HE Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, faced its most critical year this year. It was started artistically by the comAd bined efforts of Tyrone Guthrie and Miss Tanya Moiseiwitsch in 1953, Miss Moiseiwitsch designing the stage from suggestions by Dr. Guthrie, who has directed all the plays but one of the first three seasons. Last October it was announced that Dr. Guthrie had resigned and that, though he was to act as consultant if necessary, his direct connection with the festival had ceased. This announcement was followed almost immediately by the news that the tent which had housed the theatre from its inception was rapidly nearing the end of its waterproof life. The governors therefore decided to launch a campaign for funds to build a permanent theatre. Now a permanent theatre might be an ossifying influence; the proscenium arch might creep in if only to make the theatre useful for other functions during that part of the year when it would otherwise be idle. There was also a vague feeling of uneasiness that the festival could not perhaps afford to lose Guthrie whose drive and energy had done so much. One remembered the modern dress production of All's Well which had started the festival off along with Guiness' Richard 111, the exciting classical interpretation of Oedipus Rex, which had run for two seasons, and the elaborate pantomime of The Taming of the Shrew. Fortunately none of these gloomy forebodings was substantiated. The architects' sketch of the projected permanent theatre reassured everyone that the tent theatre's excellent features would be retained and that even the outside of the building, to be constructed of concrete and glass, would still be reminiscent of the carnival atmosphere of the original tent. The model of the permanent theatre was exhibited early this year and very quickly the fund grew. The provincial government contributed $Iooooo, an Ontario charitable foundation undertook to build the gallery at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars and, within a few months, nearly three quarters of the million odd dollars needed had been subscribed. This was not only a triumph for the organizers of the fund, it was a triumph of the festival itself and proof of how much it had become a national and not just a local affair. With the permanent building assured the governors still had to face the problem of whether their new director would be as good a draw as Guthrie and whether they could manage without an imported star. The subsequent festival banished this anxiety too. The new director at Stratford is Michael Langham, an Englishman who