World Class Theatre: What’s on at Stratford in 2025

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As the Stratford Festival season wraps up, we have thoroughly enjoyed this year’s productions of La Cage aux Folles, Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, and Something Rotten! LCAF and Something Rotten! have been extended to November 16 and 17th. If you can, I highly recommend Something Rotten! It was the best production that we saw this year.

If you are wondering still playing at The Stratford Festival and whether there are still good tickets to get, you can have a look at last fall’s summary of What’s on at Stratford in 2024. Concluding at the end of November and there are a few of promotions to encourage you to see the best live theatre experience in the country.

Playing at The Stratford Festival in 2025

The Stratford Festival announced the casting for the 2025 season, and I’m happy to give you a sneak peek at the playbill proposed by Artistic Director, Antoni Cimolino. Stratford Festival’s 2025 season is a collection of 11 productions. The Stratford Festival’s 2025 season begins on April 19 and runs until November 2. Tickets for will be on sale next month for members. As always, I encourage you to take advantage of the Pay-What-You-Wish (PWW) promotions in early March.

“The Stratford Festival 2025 season features a delicious banquet of feasts. How could we possibly find the variety and depth of skills needed to ensure its success? Well, with this extraordinary company of players that question has been answered with gusto,” Cimolino says. “Here are brilliant talents, some of the most promising and accomplished actors of our time, who look forward to sharing their work with you next season at the Stratford Festival.” 

Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director, The Stratford Festival

Themed around Apollo, Venus, Mars: Reflections on Harmony, Love, and War, the 2025 Stratford Festival season includes Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale; the musicals Annie and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; the classics Sense and Sensibility and Dangerous Liaisons; the contemporary Canadian plays Forgiveness and The Art of War; and two Stratford Festival commissions, Anne of Green Gables and Ransacking Troy, both of which will have their premières in 2025. 

I look forward to the return of Robert Lepage, Artistic Director of Ex Machina. His landmark production of Shakespeare’s little-known play Coriolanus took Stratford audiences by storm in 2018 (one of my favourite productions).

FESTIVAL THEATRE

As You Like It

By William Shakespeare
Director: Chris Abraham
Composer: Ron Sexsmith

Director Chris Abraham’s production of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It will feature Christopher Allen as Orlando, Sara Farb as Rosalind, and Aaron Krohn as Jaques, with Sean Arbuckle as Duke Frederick, Seana McKenna as Duchess Senior, and Steve Ross as Touchstone.

Rediscover Shakespeare’s tale of transformation and resilience in a production directed by Chris Abraham, whose Much Ado About Nothing was a critical and box office hit last season.

In a world rocked by political upheaval, a Duchess’ daughter, Rosalind, faces exile from the city to the countryside. She flees with her cousin Celia, and the pair discover new identities and the prospect of new love, even as they confront their deepest fears.

Annie

Book By Thomas Meehan
Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Martin Charnin
Original Broadway Production Directed by Martin Charnin
Based on “Little Orphan Annie”® by permission of Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Director & Choreographer: Donna Feore
Music Director: Laura Burton

This iconic family-friendly musical will hit the Stratford stage in a production directed and choreographed by Donna Feore, featuring Harper Rae Asch in the title role, Dan Chameroy as Oliver Warbucks, and Laura Condlln as Miss Hannigan, with Amanda Lundgren as Lily St. Regis, Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Grace Farrell, and Mark Uhre as Rooster.

Annie, winner of seven Tony Awards, is one of the most popular musicals ever written. It’s filled with memorable and oh-so-hummable songs, including “Tomorrow,” “Hard Knock Life,” and “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” It tells the story of a loveable orphan, Annie, who is stuck in an orphanage run by the dreadful Miss Hannigan. The child dreams of being reunited with her parents but instead finds happiness with the wealthy Daddy Warbucks, who becomes not only her protector but also her hero, finding wealthy homes for all her friends at the orphanage.

Sense and Sensibility

By Kate Hamill
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
Director: Daryl Cloran

Director Daryl Cloran’s production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved classic Sense and Sensibility will feature Jessica B. Hill as Elinor Dashwood and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane as Marianne Dashwood, with Andrew Chown as John Willoughby and Seana McKenna as Mrs. Jennings.

The play follows the Dashwood sisters, who have been left destitute after their father’s sudden death. The girls find romance—and suffer heartbreak—as they try to regain social stability for their family in gossipy 18th-century England.

Dangerous Liaisons

By Christopher Hampton
From the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos
Director: Esther Jun

Directed by Esther Jun, the romantic drama Dangerous Liaisons will feature Celia Aloma as La Presidente de Tourvel, Jesse Gervais as Le Vicomte de Valmont, Jessica B. Hill as La Marquise de Merteuil, with Ashley Dingwell as Cecile Volanges, Seana McKenna as Madame de Rosemonde and Nadine Villasin as Madame de Volanges.

Christopher Hampton wrote the play in 1985, adapted from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Hampton also wrote the screenplay for the hugely successful 1988 film starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. This will be the second production of this play at the Stratford Festival. It was first produced to great acclaim in 2010. 

In pre-Revolutionary France, the Marquise de Merteuil and her sometime lover, the Vicomte de Valmont, amuse themselves by plotting the seduction of two women of virtue: the virginal Cecile Volanges and the respectably married Madame de Tourvel. But as their cynical game proceeds, the players’ motives grow deeper – and more deadly.

AVON THEATRE

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare
Created in collaboration with Ex Machina
Director: Robert Lepage
Set Designer: Ariane Sauvé

In Shakespeare’s tragedy of unchecked corruption and heinous self-interest, Macbeth, directed by Robert Lepage, will feature Tom McCamus as Macbeth, Lucy Peacock as Lady Macbeth, Graham Abbey as Banquo, and Tom Rooney as Macduff.

