For thousands of Ottawa residents, no summer calendar is complete without a visit to the Classic Theatre Festival, which had been staged for the past decade in Perth. That journey just got easier with the Festival’s highly anticipated re-launch this August at Arts Court Theatre (2 Daly Ave.) in Ottawa.

This award-winning professional company – which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019 before the pandemic – hosts some of Canada’s top theatrical talent performing timeless hits from the golden age of Broadway and the London stage. The company’s Board of Directors recently decided that a move to Ottawa, where over half of its audience already lives, made the most sense as the Festival emerged from two years of shutdown.

A LEGENDARY MARITAL COMEDY

For those who have been missing that special summer theatre feeling of gathering with family and friends to share in the journey of a story well told, the Festival has chosen to stage a Tony Award winner for Best Play. Jan de Hartog’s The Fourposter is an enduring, comedic chronicle of a marriage during an era of world-shaking social changes. This beloved Broadway classic follows a couple through 35 years of marriage, from a nervous wedding night through to childbirth and parenting, mid-life crisis, empty nesting, and the realities of aging. In the words of Artistic Producer Laurel Smith, it is “both a tender and at times incredibly funny exploration of an institution that most of us participate in and complain about a lot, but which ultimately represents the foundation for so many adult lives.”

The smash-hit original Broadway production, starring real-life couple Jessica Tandy and husband (and Canadian) Hume Cronyn, was described by a New York Times reviewer as "the most civilized comedy we have had on marriage for years.” A musical version of the play, I Do, I Do, played on Broadway in the 1960s.

“The plays of the Festival’s mandate period have a special feeling - like many of us get watching Turner Classic Movies,” explains Smith.

“There’s a universal quality to them that speaks to our hopes, dreams, and common humanity. They remind us of our species’ remarkable capacity to overcome seemingly impossible barriers with good storytelling, fantastic humour, and characters you just want to embrace and take home after the show.” The Festival promises a “Summer Theatre in the Capital” experience that recreates the milieu that made it a popular Perth destination. An entertaining and informative pre-show talk beginning half an hour before the curtain rises situates audiences in the play’s period, exploring social and cultural references not familiar to everyone. 

The lobby hosts a loonie- toonie book sale boasting rare finds. Sale proceeds fund the Festival’s Save-a-Seat program, which partners with social services agencies to provide free tickets to low-income community members, allowing them to attend the theatre in dignity.

“Live theatre is an unforgettable experience, and should be accessible to all,” Smith says of Save-a-Seat, which distributed 2,500 free tickets in the Festival’s first decade. “It shows how the arts can contribute to community cohesion.”

THE FOURPOSTER, a Tony Award-Winning Marital Comedy, Presented by the Classic Theatre Festival, Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa - August 5 to 28, from Wednesday to Sunday at 1:30 pm, and on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 7:30 pm.

The Fourposter (directed by Laurel Smith, starring Alison Smyth and Scott Clarkson, stage managed by Jennifer Stobart, designed and lit by Holly Meyer-Dymny, production managed by Katherine Kellner, and choreographed by Jess Vandenberg, are selling fast, so for best seats, book now at (613) 695-9330 or classictheatre.ca.