Canada with Shakespeare and Shaw
THE PLAY'S THE THING AT TWO FESTIVALS IN ONTARIO
Chicago Tribune (IL)
May 28, 2006
Author: Robert Cross, Tribune staff reporter Estimated printed pages: 7 
On a midsummer's night last year, the Festival Theatre sizzled with a performance of "The Tempest," starring the venerable William Hutt as Prospero. Hutt was appearing in his farewell season at the Stratford Festival of Canada. The veteran of stage, screen and television had reached the age of 85, but his regal bearing and roaring voice still mustered the power of youth. Everyone else in the cast read William Shakespeare's lines with gusto as well and moved about the modern thrust stage with such zeal and in such colorful raiment that the play became part spectacle, a tempest in a kaleidoscope that the Bard may not have imagined but surely would have loved. Hutt, as the deposed duke with magical powers, declaims, near the end, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." And what followed--after the cheers and curtainless curtain calls--did seem dreamlike.
Hundreds of people, members of the audience, strolled from the theater, past a silvery statue of "The Tempest" playwright and then on along the southern shore of Lake Victoria--really a bulge in a river called Avon.
In darkness lit only by street lamps and the glow from houses near Lakeside Drive, they talked quietly on their way toward home or their hotels or an after-theater drink, the spell of Shakespeare, well performed, lingering on toward midnight.
The Stratford Festival may be a far cry from the realities of theater-going in Elizabethan times, when boys played the female parts and under-bathed spectators gabbled and jeered throughout the performances.
But the modern-day experience seems to be just as thoroughly satisfying, partly because the players keep the enthusiasm level high and boredom at bay, and partly because even the spectating becomes a physical act. One may walk to the theater in a most walkable city; carry a drink to the garden at the interval and start a conversation; clap in the right places and think-think-think. No TiVo to jog the memory. The exercise can be habit-forming.
"People return again and again, every year," said a member of the festival staff.
Throughout the course of a season that stretches from around Shakespeare's generally accepted birthdate of April 23 to the end of October, Stratford is a town where audiences frequently crowd the sidewalks--on their way to a matinee at the Avon Theatre, say, or leaving the Tom Patterson Theatre, heading for the Festival or the intimate Studio.
And that's not the only seasonal dramatic event in sprawling Ontario. About 100 miles east of Stratford, theater lovers gather at Niagara-on-the-Lake for the festival that pays tribute to George Bernard Shaw.
Niagara-on-the-Lake (the lake being Ontario, of course), home of the Shaw Festival, manages to stuff as much charm as Stratford's into a smaller package. Queen Street sets the tone. It's all so very British--from the ornate Prince of Wales Hotel to the Greaves Jams and Marmalades shop.
At the Shaw Cafe and Wine Bar, patrons may dine al fresco near a life-size Shaw statue, or at least pose for a picture with him and wonder what a Favian socialist might have thought about all this.
Two of the three Shaw Festival theaters--Court House Theatre and Royal George--occupy Queen Street buildings with some history on them. The Court House is a national historic site dating from the 1840s. It's where the Shaw Festival began in 1962. The Royal George was once a fixture on the vaudeville circuit. Troops were entertained there during World War I.
The third theater, aptly called the Festival, lies a few blocks farther east in a modern brick compound devoted to the dramatic arts. This is the place for big productions and some astounding sets. Last summer, the West Ham Salvation Army shelter erected for Shaw's "Major Barbara" was a chilling, gray reminder of England's poverty at the end of the 19th Century.
Ontario's two big theater festivals aren't limited to Shakespeare and Shaw, although those productions alone are performed admirably enough to sustain a satisfying schedule.
This Stratford Festival season, which has been in previews but opens officially on Monday, combines Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Twelfth Night" and "Henry IV Part 1" with two musicals, Lionel Bart's "Oliver" and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's "South Pacific," plus Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," Moliere's "Don Juan," "The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster, Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts," "Harlem Duet" by Djanet Sears, "Fanny Kemble" by Peter Hinton, Robert Hewett's "The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead" and "The Liar" by Pierre Corneille.
