In 1962, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, lawyer and playwright Brian Doherty parlayed his love for the work of Irish playwright Bernard Shaw into a summer theatre festival, producing eight performances of Don Juan in Hell and Candida in the Court House auditorium. In this singular act of passion for theatre and culture, the Shaw Festival was born.
Today, with 10-12 productions each year performed in four theatres for an audience of more than 250,000, the Shaw Festival has grown to become a major Canadian cultural icon, a gem in this country’s rich cultural heritage. Inspired by the wit and passion of Bernard Shaw, the Shaw Festival is a contemporary theatre that features a smart, provocative, potent and diverse mix of plays from the past and present, performed by our talented Acting Ensemble. The result is theatre that is entertaining, challenging, surprising and above all else … unique. These plays are lovingly and artfully brought to the stage each year by a talented team of Canadian actors, directors, and designers, showcasing the incredible tapestry of talent that this country contributes to the world.
In 2013, our 52nd season, the Shaw Festival presents 10 plays in four theatres from April to October. The Festival Theatre will stage three dazzling productions, all definite “must-sees”. The much-loved American musical Guys and Dolls will have you hanging out in New York City with wise guys and chorus gals, gamblers and actresses, cops and bobbysoxers. Will “luck be a lady tonight”? Lady Windermere’s Fan, full of Oscar Wilde’s trademark wit skewering London society, will enthral with its twists and turns. And from London, we journey with Enchanted April to picturesque northern Italy, where four women escape for a month and rediscover themselves among the wisteria, vine and sunshine.
At the Court House Theatre, John Murrell adapts Bernard Shaw’s Geneva. The outcome is Peace in Our Time: A Comedy, a brilliant mix of politics with a hint of the Three Stooges! Italy, this time Florence, is featured again in the romantic Tony Award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza. Mystery is on the agenda in Trifles, two short one-act plays by Susan Glaspell and Eugene O’Neill. The 2013 Season also presents one of Bernard Shaw wittiest and most provocative plays, Major Barbara. Sharing the Royal George stage with Major Barbara is Somerset Maugham’s Our Betters – a forerunner of “Downton Abbey”? – and Faith Healer by Ireland’s master playwright Brian Friel. To cap this playbill, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Dubbed “a masterpiece” and “the greatest play of its time” by critics, Arcadia is on stage at the Studio Theatre.
As “one of the best theatrical festivals in the world” [Montreal Gazette, summer 2012] and the “#1 of the Top 10 Food and Wine Destinations in Canada” [TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice 2011], The Shaw and Niagara-on-the-Lake make the ideal theatre getaway.
