1939 Now Available For Streaming On Stratfest@home

The Stratford Festival's filmed performance of 1939 will debut for streaming worldwide on Monday, March 13. This powerful new work is a Stratford Festival commission written by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan, directed for the stage by Lauzon and for the screen by Nicholas Shields.

The production is led by five Indigenous actors, Richard Comeau, Wahsontí:io Kirby, Kathleen MacLean, Tara Sky and John Wamsley, and also features Stratford Festival stalwarts Sarah Dodd, Jacklyn Francis and Mike Shara.

Born of both family legacy and the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1939 has been guided by Indigenous Elders, Survivors and ceremony throughout.

1939 takes audiences to a fictional Residential School in Northern Ontario where, anticipating a visit by King George VI, an English teacher enlists her students in a production of All's Well That Ends Well. But her rigid ideas of how Shakespeare should be performed are challenged as her Indigenous students start finding parallels between themselves and the characters in the play - and, far from letting themselves be defined by colonial expectations, set out to make Shakespeare's bittersweet comedy defiantly their own.

"Although this is not the first play that has been written about the incredible resilience of Residential School survivors, what differs now," says Lauzon, "is that organizations like Stratford are lending support and curious audiences are coming to witness and listen. We are now able to create theatre with highly trained Indigenous actors, together with spiritual support from Elders and Knowledge Keepers. We are having conversations around Cultural Intimacy and using circular communication to transform the way we create theatre." With all of this coming together, Lauzon sees that "the change that so many have fought for is finally happening."

1939 joins a collection of Indigenous works curated from across the country and made available to teachers and students through Classroom Connect, launched in late 2022 on the Stratford Festival's streaming platform, Stratfest@Home. Other works in the collection include Th'owxiya: The Hungry Feast Dish (Axis Theatre), Kwi'ah: The Girl Who Heals (Axis Theatre), Florent Vollant: I Dream in Innu (National Film Board of Canada) and The War Being Waged (Prairie Theatre Exchange).

For more information, visit stratfordfestival.ca. Covering media may contact Melissa Mae Shipley via email at mshipley@stratfordfestival.ca for screener access. View the trailer at YouTube.com/StratfordFestival.

Subscribe to Stratfest@Home for just $10 a month and gain access to the best in Canadian digital theatrical productions, including the Stratford Festival's acclaimed Shakespeare films, selected productions from the 2021 and 2022 seasons, original digital content and selected events from the Festival's Meighen Forum, along with documentaries and original content from around the world.