
Bonjour! Take me to that world for two and a half hours.
Last night’s production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Avon Theatre, with a script by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbek, is both glamorous and sharply funny. It manages to poke fun at our cultural fantasies about money and wealth in a degenerating economy, while also celebrating them at the same time.
Director Tracey Flye took over the role of conjuring this production after it had already been cast by Bobby Garcia, a renowned director who died in December. This production is dedicated to his memory.
It’s relevant that Garcia was a Filipino-Canadian man whose work has a global flavour and relevance, and whose vision over his career often emphasized inclusivity and cross-cultural storytelling. His influence can be felt in the casting choices and thematic nuances of this production, which embraces cultural hybridity.
Global mobility is the underlying fantasy here, and the production depicts a past time and place when it was possible to find a “safe” place, a sunny, stylish and beachy place where hotels and homes are impeccably staffed and the weather is always good.
This is the South of France at an idyllic but fleeting moment – after Louis Vuitton luggage, but before global warming. This was also a time and place where an innocent American girl could find adventure and love affairs. It’s also where a seasoned American gentleman could go to mine some wealth.
Jonathan Goad leads the trio of main characters in this comic caper. As the older of the two scammers, Lawrence Jameson, he lives a charmed life in an art deco mansion, and his business acumen lies in knowing how to spot and scam the wealthy women he meets.
With a graceful and emotionally nuanced performance of Lawrence, Goad is the emotional centre of this story. He plays buddy and mentor to Freddy Benson, played by Liam Tobin as an ambitious scammer on his way up. As the scam progresses, Lawrence is taken by Christine’s kindness and catches real feelings. He shifts from being a buddy to Freddy to becoming a leading man in an off-kilter romance.
The young woman begins as a shared target in their con, but Christine soon shifts from naive mark to street-smart player. Dickson more than holds her own in this trio, using charm and wit to navigate the seedy economy of scams by pretending to be clueless. Her solo “I’m Here” showcases a strong stage presence and hints at the reveal to come. She’s not the fool they think she is.
Tobin plays the younger of the two male scammers, Freddy Benson, with clownish exuberance. His high-energy style might seem a bit over the top if it didn’t work so well as a counterbalance to Goad’s gentlemanly restraint. Seems there’s been a generational tone shift in the scamming biz.
So, yeah, the story is seedy, but these low-life scammers are living the high life, tromping around the Côte d’Azure like they own the place. The glamour and fun, plus a truly funny script with meta moments that earn knowing laughs from the audience, make this production feel like a delightful confection.
The set design evokes the French Riviera with flair. Art deco frames surround the stage, lending an air of vintage opulence. A central staircase allows characters to descend like stars in an old Hollywood dream. The visual language is completed with striped beach umbrellas, swaying palm trees, and a palette of sun-drenched colours that suggest both leisure and luxury.
It may be sweet, but the seaside town of Beaumont-sur-Mer is just the right amount sour, too. We’re seeing the superficial beauty of an iconic spot on earth, and at the same time, we’re peeking into its seedy underbelly. The theme of financial opportunism is just gross enough to make this story interesting.
The slightly distasteful main plot is also sweetened by a subplot. As the lovestruck tourist Muriel Eubanks and the local police chief Andre Thibault, Sara-Jeanne Hosie and Derek Kwan develop a more organic attraction to each other. Our need for an actual love story is satisfied by their sexy, silly Rivieran affair, and both of these supporting actors clearly delighted the audience last night.
And as Jolene Oakes, a rich girl from Oklahoma who spontaneously falls in love with Lawrence, Michele Shuster earned hearty hoots and hollers from the crowd. Her red dress and cowboy style make a hilarious contrast to the French setting, highlighting the contemporary cultural clash between the U.S. and Europe. Her dance number “Oklahoma?” plays up the theme and is an early highlight in the show.
In the end, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels delivers exactly what it promises: A good time in questionable company. This production leans into the sleaze with just the right balance of self-awareness and charm. You may not want to live in a world run by con artists, but for a couple of hours, it’s a pleasure to watch them enjoy the momentary spoils of their work.
Review: DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS at the Stratford Festival is a Hilarious Romp
Jonathan Goad and Liam Tobin are hilarious in this high energy musical comedy
By: Lauren GienowMay. 30, 2025
Last night, Director Tracey Flye’s production of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS opened at the Stratford Festival’s Avon Theatre. One of two musicals mounted at the Festival this season, this production is paired well with its counterpart, ANNIE. As musical comedies go, they simply could not be more different from one another tonally. Patrons who are seeking something edgier or who perhaps have a more cynical outlook on life than optimistic Annie, will enjoy the hijinks of Lawrence and Freddy. I personally suggest seeing both musicals though. After all, as is evidenced in this production, we all contain multitudes.
