The 1999 Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, 20-22 July 1999 (review)

Abstract

Stratford at the millennium is running in the black. After several years of red ink in the early 1990s, Artistic Director Richard Monette has the Stratford Festival turning a profit. Operating in a competitive economic environment, Monette has parlayed popular musicals, Shakespeare's "greatest hits," and Stratford's middle of the road interpretations into a profit-making operation. During his six years as Artistic Director at Stratford, Monette has built on the Festival's strengths in ensemble acting and design while avoiding controversial interpretations and emphasizing a kind of popular theatricality. The four productions I attended exhibited Stratford's hallmarks: strong casting throughout, high quality design with high-tech effects, and generally conservative play selection and interpretation. While some critics lament the Festival's descent into middle-class after-dinner entertainment, Monette has also been keeping innovation alive and is building for the future. For example, the recently established Stratford Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training, the long-awaited Canadian acting school, has begun to feed new talent into the Festival's troupe which is still anchored by highly-skilled but aging veterans like Martha Henry, Brian Bedford, and William Hutt. By establishing the acting school and selecting contemporary Canadian plays like the innovative Glenn, Monette is keeping Stratford's long-time promise to develop Canadian talent. Commerce is serving art.