The Shaw season began early this month, and runs until Nov. 19. That schedule also calls for a mix of Shaw creations--"Arms and the Man," "Too True to Be Good"--and a lineup of other productions. Those would be "The Heiress" by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, "High Society" by Arthur Kopit and Cole Porter, "The Invisible Man" by Michael O'Brien (adapted from the H.G. Wells novel), "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, "Love Among the Russians" by Anton Chekhov, "The Magic Fire" by Lillian Groag, "Design for Living" by Noel Coward and "Rosmersholm" by Ibsen.
Stratford and Shaw obviously reach far beyond summer stock in their ambitions and professionalism. Critics have routinely cited one or the other--or both--as the best repertory theaters in North America.
For Stratford, especially, this high standard was true right from the beginning in the early `50s, when journalist and Stratford native Tom Patterson sought to revive his hometown's economy after the railroad industry, its life's blood, moved elsewhere. He believed a first-class annual Shakespeare festival would pull in the crowds.
Tyrone Guthrie, the British actor and director, agreed to be the first artistic director. By 1953, the Festival Theatre was in place. According to the festival's official history, the action began on the evening of July 13, 1953, when actor Alec Guinness spoke the opening lines of "Richard III": "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York."
Over the years, there have been occasional summers of discontent, when attendance failed to meet expectations. Last year and the year before, the festival barely broke even. Ideally, the plays and a large number of "fringe" activities--such as seminars and backstage tours--should draw 600,000 people. In '04 only 568,715 attended, and the 2005 attendance was even lower, topping out at around 540,000.
The Shaw Festival operates on a smaller scale and reported a bit of a surplus for last year. It chalked up 295,559 ticket sales in 2005. Like Stratford, Shaw depends heavily on grants, donations, fund-raisers and corporate sponsors.
Brian Doherty, a resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake and a theatrical author and director, began the festival in 1962 with a "Salute to Shaw" at the Court House. From that small start, the festival grew and expanded, adding two more venues and branching off into concerts, musicals and a non-Shavian repertoire to go with the plays of the festival's namesake and main inspiration.
Both festivals have generated so many sideshows that it would take a thick booklet to list them all. Stratford workshops teach such showbiz techniques as song and dance, vocalizing and swordplay.
There are backstage tours, costume warehouse tours and Festival Theatre garden tours. Actors, writers, directors and production personnel give lectures and participate in chats on various theatrical subjects.
Shaw Festival workshops include music composition, hat-making, wardrobe secrets, acting techniques and special effects.
The Academy of the Shaw Festival will conduct four-day seminars on "Shaw and His Contemporaries" and "Shaw's Women."
Canadian theaters have suffered lately from conditions beyond their control, such as the rising cost of gas and the state of the North American economy. Those who would prefer to drive from nearby states in the U.S. possibly are staying home in greater numbers. The increasing strength of the Canadian dollar also may have caused some families from the U.S. to strike festivals from the household budget.
In an interview with Laura Cudworth of the Stratford Beacon Herald last year, director Antoni Cimolino said: "There's something going on globally in terms of how people feel--what they're spending their money on. As much as the theatre for me is my life, I don't consider it just entertainment. I feel it's absolutely necessary. Other people may feel it's one of those things they can stop spending money on if things are getting tight."
But those willing and able to travel--maybe even consider travel absolutely necessary--should find Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake pleasant destinations, even if they never attend a show.
Thanks to the festival's economic impact, Stratford is a city blessed with well-maintained Victorian-era buildings, ambitious restaurants, hotels ranging from quaint B&Bs to starkly modern, and gardens that fill the city with fragrance and color.
Niagara-on-the-Lake is the quiet neighbor to Niagara Falls, the raucous U.S./Canadian tourist town 15 miles distant. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in Ontario wine country, famous for its ice wine and other respectable white wines. So oenophiles can take rewarding winery tours. History buffs know the region played an important role in the War of 1812, a story retold at Ft. George, Ft. Mississagua and Butler's Barracks.
