Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 2, No. 196. Saturday, 17 Aug 1991. Dear Fellow SHAKSPEReans; For those of you "hitching up your wagon" (as Steve puts it) for Stratford Ontario, I'd highly recommend *Much Ado About Nothing* and Moliere's *School for Wives*, in addition to *Timon*. Perhaps if you can stay for a weekend, you can see all three. *MAAN* stars Nicholas Pennell as Leonato, Goldie Semple as Beatrice, and Colm Feore as Benedick -- and needless to say, Semple and Feore steal the show. Their repartee is beautifully paced, and the play comes off wonderfully as a result. A spectacularly ornate setting, some exhilarating fencing scenes, extravagant costumes, and a banquet you may recognize from the 1989 *Shoemaker's Holiday* (tall jelly molds, giant stuffed boars, stacks of wineglasses, etc.) results in a play every bit as visually entrancing as this year's musical, *Carousel*, but far more fun. Pennell (Leonato) is hilarious in 2.3, as he stumbles blindly through the gulling of Benedick, and after the intermission, from 3.3 on, Brian Bedford maintains the comedy as Dogberry. With this many talented actors (and of course a pretty good scriptwriter), *MAAN* couldn't miss, of course. Purists may be offended by the inclusion of a dumbshow balcony scene before Claudio declares his intention to shame Hero, but Margaret's seductive strip-tease on the balcony certainly justifies his jealousy and outrage -- although justification is one thing Shakespeare deliberately fails to provide. (I believe the inclusion of this scene in dumb-show is a Stratford Festival tradition, although perhaps others know better than I). As Steve mentioned, *Twelfth Night* is distinctly disappointing this year. Albert Millaire's somewhat too- puritan Malvolio, Anne Wright's Viola, and Roberta Maxwell's Maria are played very well, but their efforts are overwhelmed by what appears to be weak direction (by Bernard Hopkins, who mercilessly destroyed *Love's Labour's Lost* in 1989) and an effeminate albino Aguecheek who is overplayed for laughs by Rod Menzies (distinctly reminiscent of Chris Heyerdahl's Armado in 1989's LLL, I regret to report!). Strangely, Douglas Chamberlain's Feste (I saw only his understudy, Cavan Young, unfortunately) seems to be serious, calm, and distinctly UNfunny. Without a box-tree, the gulling of Malvolio (2.5) becomes a farce in which eavesdroppers dash back and forth across the stage, from exit to exit. Many many actors' interpolations and deliberate misreadings (like "greatness thrown UP on them...") distract one from Shakespeare's script and mar his intentions. I concur that David Williams' *Hamlet* is a little flat, despite Edward Atienza's amusing portrayal of Polonius and Colm Feore's usual talents, but unfortunately still worse is *The Knight of the Burning Pestle*, which wasn't playing when Steve was at Stratford. Apparently Bernard Hopkins has remounted his 1990 production, although (perhaps significantly) none of the original cast has remained. Eric Donkin and Susan Wright steal the show as modern-dress citizens who meddle with the on-stage action, and incidentally provided some impromptu entertainment in the stands at intermission, too. (Wright looked like she had walked right out of *Les Belles Soeurs*). The production admirably attempts to capture the metatheatricality of the piece, opening with actors in the green room in modern dress, but allusions to the current Stratford season (including lines from *Hamlet*, *12N*, and *MAAN*), as well as to "The Price is Right," Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and even the theme from "Star Trek," were a little too much contemporaneity for my taste. (Perhaps worst of all was the line, "Maketh my day!"; and best was Michael's (Michael Halberstam) outrage at the citizens' interference: "We'd never put up with this in Timon of Athens!") Likewise it seemed unnecessary and even painful to replace Rafe's dwarf with a ventriloquist's dummy, operated for laughs (what else?) by Rafe's squire, and disappointing that the final Renaissance air turned into disco and then rap music! Stratford seems to have surprisingly little Shakespeare this year, and it's fortunate that in addition to *12N* and *Hamlet* the festival has *MAAN* and *Timon*, by talented directors and wonderful actors. This year also has superb productions of a number of non-Shakespearean pieces, including Moliere's *School for Wives* and Michel Tremblay's *Les Belles Soeurs*, which I would also highly recommend to any SHAKSPEReans passing through Stratford. *School for Wives*, in a wonderfully funny verse translation by Richard Wilbur, is unquestionably among the best plays this season at Stratford. Richard Monette's production is blessed by both Brian Bedford (Arnolphe) and Colm Feore (Horace), who perform flawlessly and make for an amusing and moving play. Marti Maraden directs *Les Belles Soeurs*, starring Susan Wright, Anne Wright, Janet Wright, Barbara Bryne, Pat Galloway, Ann Baggley, Kate Reid, and Goldie Semple -- and with a line-up like that, how can the production be less than wonderful? I haven't yet seen Pirandello's *The Rules of the Game*, Ibsen's *An Enemy of the People*, or A.R. Gurney's *Love Letters*, but there is no doubt that the biggest flop of the season is David Williams' production of Elliott Hayes' adaptation of R.L.S.'s *Treasure Island*. This seafaring novel simply isn't stageworthy, and from the opening scenes it is clear that the performance is taking on water fast. The story is pushed forward by gunfights and barroom brawls, not by language or drama, and entertainment for children hardly seems appropriate at Stratford, where tickets average $40 each. So, if you can afford to see the best of Stratford, I'd recommend *MAAN*, *Timon*, *School for Wives*, and *Les Belles Soeurs*, in that order. If you must, see *Hamlet* and *12N*, and perhaps even *Pestle*, but don't say we didn't warn you... Ken Steele University of Toronto