Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – STRATFORD FESTIVAL 2026: A roundup of Antony Cimolino’s wonderfully balanced farewell season

• By drediman
• August 25, 2026
• No Comments

Earlier this month, I traveled up north across the border to Ontario, Canada to immerse myself in the 2026 season of the Stratford Festival — one of the few remaining large scale repertory theater companies still in operation. This year is notable for being the final year of Antony Cimolino as the storied festival’s artistic director. Here are my thoughts on the nine productions — which collectively amount to a wonderfully balanced farewell season — I was able to catch. Together, they engaged in an intertwined dialogue that brought into conversation themes of imagination and storytelling, notions so central to the art of theater.

Shakespeare, with an emphasis on the text

In terms of Shakespeare plays, this season I was able to catch two of the three plays by the Bard, The Tempest at the flagship Festival Theatre and Othello at the stunningly designed “new” Tom Patterson Theatre. Thankfully, both eschew the high concept treatments that often betray the true intent of the plays, instead opting for more traditional interpretations, at least upon first glance. For his final Shakespeare production as artistic director, Cimolino — whose production of The Winter’s Tale at the old Tom Patterson Theatre remains one of the finest Shakespeare productions I’ve seen — has fittingly chosen to mount another romance, Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest (RECOMMENDED). Surrounded by some of Stratford’s most reliable Shakespearean actors, the great Geraint Wyn Davies delivers a disarmingly internal performance, giving Prospero a grounded Everyman quality that brings an affecting humanity to the role, particularly during the play’s concluding scenes of resignation and reconciliation. In a subtle but clear decision, Prospero doesn’t break his magical staff, instead delivering it, like his faithful servant Ariel (Marissa Orjalo, in an instinctual performance), back to the elements. I especially enjoyed Cimolino’s manifestation of Prospero’s magical island, which is both functional yet organically teeming with mysterious life and magic, culminating in an enchantingly handcrafted rendition of Miranda and Ferdinand’s vision scene (as Miranda, Ashley Dingwell is the epitome of loveliness). Even better was Haysam Kadri’s production of Othello (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). In André Sills and Evan Buliung, we have an evenly-matched Othello and Iago, respectively. Buliung makes for an especially charismatic Iago, whose shifty underlying restlessness beautifully contrasts Sills’ natural gravitas and nobility. Both take their time with the text, allowing the tragedy to unfold with steady, undeniable force. The same can be said of Jessica B. Hill’s Emilia — noticeably more central in this staging — as well as Krystin Pellerin’s frail yet steely Desdemona. Kadri’s direction boasts subtle psychological touches (kudos to lighting designer Siobhán Sleath and sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne for their atmospheric work) that viscerally highlight the psychological trauma brewing within the characters’ minds.

Big, brassy musicals that foster escapism

As for the two musicals, big, brassy escapism was the name of the game at the Festival Theatre. The evening of my first day in the lovely town of Stratford was anchored by Donna Feore’s buoyant revival Guys and Dolls (RECOMMENDED), which has been given a large-scale, dance-heavy production that tickled the audience. For a while now, Feore has been the primary force behind Stratford’s musical productions, and I’d argue that few are as well acquainted with the Festival stage’s possibilities as the renowned director/choreographer is when it comes to staging big dance musicals. The primary cast is more than up to the task, although their performances are largely content with sticking to conventional portrayals of the cartoonish characters. Overall, the pairing of Mark Uhre’s Nathan Detroit and Jennifer Rider-Shaw’s Miss Adelaide hit the mark more consistently than their co-stars. The second act culminates with the one-two punch that is “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”, both of which were brought to vivacious life by Feore’s irresistibly energetic dance numbers. Suffice to say, they didn’t disappoint. Then there’s the return of Stratford Festival’s production of Something Rotten! (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) — also directed and choreographed by Feore — which proved to be a smash hit for the festival when it was originally staged two seasons ago. As I missed the entirety of the 2024 season, I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. While entertaining enough, I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t the musical’s biggest cheerleader when it originally premiered on Broadway. In my mind, much of it felt designed by committee in comparison to many of the musicals being produced at the time. Well, leave it to Feore to bring out the humanity of the piece. Although still unabashedly exuberant, in this more grounded iteration of the Kirkpatricks’ musical, its satiric elements aren’t as hard-edged, even paying witty homage to the musical productions staged during Cimolino’s tenure. As the two brothers attempting to make it in the theater industry during the height of Shakespeare’s popularity, Mark Uhre and Henry Firmston give effortlessly winning, wonderfully sung performances. That being said, the cheekily show-stopping Dan Chameroy as Nostradamus steals the show every time he’s onstage. In unavoidably direct conversation with the festival’s Shakespeare productions, Something Rotten! feels completely at home at Stratford.

