Support for the 2015 season of Production support is generously provided by Drs. M.L. Myers & the late W.P. Hayman, the Festival Theatre is generously Jane Petersen Burfield & family, Esther & Sam Sarick in honour of Antoni Cimolino, provided by Claire & Daniel Bernstein Barbara & John Schubert and Catherine & David Wilkes UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO Shakespeare lived in an age of rapid DISCOVERY: change, a time of new worlds, new beliefs and scientific discoveries. THAT EUREKA In short, he lived in an age very on the much like our own. But in that early modern age, change was MOMENT especially unsettling, overturning world stage societal foundations and leading to “We know what we revolution. In our own time we have This is a place where imagination are, but know not not only become inured to change, meets innovation — where we welcome it to the point where it is unconventional approaches push what we may be.” our new faith. performance to new heights and — Hamlet And so for the 2015 season I wanted allow talent to soar. to explore plays that especially Through research, teaching and examine discovery. In these plays, public engagement, University characters learn surprising truths of Waterloo is a proud supporter about the world around them or of culture and community. perhaps about themselves. In that eureka moment, their lives change forever. How do they deal with From Solitary to Solidarity: that change? At what cost comes Unravelling the Ligatures of Ashley Smith knowledge? Since Adam and Eve, March 2014 these questions have been at University of Waterloo Drama Faculty of Arts the centre of the human narrative. In 2015, through our playbill and in more than 200 Forum events, we will celebrate the power of the newest god in our pantheon – Discovery. Antoni Cimolino Artistic Director WATERLOO | Canada’s most innovative university uwaterloo.ca/stratford15 C007477 Our 2015 Partners and Sponsors We are honoured to acknowledge the following corporations and individuals who have made commitments in the 2015 season: Individual Theatre Partners Season Hosts Performance Hosts Support for the 2015 Support for the 2015 Support for the 2015 Support for the 2015 Burgundy Asset Management Inc. season of the Festival season of the Avon season of the Tom season of the Studio Theatre is generously Theatre is generously Patterson Theatre is Theatre is generously Famme & Co. Professional Corporation provided by Claire & provided by the generously provided provided by Sandra & Highstreet Asset Management Daniel Bernstein Birmingham Family by Richard Rooney Jim Pitblado & Laura Dinner Intact Insurance Jarislowsky Fraser Corporate Theatre Partner Pelee Island Winery BMO Financial Group, Corporate Sponsor for the 2015 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre Pratt & Whitney Canada Inc. Steed Standard Transport Limited Corporate Partners Sylvanacre Properties Ltd. University of Waterloo Stratford Campus The Woodbridge Company Limited The Stratford Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous support of these contributors to our success: Production and Program Sponsors an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario In-Kind Sponsors The Stratford Festival is a non-profit organization with charitable status in Canada* and the U.S.** *Charitable registration number: 119200103 RR0002 **As defined by Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code 2 3 for an unforgettable time ALL THE WORLD’S The Mirror up to Nature By Alexander Leggatt A STAGE Jonathan Goad, Geraint Wyn Davies Hamlet opens – almost – on a note of his own brother. Beneath the glamour celebration and reassurance. After the and sophistication of the court is what sudden death of old King Hamlet, his Claudius himself will call “the primal brother Claudius has succeeded and eldest curse,” Cain’s murder of his has married his brother’s widow. A new brother Abel. reign, a new marriage, life goes on. But The Ghost’s command to Hamlet INDEED in the midst of the celebration is a figure looks straightforward: revenge. But while in black: young Hamlet, still mourning that impulse drives countless stories in for his father, seeing Gertrude’s second which the only question about revenge marriage as incest and the world itself is how to do it, this story is different. In as an unweeded garden, rank with his own way, the Ghost is as disturbing corruption. Life goes on – but for Hamlet as Claudius. His return from the dead – it is a life not worth living. In comedy, Hamlet imagines him breaking violently new life is guaranteed by the promise out of his sepulchre – is itself a violation of marriage and sexual fulfilment; but of nature. And is this figure really the for