Accommodations abound and include most lodging types, plus rental cottages. Restaurants also run the gamut. At the Festival Theatre Cafe, the same chefs who feed the actors prepare gourmet entrees served at tables beside the courtyard pond and beneath a cedar arbor (or indoors when necessary).
Both towns strive to serve up a perfect summer weekend: a play or two for rumination, passion or, yes, entertainment. But they also have charming streets to wander in, good food, interesting countryside for excursions, recreational activities and unique shopping opportunities.
The play's the thing, but not the whole thing.
- - -
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
This can be a tricky proposition for anyone trying to catch both festivals on the same trip, unless they want to drive all the way there and back. That round trip from Chicago would put about 1,100 miles on the odometer.
One strategy might be to book a round-trip flight to Buffalo, which isn't far from Niagara-on-the-Lake. For arbitrary dates in mid-June, various Web sites were showing fares as low as $150, plus taxes and fees.
From Niagara Falls to London or Kitchener, Ont. (each about 30 miles from Stratford), and back should cost no more than another $150 U.S. on Via Rail Canada. To work out those details, call 888-842-7245 or click on www.viarail.ca
GETTING AROUND
Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake both are walkable cities, but there are taxis for the foot-weary. Or try a horse-drawn carriage in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
EATING THERE
In both towns, you can find restaurants with gourmet inclinations and service geared to accommodate curtain times. In Stratford, I dined at the Bijou (105 Erie St.; 519-273-5000) for bison tenderloin with a modern-French touch and worked up an appetite trying to find it in a downtown alleyway. I also had beef tenderloin with a continental touch at the Church Restaurant and Belfry (70 Brunswick St.; 519-273-3424), which used to be what it says it is, complete with stained glass.
There are plenty of other choices, of course. And the sources below can help to narrow the search.
In Niagara-on-the-Lake, a busy schedule of playgoing limited the dining experience, but the Prince of Wales Hotel (see Sleeping There below) serves elegant repasts, and the nothing-fancy Old Towne Restaurant (61-63 Queen St.; 905-468-2532) made a delicious Shaw Festival Eggs Benedict, which is pretty much like any other eggs Benedict, just more dramatic. The spouse and I enjoyed a post-theater snack at Zees Patio and Grill (92 Picton St.; 800-511-7070). What they did with a little goat cheese and mushrooms indicated in-depth culinary skills.
SLEEPING THERE
In the heart of downtown Stratford, I stayed at the 14-room Mercer Hall Inn (108 Ontario St.; 888-816-4011; www.mercerhallinn.com), its rooms cunningly carved out of a former newspaper office. In-season rates start at about $114 U.S.
Naturally, Stratford has a lot of other lodging going for it, including places with such names as As You Like It Motel, Shakespeare Inn and Another Rave Review.
Niagara-on-the-Lake also has a variety of beds. We chose the Prince of Wales Hotel (6 Picton St.; 888-669-5566; www.vintageinns.com) for its thoroughly British ambience with lots of dark wood, florid fabrics and all shades tasseled. Rates start at about $250 U.S. per room in season.
All prices subject to change.
THE PLAYS
At the Stratford Festival, regular ticket prices start at about $51.50 U.S., but there are so many deals, discounts, packages and special rates that it's best to write, call or go on line: Stratford Festival of Canada, P.O. Box 520, Stratford, ON Canada N5A 6V2; 800-567-1600; www.stratfordfestival.ca
The Shaw Festival has a lengthy and permutation-heavy price list as well. A regular weekday evening performance starts at around $46 U.S., but of course you'll need further guidance: Shaw Festival, Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, Canada LOS 1JO; 800-511-7429; www.shawfest.com
INFORMATION
Tourism Stratford, 47 Downie St., Stratford, ON, Canada N5A 1W7; 800-561-7926; www.city.stratford.on.ca
Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce, 26 Queen St. (lower level), P.O. Box 1043, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON, Canada LOS 1JO, 905-468-1950; www.niagaraonthelake.com