The Stratford Festival: Emerging from global lockdown

Abstract

While the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over – at the time of this writing, Ontario is entering its seventh wave of the disease, fuelled by the Omicron BA.5 subvariant – the impetus to return to a sense of normalcy and ‘life pre-Covid’ is prevalent. Government-issued public health restrictions have loosened and masking is only required in particular settings, usually those pertaining to health care, though businesses do retain a degree of autonomy regarding their own requirements. Theatre has been drastically affected by the pandemic and public health guidelines since the global emergence of Covid-19 in early 2020. The Stratford Festival is no exception. Its 2020 season was cancelled entirely, and its 2021 season was staged predominantly outdoors under purpose-built tents. This 2022 season marks a return to indoor performances and further easing of the previous season’s restrictions. Nonetheless, innovative digital viewing options born of necessity during the pandemic’s first ravages continue to be offered, expanding the viewing demographic and possibilities available to patrons. Actors and audiences alike are delighted to see most of the previously cancelled 2020 offerings return to the 2022 Stratford Festival’s roster, including Hamlet, Richard III, All’s Well that Ends Well, Hamlet-911, Chicago, and The Miser. Regrettably, Wolf Hall, Mike Poulton’s reimagining of Hilary Mantel’s novel, is not to return this season. Chris Abraham’s Much Ado About Nothing starring Graham Abbey and Maev Beaty is also not experiencing a 2022 revival. Instead, the Festival has added Sunny Drake’s salacious Every Little Nookie in its world premiere, directed by Ted Witzel; Little Women, adapted for the stage by Jordi Mand and directed by Esther Jun with Schulich Children’s Plays; and Death and the King’s Horsemen, by Wole Soyinka and directed by Tawiah M’Carthy. In 2021, 90-minute productions featured casts of eight socially distanced performers to outdoor audiences. There were some limited capacities, socially distanced productions in