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“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms … a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” ― Oscar Wilde

(April 1, 2020) The Stratford Festival is North America’s largest classical repertory theatre company. Its season is slated to open on June 2nd and run through December 31rd . With a production of All’s Well That Ends Well, the Festival celebrates the opening the of Tom Patterson Theatre, which joins its three other stages–the Avon, Studio and Festival Theatres.  All’s Well That End’s Well is one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” defined by their moral complexity and their unorthodox blend of operatic and realistic drama. While it was a less popular play in Shakespeare’s time, its stylized, gender-bending plot and its ethical dilemmas make it an excellent choice for a 21st century interpretation. Another featured Shakespeare play in this season’s lineup is Richard III, a dark piece of royal propaganda that became embedded in England’s collective memory. Both plays promise to give the modern viewer much food for thought. 

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”
(Hamlet, act 1 scene 5)
 
Amaka Umeh – Hamlet, Stratford Festival. 
David Cooper
“The world is grown so bad that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch”
(Richard III, act 1 scene 3)
 
Colm Feore – Richard III, Stratford Festival.
David Cooper
“No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.” 
(Richard III, act 1 scene 2)
 
Colm Feore – Richard III, Stratford Festival. 
David Cooper
“That one must eat to live, and not live to eat.”
(Molière’s The Miser, act 3 scene 5)
 
Colm Feore – The Miser, Stratford Festival. 
David Cooper
“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.”
(Much Ado About Nothing act 1, scene 1)
 
Graham Abbey, Maev Beaty – Much Ado About Nothing, Stratford Festival.
David Cooper
“My client feels that it was a combination of liquor and jazz that led to the downfall.”

Jennifer Rider-Shaw, Chelsea Preston – Chicago, Stratford Festival.
David Cooper
Arthur: Have you heard of this Broadway?
Robin: Yes Sire, and we don’t stand a chance there.
 
Jonathan Goad – Monty Python’s Spamalot, Stratford Festival. David Cooper
“The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.”
 
Laura Condlln – Frankenstein Revived, Stratford Festival
David Cooper
Character A: I’m ninety-one
Character B:  (Pause.) Is that so?
Character A: (Pause.) Yes. 
Character C: (Small smile.) You’re ninety-two. 
Character A: (Longer pause; none too pleasant.) Be that as it may.
(Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women)
 
Lucy Peacock, Martha Henry, Mamie Zwettler – Three Tall Women, Stratford Festival. 
David Cooper
“All us Wasy women. We’ll march up the hill, burn the church hall down, scare the priest to death, and then we’ll march all the way to Espanola, where the bingos are bigger and better…” – Annie
 
Michaela Washburn – The Rez Sisters, Stratford Festival.
David Cooper
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.”
(All’s Well That Ends Well, act 4, scene 3)
 
Seana McKenna – All’s Well That Ends Well, Stratford Festival.
David Cooper
“Good without evil is like light without darkness which in turn is like righteousness without hope.”
(All’s Well That Ends Well, act 5 scene 3)
 
Seana McKenna – All’s Well That Ends Well, Stratford Festival. 
David Cooper

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