Hamlet sex is what Gertrude is doing late King Hamlet? Those who talk of the Offi cial Newspaper of the Stratford Festival in bed with Claudius. Whenever he Ghost call it not “he” but “it,” and while imagines it, the effect is queasy disgust, they see a resemblance – “Looks it not and of his own love affair with Ophelia like the king?” – they can never bring we see only the broken remains. themselves to say it is the king. In the While new life begins in the court, out excitement of his first encounter with the on the battlements the past has come Ghost, Hamlet accepts it as the spirit of back in the form of the ghost of the his father; but later, when that excitement late King Hamlet. Silent under repeated has worn off, he wonders if it is a devil questioning (and this is a play in which tempting him to an act that will damn him, questions are asked more often than an act as sinful as murder itself. they are answered), it finally speaks to Appearing on the battlements in young Hamlet, a dead man breaking armour, at a time when Denmark itself the silence of death to describe in is on a war footing with armaments graphic detail how he died, poisoned by factories working day and night, the 4 5 Stratford / Toronto Star Program Ad 2015_C.indd 1 15-03-13 9:28 AM DAVID MIRVISH PRESENTS THE 2015/16 MIRVISH THEATRE SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A GENTLEMAN’S & a d i e ’ GUIDE TO THEATREGOING:L ESSENTIAL SHOWS 7 Jonathan Goad Fo a Perfect Ghost comes from the world of military the Ghost’s story, and when a troupe Theatre Season! action. But this is not Hamlet’s world. of players arrives in Elsinore he finds a When he asks permission to leave the paradoxical way of doing it: he will use GET READY, GLASS SLIPPERS ‘CAUSE HERE WE COME. court it is not to join the army but to go the illusion of theatre to get at the truth. PICK UPARE SO BACK. back to university in Wittenberg. As the It is theatre’s business, he claims in one MAIN command to revenge is problematic, of his many aphorisms, “to hold as ’twere SEASON Hamlet as an avenger seems at first the mirror up to nature.” In this case, FROM the players will enact the murder as the 7 SHOWS Ghost described it, and how Claudius It is theatre’s reacts will give Hamlet the evidence he ONE LOW PRICE US. RC A M Y JOAN B OS T ® needs. Claudius cracks, the truth is out, K PHO THE TONY AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL R A L C FROM THE CREATORS OF LL E ES. RR ECCL EW YAN TE YAN R R SOUTH PACIFIC & THE SOUND OF MUSIC ND A Y B . AND B R OS T PHO R business, HE T O ALL SOUND LUKE, J RAYMOND OF and we might think the play is nearly September / November 2015 December 2015 / January 2016 January / February 2016 Ed Mirvish Theatre Ed Mirvish Theatre Royal Alexandra Theatre over – as at this point, with the culprit Hamlet claims, revealed, a conventional murder mystery HHHHH would be. But we are only halfway there. ‘THEATRICAL HEAVEN’ Sunday Telegraph “to hold as ‘RUPERT EVERETT MUSIC For the first and only time in the play, gives the performance of his career’ The Guardian Hamlet finds himself alone with Claudius. ’twere the mirror Claudius is kneeling, evidently in prayer. It is the perfect chance for Hamlet to up to nature.” act – stab an unarmed man in the back miscast. He is too inclined to think, to – and what he does instead is think. If The “REJOICE. It is even more glorious than promised.” he kills Claudius now, Claudius will go Judas Kiss “Thrilling! THE NEW YORK TIMES question – and even, with his mind on by David Hare The best musical of the year.” ‘Rupert Everett is magnificent as Oscar Wilde’ NEW YORK MAGAZINE to heaven, and Hamlet wants him in hell Evening Standard other things, to forget. One sign that the Ghost may indeed be Hamlet’s father where he belongs. Hamlet at this point March / April 2016 April / May 2016 May / June 2016 Begins July 2016 Royal Alexandra Theatre Princess of Wales Theatre Royal Alexandra Theatre Princess of Wales Theatre is that his last command as he leaves sounds decisive; but he is buying into the battlements is not “Avenge me” but a conventional view of what happens “Remember me.” He knows what his son after death, the choice of heaven or hell, Book Your Subscription Now! 416.593.4225 is like once his mind gets working. utterly different from the view he took in Time passes, and Claudius lives. his “To be or not to be” soliloquy, where MIRVISH.COM 1.800.771.3933 Hamlet needs to confirm the truth of life after death was “the undiscovered 7 country,” the ultimate unanswerable schemes go out of control, and when question. As he did on the question of Hamlet finally kills Claudius he himself is the Ghost – his father’s spirit, or a devil – dying, and he knows it.