Stratford Festival

2nd Extension Puts King Lear in Record Books

King Lear, starring Colm Feore and directed by Stratford Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, is entering the record books as one of the Ontario Festival's top-selling Shakespeare productions of all time. To meet the overwhelming demand for tickets, the production is being extended for a second time and will now run until Oct. 25.

“Like Christopher Plummer's Prospero in 2010 and William Hutt's farewell performance in the same role in 2005, Colm's Lear has seized the imaginations of theatregoers, inspiring tremendous sales," said Executive Director Anita Gaffney in a Festival press release, calling it "one of the great productions in our 62-year history." She said it has helped fuel a 25 percent increase in sales to Shakespeare productions this year. In addition to King Lear, the Festival is staging Antony and Cleopatra, King John, and two different versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In addition to Feore, the production features Maev Beaty as Goneril, Evan Buliung as Edgar, Sara Farb as Cordelia, Jonathan Goad as the Earl of Kent, Brad Hodder as Edmund, Stephen Ouimette as the Fool, Liisa Repo-Martell as Regan, and Scott Wentworth as the Earl of Gloucester.

The 2014 Stratford Festival also features Crazy for You, The Beaux' Stratagem, Man of La Mancha, Alice through the Looking-Glass, Hay Fever, Mother Courage and Her Children, and Christina, the Girl King, plus more than 200 events in The Forum.

King Lear is sponsored by Sun Life Financial. Production support is generously provided by Jane Petersen-Burfield & family, Cecil & Linda Rorabeck, Barbara & John Schubert and Catherine & David Wilkes. Support for the 2014 season of the Festival Theatre is generously provided by Claire & Daniel Bernstein.

August 22, 2014

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