Bringing in new audiences with new works

One of the wonderful things about the programming at Stratford Festival — which is definitely true of Cimolino’s time as artistic director — is its commitment to new works, including stage adaptations of literary works (I was completely enamored with the festival’s theatrical take on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, one of my very favorite offerings of last year’s immersion). Stratford’s family-friendly production this year, also at the Avon, is the stage version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved young adult fantasy novel The Hobbit (RECOMMENDED). Kim Selody’s theatrical adaptation is efficient, succinctly distilling the book’s eventful plot in just over two hours (including an intermission). Thanks to director Pablo Felices-Luna clever and imaginative staging — kudos particularly to Lorenzo Savoini flexible, shape-shifting set design — as well as the solid ensemble storytelling, the production makes it seem that it’s actually larger than it actually is (the cast only amounts to nine company members). Indeed, there’s sufficient spectacle throughout, which thankfully never comes across as bloated. Then over at the Patterson, there’s Jovanni Sy’s The Tao of the World (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a sort of modern day mashup between Restoration comedy and Asian rom-com (the play is definitely inspired by the hit film Crazy Rich Asians). Sy is perhaps best known for his uncanny cross-cultural play Salesman in China, which Stratford had a significant hand in developing. Arguably more impressive — and stylistically so different — is Sy’s ambitious new play, which boasts surprisingly sophisticated theatrical storytelling and layered characterizations. The refreshingly diverse cast is very good across the board, gamely and admirably acquitting themselves to the playwright’s broadly comic and distinctively exotic world. Leading the charge is Agnes Tong’s voracious performance as Arabella, an entitled Singaporean princess type whose careless ways unleash an outrageous chain of events that often had the audience in stitches (no spoilers here). Also worth mentioning are the vibrant turns by Manami Hara and Karthik Kadam as, respectively, Arabella’s commandeering mother and gay best friend.

A trio of sturdily revived classics

Also on this trip, I caught a trio of sturdy revivals of classic plays. The first of these was Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (RECOMMENDED) at the Avon. After having just seen Joe Mantello’s extraordinary Tony-winning revival of the warhorse play on the Great White Way, I was a bit trepidatious to revisit the American tragedy so soon. To be sure, director Dean Gabourie’s production is a far more traditional reading of the play, headlined by Stratford veterans Tom McCamus and Lucy Peacock as a fumbling Willy Loman and a sympathetic Linda Loman, respectively. Last season in the very same theater, the duo also co-starred in Robert Lepage’s flashy staging of Macbeth; here, they’re in much more comfortable territory, delivering predictably solid, well-oiled portrayals. Nearly eclipsing them, however, was Joe Perry as Biff, who also starred in another classic play this season, Oscar Wilde’s evergreen The Importance of Being Earnest (RECOMMENDED). The hilarity of Wilde’s work is baked into the language, which the current Stratford cast giddily takes to heart. Although colorfully designed by Bretta Greece (sets) and Cory Vincennes (costumes), Krysta Jackson’s revival registers only mildly queer, especially when compared to the National Theatre’s equally audacious and celebrated revival of the popular play in London last year (the festival’s last production of the work starring the late, great Brian Bedford as a deliciously droll Lady Brackness transferred to Broadway via Roundabout Theatre Company). Lesser known than the preceding plays is Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo’s 1959 family “dramedy” Saturday, Sunday, Monday (RECOMMENDED), a playwright that Cimolino, who is of Italian descent, seems to have been championing during his tenure (I saw his production Napoli Milionaria! as part of the 2018 season). As his final directorial assignment of the season, the production is on brand with the season at large, with both the staging and performances — especially memorable is the larger-than-life Rose Napoli as the feisty, under-duress family matriarch — conveying the play’s rich comedy and touching humanity in a beautifully balanced and naturalistic manner (thanks in no small part to Cimolino and Donato Santeramo’s new English translation).