Antoine Yared News

THE ADVENTURES OF PERICLES by William Shakespeare, and directed by Scott Wentworth, opened at Stratford Festival's Tom Patterson Theatre on Saturday night. Starring Evan Buliung as the title character, this production was moving and fun from beginning to end.

Swift advance sales have prompted the Stratford Festival to extend the runs of four productions, just as the box office has opened to the public. Performances of Carousel, The Alchemist, The Physicists and The Last Wife have been added to the schedule.

With a string of hit musicals to his credit at Stratford, including 42nd Street, Camelot, Evita and West Side Story, director Gary Griffin returns to the classics in his fifth Festival season with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Starring Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh, the tragic drama began previews on Sunday, August 3, at Stratford's Tom Patterson Theatre. The production officially opens tonight, August 14.

With a string of hit musicals to his credit at Stratford, including 42nd Street, Camelot, Evita and West Side Story, director Gary Griffin returns to the classics in his fifth Festival season with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Starring Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh, the tragic drama begins previews on Sunday, August 3, at Stratford's Tom Patterson Theatre. The production officially opens on Thursday, August 14.

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, Directed by MARTHA HENRY, and set in the 30 years war that ravaged 17th century Europe, is as moving, upsetting, and as politically relevant as ever…which is likely exactly what playwright Bertolt Brecht intended when he initially wrote it as a response to the Second World War.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE-arguably William Shakespeare's most controversial play, is being tackled this season at the Stratford Festival for the first time since 2007. Under the direction of (Artistic Director) ANTONI CIMOLINO, this production does not shy away from the controversial nature of many characters' anti-Semitic views, and in fact, highlights the danger of such views by placing this production in a timeline leading up to the Holocaust. The constant reminder of what is to come provides a dark and almost eerie backdrop to this production, creating a thought-provoking dark 'comedy' for the ages.

Stratford's THE THREE MUSKETEERS is a melodramatic delight filled with swashbuckling action, farcical interludes, and bigger than life characters. It tells the triumphant tale of good winning out over evil. The production should delight those who want to escape the real world and live out the fantasies of days gone by.