Welcome to the 2024 season. Tickets on sale at stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/ThePlays.

A World Elsewhere

September 12, 2023… Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino is delighted to announce the Stratford Festival’s 2024 season, a collection of 12 productions, together with more than 150 events at the Meighen Forum, reflecting on the idea of “A World Elsewhere.”

“What unites the plays for next season is a journey away from the known,” says Cimolino, “a journey away from the comfortable towards something that – while it’s an immense challenge – often brings us to a much better place.”

The season will feature three Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and Cymbeline, along with the early Victorian comedy London Assurance by Dion Boucicault, the Ibsen masterpiece Hedda Gabler; the North American première of Wendy and Peter Pan, an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic children’s book, by Ella Hickson; and Edward Albee’s 21st century classic The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?

Two musicals will be presented. The Festival Theatre will be home to the hilarious musical comedy Something Rotten!, with book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell and music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick. At the Avon Theatre, it’s the Tony Award-winning La Cage aux Folles, with book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman.

The season will also feature three world premières: Salesman in China by Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy; a new adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s classic The Diviners by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan; and Get That Hope by Andrea Scott.

“As I put together this new season, I looked for works that speak to departing from the past, stories about people who strike out in new directions,” says Cimolino. “I feel we are at a moment in society when we are genuinely ready to leave behind much of what was. In order to make that journey successfully, we need inspiration, joy and delight along the way. I hope these plays will lift our hearts, make us laugh, and maybe show us that some risks are worth taking. And at the Stratford Festival perhaps the world elsewhere will be Peter Pan’s Neverland, Illyria of Twelfth Night or the nightclub of La Cage aux Folles.”

The events of the Meighen Forum will be announced in the coming months. The season will run from mid-April through October.

“I’m immensely proud of the directors and creative teams that have come together to bring these plays to vibrant life,” says Cimolino. “With their talent and inspired work there will be a world elsewhere right here in Stratford – and it will be beautiful.”