The Stratford Festival’s new artistic director, Jonathan Church, has built his first season with the Festival around some less-staged Shakespeares, a brand-new musical and the return of a few Festival legends. Photo courtesy of the Stratford Festival
By Galen Simmons
As the Stratford Festival prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2027, incoming artistic director Jonathan Church is looking to honour the theatre’s storied past while charting a new course for its future, bringing familiar faces back to the stage, tackling some of Shakespeare’s more challenging works and introducing new productions to Stratford audiences.
Church, who takes the reins from outgoing artistic director Antoni Cimolino following his final season this year, has assembled a 13-production lineup that includes the return of celebrated actors Saul Rubinek and Eric McCormack, three Shakespeare plays, four musicals, the return of the Festival’s acclaimed production of Anne of Green Gables and the Canadian premieres of two epic Tudor dramas he will direct himself.
Unlike Cimolino, who often built his seasons around a central theme, Church said his approach is focused on offering audiences the broadest possible range of theatrical experiences.
“I’m looking for the breadth of experience and therefore it’s not about a theme, although there’s groupings, aren’t there?” Church said. “I think about there being different groups of people who will have different journeys and perhaps different themes themselves throughout.”
For Church, the building blocks of his inaugural season were Shakespeare and the musicals that have helped attract new audiences to the Festival in recent years. While the Festival has staged many of Shakespeare’s best-known works since the pandemic, Church sees an opportunity to revisit plays that haven’t received the same attention.
Alongside Hamlet, directed by former artistic director Des McAnuff and starring Thomas Duplessie in the title role, audiences will have an opportunity to see The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew, two plays Church considers among Shakespeare’s most interesting, despite the difficult questions they raise for modern audiences.
“I think, absolutely rightly, since the pandemic we’ve gone for a lot of the better-known titles,” Church said, explaining that rebuilding audiences was understandably a priority following COVID-19.
Both The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew, however, have not been staged at Stratford for some time. The decision to produce The Taming of the Shrew came together when director Krista Jackson approached Church with an idea for tackling the controversial comedy.
“She came to me going, ‘I’ve got a brilliant way, I think, to tackle Shrew,’ ” Church said. “And I went, well, Shrew’s on my list of not recently done, so let’s do that.”
One of the season’s most anticipated returns will see Saul Rubinek take the stage at Stratford for the first time since 1969. Rubinek will play Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, directed by Chris Abraham, while also performing in the one-man production Playing Shylock and his own new play, All in the Telling.
Together, the three productions will explore Jewish identity, the complexities surrounding Shakespeare’s Shylock and Rubinek’s own family history.
The world premiere of All in the Telling will also feature Stratford veterans Seana McKenna and Marc Bendavid.
Church said Rubinek’s interest in exploring Shylock through multiple productions helped bring The Merchant of Venice into focus as part of the season.
Another familiar face returning to Stratford is Eric McCormack, best known for his television role in Will & Grace, who will star as Garry Essendine in Noël Coward’s Present Laughter at the Avon Theatre.
McCormack began his professional acting career at Stratford, and Church said welcoming him back offers an opportunity to reconnect an internationally recognized performer with the theatre that helped launch his career.
“It’s always good to be able to bring those people who, like Eric, started their career here, have always been incredibly loyal … and passionate about this place, but haven’t necessarily been able to make it back,” Church said.
The season will also mark Church’s Stratford directorial debut with the Canadian premieres of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, two interconnected adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s historical novels exploring the political intrigue surrounding Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII.
Starring Jonathan Goad as Cromwell, André Sills as Henry VIII and Marissa Orjalo as Anne Boleyn, the productions will unfold over two evenings at the Avon Theatre.
Church said bringing the two-part theatrical event to Stratford had been an ambition of his since he first discussed the artistic director position with the Festival’s board. The plays had previously been considered by Cimolino, but those plans were interrupted by the pandemic.
“Back in the UK, the West End Royal Shakespeare Company production was one of those great two-part events celebrating what a company of actors can do,” Church said. “Telling a huge story over two evenings felt absolutely perfect for this company.”
Musical theatre will also feature prominently in 2027.
Donna Feore will return to direct and choreograph Chicago, starring Celeste Catena as Roxie Hart, Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Velma Kelly and Dan Chameroy as Billy Flynn. Church said the decision to revive the production was partly inspired by its successful but limited previous run, when pandemic-related border restrictions prevented many Americans from attending.
Meanwhile, Mary Poppins will make its Stratford debut, starring Vanessa Sears in the title role, alongside Henry Firmston as Bert, Evan Buliung as George Banks and Chilina Kennedy as Winifred Banks.
At the Tom Patterson Theatre, the Festival will present the world premiere of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, a new Canadian musical based on Mordecai Richler’s beloved children’s book, with music and lyrics by Stratford’s Anika Johnson and Britta Johnson.
Church said developing new musicals is an area he hopes to explore further, given the depth of musical theatre talent within the Festival’s company.
Another important development will see the Studio Theatre return to full repertory programming for the first time since the pandemic.
In addition to Rubinek’s two productions, the intimate venue will host Daniel David Moses’s Almighty Voice and His Wife, directed by Yvette Nolan. Church said he was particularly drawn to the Indigenous play’s unconventional structure and powerful storytelling.
“I was just dazzled by it as a piece of writing,” he said.
Rounding out the season is the return of Kat Sandler’s acclaimed adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, which delighted audiences in 2025.
The production will reunite Caroline Toal as Anne Shirley, Tim Campbell as Matthew Cuthbert and Sarah Dodd as Marilla Cuthbert for a limited September run at the Avon Theatre before travelling to Edmonton, with further touring plans anticipated.
Church said he fell in love with the production when he first saw it and was eager to give audiences another opportunity to experience it.
As he prepares to begin his first season, Church said he is particularly excited about the combination of established Stratford performers, returning veterans and emerging artists taking on significant new opportunities.
“I’m a great believer in past, present and future,” he said, adding that he hopes the casting and creative teams reflect all three.
Tickets for the 2027 season go on sale to the general public Nov. 16. For more information, visit http://www.stratfordfestival.ca.
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