Stratford Shakespeare Festival Production History

This page describes the production history of the Stratford Festival.

The Stratford Festival (formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Stratford Festival of Canada, and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival) is a summer-long celebration of theatre held each year in Stratford, Ontario. Theatre-goers, actors, and playwrights flock to Stratford to take part—many of the greatest Canadian, American and British actors have played roles at Stratford. It was one of the first and is still one of the most prominent arts festivals in Canada.

The Festival's primary mandate is to present productions of Shakespeare's plays, but it also produces a wide variety of theatre from Greek tragedy to Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway musicals to contemporary works. By 2017, only three of the 14 productions were based on Shakespeare's works. The following is a chronological list of the productions that have been staged as part of the Stratford Festival since its inception.

On February 17, 2015, AP News reported that the Stratford Festival plans to film all of Shakespeare's plays.

1953

*'' Richard III'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' All's Well That Ends Well'' – by William Shakespeare

1954

*'' Measure for Measure'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Taming of the Shrew'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Oedipus Rex'' – by Sophocles

1955

*''Julius Caesar'' – by William Shakespeare
*''King Oedipus'' – by Sophocles
*''The Merchant of Venice'' – by William Shakespeare

1956

*''Henry V'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' The Merry Wives of Windsor'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Le Mariage forcé'' / ''Sganarelle'' / '' La Jalousie du barbouillé'' – by Molière
*''The Rape of Lucrece'' – by William Shakespeare

1957

*''Hamlet'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Twelfth Night'' – by William Shakespeare
*''My Fur Lady'' – by Galt MacDermot
*''The Turn of the Screw'' – composed by Benjamin Britten, libretto by Myfanwy Piper
*'' Peer Gynt'' – by Henrik Ibsen

1958

*''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Henry IV, Part 1'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Much Ado About Nothing'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Winter's Tale'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Beggar's Opera'' – by John Gay
*''Le Malade Imaginaire'' – by Molière

1959

*'' As You Like It'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Othello'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Orpheus in the Underworld'' – by Jacques Offenbach
*'' After Hours''
*'' The Heart Is Highland'' – by Robert Kemp

1960

*'' King John'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Romeo and Juliet'' – by William Shakespeare
*''H.M.S. Pinafore'' – music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert

1961

*''Coriolanus'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Henry VIII'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Love's Labour's Lost'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Pirates of Penzance'' – music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert
*'' The Canvas Barricade'' – by Donald Jack

1962

*''The Pirates of Penzance'' – music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert
*'' Macbeth'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Taming of the Shrew'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' The Tempest'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Gondoliers'' – music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert
*''Cyrano de Bergerac'' – by Edmond Rostand

1963

*''Troilus and Cressida'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Cyrano de Bergerac'' – by Edmond Rostand
*''The Comedy of Errors'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Mikado'' – music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert
*''Timon of Athens'' – by William Shakespeare

1964

*'' Love's Labour's Lost'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' – by Molière
*''Timon of Athens'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Richard II'' – by William Shakespeare
*''King Lear'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Yeomen of the Guard'' – music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert
*'' The Country Wife'' – by William Wycherley
*'' The Marriage of Figaro'' – by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1965

*'' Henry IV, Part 1'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Henry IV, Part 2'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Julius Caesar'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' – by Kurt Weill, libretto by Bertolt Brecht
*'' The Marriage of Figaro'' – by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
*''The Cherry Orchard'' – by Anton Chekhov

1966

*''Henry V'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Henry VI'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Twelfth Night'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Don Giovanni'' – by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
*'' The Last of the Tsars'' – by Michael Bawtree
*'' The Dance of Death'' – by August Strindberg

1967

*''Henry V'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Government Inspector'' – by Nikolai Gogol
*''Twelfth Night'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Richard III'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' The Merry Wives of Windsor'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Così fan tutte'' – by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
*''Albert Herring'' – by Benjamin Britten
*'' Colours in the Dark'' – by James Reaney
*'' Antony and Cleopatra'' – by William Shakespeare

1968

*'' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Romeo and Juliet'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Tartuffe'' – by Molière
*''Cinderella'' – by Gioacchino Rossini
*''The Three Musketeers'' – by Alexandre Dumas
*''The Seagull'' – by Anton Chekhov
*'' Waiting for Godot'' – by Samuel Beckett

1969

*''The Alchemist'' – by Ben Jonson
*''Hamlet'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' Measure for Measure'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Tartuffe'' – by Molière
*''The Satyricon'' – by Petronius Arbiter'' – by Frederick Rolfe

1970

*''The School for Scandal'' – by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
*''The Merchant of Venice'' – by William Shakespeare
*''Hedda Gabler'' – by Henrik Ibsen
*'' The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria'' – by Fernando Arrabal
*''Cymbeline'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' The Friends'' – by Arnold Wesker
*'' Vatzlav'' – by Slawomir Mrozek

1971

*''Much Ado About Nothing'' – by William Shakespeare
*''The Duchess of Malfi'' – by John Webster
*'' Macbeth'' – by William Shakespeare
*'' An Italian Straw Hat'' – by Eugène Labiche