In addition to Robert Lepage, the creative team includes Set Designer Ariane Sauvé, Costume Designer Michael Gianfrancesco, Lighting Designer Kimberly Purtell, and Composer and Sound Designer John Gzowski.

Set in the milieu of Quebec’s biker gangs, the production will reflect on violence and the allegiances that drive it, revealing the horrors that grow unhindered once the seeds of evil are planted in the soul.

Obsessed by omens and urged on by his wife’s ambition, a heroic figure takes his destiny into his own hands. He murders his way to the top, only to find himself plunged ever deeper into tyranny as he battles vainly against enemies, real and imagined, from both sides of the grave.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Book by Jeffrey Lane
Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek
Based on the film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” written by Dale Launer and Stanley Shapiro & Paul Henning
Original Broadway production directed by Jack O’Brien
Director: Bobby Garcia
Choreographer: Stephanie Graham
Music Director: Franklin Brasz

Director Bobby Garcia will direct the musical comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in his Stratford debut, featuring Shakura Dickson as Christine Colgate, Jonathan Goad as Lawrence, and Liam Tobin as Freddy Benson, with Sara-Jeanne Hosie as Muriel, Derek Kwan as Andre Thibault, and Michele Shuster as Jolene.

This razzle-dazzle show, set on the French Riviera, features a conman who woos wealthy women and pockets their money to fund a glamorous lifestyle. When a competitor comes to town, they team up to raise the stakes but soon find themselves in unhealthy, though hilarious, competition. A final con – to prove who is the better hustler – sees both men get their just reward.

Anne of Green Gables

SCHULICH CHILDREN’S PLAYS – A STRATFORD FESTIVAL COMMISSION

A new adaptation by Kat Sandler
Based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Director: Kat Sandler

A Stratford Festival commissioned and world première of Kat Sandler’s bold adaptation of the timeless tale Anne of Green Gables, directed by Sandler, will feature Caroline Toal as Anne Shirley with Tim Campbell as Matthew Cuthbert and Sarah Dodd as Marilla Cuthbert.

With over 56 million copies sold, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery’s timeless tale of imagination, resilience, and the transformative power of love is boldly adapted by Kat Sandler. Set in the picturesque village of Avonlea, it follows the adventures of Anne Shirley, an irrepressible orphan with a vivid imagination and an unyielding spirit. 

TOM PATTERSON THEATRE

The Winter’s Tale

By William Shakespeare
Director: Antoni Cimolino

Directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, this production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale will feature Graham Abbey as Leontes, Yanna McIntosh as Paulina and Sara Topham as Hermione, with Austin Eckert as Florizel, Tom McCamus as Old Shepherd, Marissa Orjalo as Perdita, Tom Rooney as Camillo, André Sills as Polixenes and Geraint Wyn Davies as Autolycus.

King Leontes, obsessed with suspicions of infidelity, puts his pregnant wife, Hermione, on trial for her life. He comes to his senses only when his actions cost him his wife and children. But true love can work miracles, and even the bitterest winter contains the seeds of spring.

Forgiveness

By Hiro Kanagawa
Adapted from the book “Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents” by Mark Sakamoto
Director: Stafford Arima
Composer: Allison Lynch

Director Stafford Arima’s production of Forgiveness will feature Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue and Jeff Lillico as Ralph.

Adapted from Mark Sakamoto’s acclaimed 2018 Canada Reads-winning memoir, this moving and heartfelt play by Hiro Kanagawa tells the story of Sakamoto’s grandparents and their harrowing experiences during the Second World War. In the face of tremendous adversity and horrific transgressions, they chose not to live a life of anger but rather to embrace and teach forgiveness.

Ransacking Troy

A STRATFORD FESTIVAL COMMISSION

By Erin Shields
Director: Jackie Maxwell
Choreographer: Esie Mensah
Set and Costume Designer: Judith Bowden
Composer: Deanna Choi

A Stratford Festival commissioned and world première of Erin Shields’ Ransacking Troy, directed by Jackie Maxwell, will feature Maev Beaty as Penelope and Odysseus and Irene Poole as Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and Agamemnon with Yanna McIntosh as Hecuba and Sara Topham as Aegiale and Helen. 

Ransacking Troy is a funny, compelling, and thought-provoking adaptation of the Trojan War narrative through the lens of its female players. After nine and a half years of war, Penelope is tired of waiting for Odysseus to return home, so she gathers a band of Greek women to set sail for Troy. An epic journey ensues as the women struggle to bring about a peaceful end to the war and imagine the future they want to create when it’s through.

STUDIO THEATRE

The Art of War

By Yvette Nolan
Director: Keith Barker
Set Designer: Teresa Przybylski

Keith Barker’s production of The Art Of War features Josue Laboucane as Nick with Jordin Hall as Newman, Jenna-Lee Hyde as Madga, Julie Lumsden as Heather and Eva, and Rylan Wilkie as Dennis and Matthaeus.

The Art of War by Yvette Nolan is a dramatic examination of the role of artists in war and in peace. During the Second World War, Nick is sent to the front lines as an embedded painter. What he witnesses, what he paints, will transform not only him but Canada’s idea of itself.

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The Stratford Festival’s 2025 season offers a fantastic mix of plays and musicals that are sure to impress. There’s still time to catch some of this fall’s performances, and I highly recommend Something Rotten!—it was my favorite production from the 2024 season!

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Thanks to the Stratford Festival for providing the press release for this post. All images and text are credited to The Stratford Festival.