First Stage: The Making of the Stratford Festival

Abstract

Tom Patterson’s reminiscences of the eighteen months preceding the opening of the first Stratford festival in 1953 cover one of the most astonishing periods in Canadian theatre history. Originally recorded in the convivial atmosphere of the Hop and Grape pub off Yonge Street in Toronto, Patterson’s expansive recollections have been skilfully organized and edited by Allan Gould into a continuous, suspenseful and often hilarious narrative. Of course the story itself is not unfamiliar. The number of books recounting some aspect of the “Stratford miracle” (from Robertson Davies’ 1954 Renown at Stratford to John Pettigrew and Jamie Portman’s recent two-volume history of the organization) has, in the context of Canadian publishing at least, been positively staggering. Furthermore, both Guthrie and Guinness in their published memoirs have referred at some length to many of the same events. Nevertheless, it is important to have this definitive version (from the horse’s mouth, so to speak) for what it reveals about the background to this extraordinary drama.