Arts

Headed to the Stratford Festival this year? Here's what you need to know

The musicals are plentiful, Malvolio is a woman, the swans are still angry: here's all the crucial info you need to plan your trip to Stratford.

The musicals are plentiful, Malvolio is a woman, the swans are still angry

A man in 1600s period dress looks startled on stage.
Juan Chioran as Brother Jeremiah in Something Rotten!, part of the 2024 Stratford Festival 2024. (Ann Baggley)

Nestled in southwestern Ontario is your go-to destination for tap-dancing eggs, high-stakes Shakespeare, and a swan so famous it's been emblazoned on everything from tote bags to laptop stickers. Yes, the Stratford Festival is the magical, bizarre centre of Canadian theatre, as notable for its traditions and small-town quirks as it is for theatre.

This year, the festival opened on May 27 (yes, a Monday, a rarity in the theatre industry) with a rousing production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, reimagined by festival mainstay Seana McKenna to encapsulate the psychedelic twinkle of the late 1960s. The days that followed continued to make good on Stratford's promise of high-quality theatre in a picturesque city.

Here are seven takeaways from the first week of the 2024 Stratford Festival.

This year, it's all about the musicals. 

While Stratford's famous for its Shakespeare, it's the 2024 musicals that really dazzle. Something Rotten! pokes fun at the Bard — and the very concept of musicals — with a laugh-out-loud, musical-within-a-musical called Omelette. Down the street at the smaller Avon Theatre, La Cage aux Folles (based on the same source material as 1996 dramedy starring Nathan Lane, The Birdcage) is a heartwarming, glorious tale of queer acceptance and love, featuring festival favourites Steve Ross and Sean Arbuckle in starring roles. If you find yourself in Stratford this summer, make sure you save two performance slots to catch these shows: you won't be sorry.

A man in a dark suit looks pensive. He holds glasses in his hand.
Adrian Pang in Salesman in China as part of the 2024 Stratford Festival. (Ted Belton)

Come for the theatre, stay for the treats.

Stratford is an idyllic town for foodies, and you're missing out if you don't schedule yourself a few hours to explore the local bakeries, coffee shops, and fine dining establishments. Bake My Day, located just across the street from the Avon Theatre, makes some of the best butter tarts you'll ever taste, with an incredible assortment of flavours (root beer! Blueberry! S'mores!) as well as a cozy seating area. While I'm partial to Balzac's for my post-show morning coffee (it's popular for good reason!), plenty of locals love Revel for a mid-afternoon work sesh. At night, if you're feeling fancy, reserve a table at Lovage for elevated small plates. I'll be thinking about their white asparagus dish for a long, long time.

OMG, the costumes. 

The designers this year have knocked it out of the park, from Something Rotten!'s hysterical omelette costumes (designed by Michael Gianfrancesco) to the crisp couture of Hedda Gabler (by Lorenzo Savoini). Don't even get me started about the gowns and pantsuits designed by David Boechler and donned by Steve Ross in La Cage Aux Folles, as well as the peacock-inspired dresses worn by the show's drag queens. 

Beware the swan. 

Swans are a big deal in Stratford — every year, the city holds a ceremony to release them from their winter home behind William Allman Memorial Arena. A pipe band (!) leads them to their summer lodgings in the Avon River. It's completely over-the-top but about as charming as you'd expect from a city that feels like a Canadian version of Stars Hollow. One word of advice, though: those swans, particularly those who congregate outside the Tom Patterson Theatre, can be mean. Coo at them at your own risk.

The opening week festivities are still, uh, a little ostentatious. 

Red carpet? Yep. A corps of trumpets to symbolize the end of intermission? Absolutely. Fabulous fashion and over-the-top opening night parties? You betcha. Stratford's opening week is often coined Theatre Prom within the industry, and for good reason. It's a glitzy, well-catered affair.

A woman in late 1800s period dress lays on a chaise longue looking shocked.
Joella Crichton as Mrs. Elvsted in Hedda Gabler at the 2024 Stratford Festival 2024. (David Hou)

Where are the new plays? 

Last year, the festival gave us Nick Green's Casey and Diana, the achingly beautiful drama about Princess Diana's visit to Toronto's Casey House, in its opening week, marking the debut of one of the best Canadian plays of the last decade. This year, it's hard not to feel excited for the new plays slated to open toward the end of the season — I'm particularly looking forward to Salesman in China, about Arthur Miller's journey to China to stage the first-ever Chinese production of Death of a Salesman, and The Diviners, based on the book of the same name by Margaret Laurence.

It's a big year for women at the festival this year. 

All three of opening week's Shakespeare plays were directed by women (a first), and much of this year's programming centres complex female roles, including Hedda Gabler (often referred to as the female Hamlet), Cymbeline (played by festival legend Lucy Peacock in a gender-bent take on the part), and Twelfth Night's Malvolio, played here as a woman by the fantastic Laura Condlin. Not to mention, after a year away, director-choreographer Donna Feore has made a welcome return to the festival, and her choreography in particular is out of this world. (Tap. Dancing. Eggs.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aisling Murphy is a Toronto-based writer and editor. She is the Senior Editor of Intermission Magazine, and has previously written for the Toronto Star and CP24.