Stage Door News
Stage Door News
What better way to mark Canada 150 than with a visit to the Stratford Festival, the country’s landmark theatre? As William Shatner says: “Every Canadian should make the pilgrimage to Stratford.”
Tickets for the 2017 season – which celebrates the nation’s sesquicentennial with special productions exploring the theme of Identity – go on sale this week. Online sales begin at noon on Friday, January 6, and phone and in-person sales start on Saturday, January 7, at 9 a.m.
The season features 14 productions, including Shakespeare and other classics, family shows, sensational musicals, and new plays.
“In the year of Canada 150 it is important that we not only celebrate but also reflect on what it is to be Canadian,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “I think the beautiful and powerful plays selected for 2017 will help us to re-examine our identity as a nation, and ourselves as individuals.”
To mark the country’s anniversary, works by three generations of Canadian female playwrights will be presented: Sharon Pollock’s The Komagata Maru Incident; Kate Hennig’s highly anticipated new work The Virgin Trial; and Colleen Murphy’s new Canadian epic, The Breathing Hole, commissioned by the Festival especially for Canada 150.
“The Breathing Hole is one of the most ambitious and unique pieces of writing I have seen in years,” says Mr. Cimolino. “Each of the three acts breathtakingly captures a snapshot of this country’s development. We are very fortunate to have an extraordinarily gifted leader for this project, director Reneltta Arluk.”
The season will also feature Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and Timon of Athens, as well as classics from five centuries: Euripides’ Bakkhai, in a new version by Anne Carson; Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling; Molière’s Tartuffe; Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal; and Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot, in a new translation by David Edney. The Robert Louis Stephenson classic Treasure Island, adapted by Nicolas Billon, will delight audiences of all ages, as will the two glorious musicals, Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls and Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.
By buying now, you save as much as 25%, thanks to Early Bird Pricing, which is in effect until 11:59 p.m. on February 6. If you reserve your tickets now, you are also eligible for the Early Bird Price Guarantee: book before February 7 and avoid exchange fees and price increases if you need to change your tickets later. If you choose the same performance type and seating zone, you won’t pay anything extra. Regular exchange policies, which require 24 hours’ notice, do apply.
To place your order, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca or call the box office at 1.800.567.1600. Performances begin on April 15 and run until October 29..
Photo: Jani Lauzon in The Breathing Hole. ©2016 Lynda Churilla.
2017-01-05
Stratford: Celebrate Canada 150 at the Stratford Festival – tickets on sale January 7