Written by Jeffrey Lane with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS is a musical comedy based on the 1988 film of the same name starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin. It premiered on Broadway in 2005 and I suspect that as was the case for this reviewer, this Stratford production will be the first time most audience members have the opportunity to see it live. It’s the story of two con men – the polished and charismatic Lawrence (Jonathan Goad), who has refined his craft of conning wealthy women vacationing in the French Riviera, and the unpolished up-and-comer (who is also charismatic) Freddy (Liam Tobin), who is eager first to learn from Lawrence and then to challenge him. When the two men compete to see who can scam “American Soap Queen” Christine Colgate (Shakura Dickson) out of $50,000, hilarious hijinks ensue and they get more than they bargained for.
Jonathan Goad and Liam Tobin are a formidable due as Lawrence and Freddy. The are charming, funny, they play off each other wonderfully, and they sing it well. Goad glides across the stage charming everyone he comes into contact with, trying on multiple comedic accents as he does it. Tobin’s hysterical and high energy performance as Freddy absolutely steals the show. It is unquestionable that this is his star turn at the Stratford Festival. By the nature of the plot, what Shakura Dickson is tasked with doing as Christine Colgate is underappreciated for the majority of the show. She plays the wide-eyed do-gooder role to great effect and fully nails the payoff for her character. She also has a beautiful singing voice. As a trio, these three are wonderful.
Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Derek Kwan, and Michelle Shuster also have fun stand-out moments in the show. Kwan has great chemistry with both Goad and later Hosie as Lawrence’s accomplice Andre Thibault, who is tasked with distracting Hosie’s Muriel Eubanks who is a hilariously willing and repeated victim of one of Lawrence’s ongoing scams. Shuster portrays Jolene Oakes – a woman who mistakenly believes she and Lawrence are to be wed. She is a delight to watch as she takes centre stage in her number Oklahoma and equally as entertaining as we see her come to regret everything in All About Rubprecht.
Speaking of the Ruprecht number, I found myself conflicted watching this scene. To scare off Jolene, Lawrence and Freddy hatch a plan to trick her into thinking Freddy is Lawrence’s strange secret brother, Ruprecht. The fake brother lives in a dungeon-like basement, has no manners, is vulgar, obscene, and inappropriately sexual. The number is hilarious. Tobin’s physical comedy here is pure gold. The insinuation though, is that there is something ‘wrong’ with Ruprecht. It is not specifically stated that he has an intellectual disability (and in fact a lyric has been changed to make this even more vague, and I applaud this decision), but it is implied. Lawrence and Freddy do numerous immoral things throughout this show and are hardly role models for good behaviour, so the show certainly is not sending any kind of message that this behaviour is appropriate, nor does it feel like a disability is being mocked - but it is still uncomfortable enough that I would feel awkward bringing a friend or family member with an intellectual disability to see the show and explaining the purpose of this number. I hesitate to even mention this because it’s a qualm I have with the story and not this particular production or any performance or piece of direction within it. In fact, it’s clear that the director and the cast took some care in mapping out this scene. It is an interesting exploration of the comedy of the 1980s and even of 2005, vs comedy of today though. All of this said, the scene serves the plot and is appropriately outrageous, and Tobin is at the top of his game here.
For the most part, this show is surprisingly ageless in terms of its humour, though there have been a few additional tweaks to lyrics. I realized this morning that there was an omission of a reference to the current US president in the number Great Big Stuff, and in chatting about that with a member of the company, I was informed that a few other things have been changed as well. It’s nice to know that those with the rights to the show are open to changes like this to better fit the age we live in.
Speaking of age, something that delights me about this show is that I frequently observed audience members ranging in age from 20 to 80 doubled over with laughter at the same scenes. Everyone’s comedic timing is superb and even when you see a twist coming, the lead-up is delectably hilarious…for all ages.
The ensemble of this production shines brightly and execute Stephanie Graham’s choreography to perfection. The choreography they are tasked with ranges from elegant ballroom to a silly country dance number with animated facial expressions, and to a person, they are sublime.
This production is great addition to the 2025 season that theatre-lovers will surely enjoy. I also suspect that visitors to Stratford who want to catch a show, but perhaps aren’t huge theatre buffs will be flocking to DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS. The humour from the film translates well and it’s simply a great night at the theatre.
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS continues in Repertory at the Avon Theatre until October 25th.