Category Archives: Stratford Shakespeare Festival

ALL MY SONS: A STUNNING STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION OF ARTHUR MILLER’S PLAY THAT FORCES OUR HONEST INTROSPECTION

Very soon into the Stratford Festival’s production of All My Sons, we realize that we intimately know these people before us. We run into them by the hour in our daily lives. However, if we have the guts to admit … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

STRATFORD FESTIVAL 2013 PART II

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE During the trial scene in The Merchant of Venice, directed by Antoni Cimolino, Shylock sits with his whole body clenched like a fist, with a nervous and edgy energy barely contained within him. To this point, … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

SHAW FESTIVAL 2013 PART II

ENCHANTED APRIL “Would only that such enchantment would step in for us all,” says Moya O’Connell’s Lotty, a youngish, maritally-frustrated, and life-frustrated woman. This is her dreamy response to “a small ad placed discreetly in the Times” regarding a potential … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

STRATFORD FESTIVAL 2013 PART I

BLITHE SPIRIT Director Brian Bedford has positioned Ruth as the production’s focal point in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit and Sara Topham’s Ruth begins high and keeps it high, almost overwhelmingly intense at times. She seems squeezed to the edge of … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

THREE PLAYS FOR STRATFORD IN AUTUMN

AS YOU LIKE IT (to October 31) Things hang loose in Des McAnuff’s magically conceived Arden where absolutely anything goes. The combo of five swings as they would in a jazz boite, folks pop in and out of song, implied … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival | Leave a comment

STRATFORD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2010

DO NOT GO GENTLE Back in the 70s, I spent several days in Laugharne in Wales, the setting for Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. In those days, the poet’s boathouse and writing shed were not open to visitors and peeking … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival | Leave a comment

Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

STRATFORD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2010 EVITA For some, kitsch is the preferred artistic pinnacle of our time and, never fear, Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Evita presents only token cause to fear humanity’s darker side. This creation is made to distract and safely … Continue reading

Posted in Stratford Shakespeare Festival | Tagged | Leave a comment