The Stratford Festival comes to CBC-TV this September with spectacular performances of King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and King John, captured live in HD and presented uninterrupted. These productions are the first in the Stratford Festival HD initiative, which will see all of Shakespeare’s plays filmed over the next 10 years, making them available to audiences nationwide and around the world.
King Lear —Sunday, Sept. 6 at 3 p.m. (3:30 NT)
A kingdom divided, a family destroyed, the faithful banished and the hateful left to wreak inhuman havoc in the realm. Four hundred years after it was written, King Lear resonates as never before. This powerful production by North America’s leading classical theatre company stars the incomparable Colm Feore and is directed by the Stratford Festival’s acclaimed artistic director Antoni Cimolino. King Lear is produced by Melbar Entertainment Group in association with the Stratford Festival, artistic director Antoni Cimolino and executive producers Barry Avrich, Anita Gaffney and Michael Levine, and directed for film by Joan Tosoni.
Click here for a sneak peek of King Lear.
Antony and Cleopatra —Sunday, Sept. 20 at 3 p.m. (3:30 NT)
The contentious story of a midlife affair that shook the foundations of the ancient world comes to life in the Stratford Festival’s production of Antony and Cleopatra, starring Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh as the powerful rulers whose insatiable love leads to the greatest of tragedies. Director Gary Griffin paints an unforgettable landscape depicting the devastation wrought by the heart’s transgressions. Antony and Cleopatra is produced by Melbar Entertainment Group in association with the Stratford Festival, artistic director Antoni Cimolino, and executive producers Barry Avrich, Anita Gaffney and Michael A. Levine.
King John - Sunday, Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. (3:30 NT)
When the rule of a hedonistic and mercurial king is questioned, rebellion, assassination and excommunication ensue, culminating in the chilling attempt to commit an atrocity against a child, whose mother’s anguished grief cannot atone for her blinkered ambitions for her son. StarringTom McCamus and Seana McKenna with commanding performances by Graham Abbey and Patricia Collins, King John is directed by Tim Carroll. Filmed under the direction of Barry Avrich, King John is produced by Melbar Entertainment Group in association with the Stratford Festival, artistic director Antoni Cimolino, and executive producers Barry Avrich, Anita Gaffney and Michael Levine.
For hi-res images, please visit the
Stratford Festival Image Gallery.
About The Stratford Festival
The Stratford Festival has been setting the standard for classical theatre in North America for more than 60 years. With the works of Shakespeare at its
core, this acclaimed repertory theatre presents a seven-month season of about a dozen plays in four venues, along with a Forum of events to enrich the
play-going experience. Since its revolutionary first season in 1953, it has welcomed more than 26 million theatregoers from around the world, people who
flock to this small Canadian town for one reason: an unparalleled quality of performance. In 2014, under the leadership of Artistic Director Antoni
Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney, the Stratford Festival embarked upon a ten-year initiative to capture the entire Shakespeare canon in
spectacular HD, bringing the work of this renowned company to audiences around the globe.
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on
new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions,
CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.
A space for us all is CBC/Radio-Canada’s new strategy to modernize the public broadcaster and ensure that it continues to fulfill its mandate for Canadians and for future generations. Through to 2020, it will increase its investment in prime time television programming, and continue to create radio programs of the highest quality, while promoting the development of digital and mobile platforms and content.
For more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre . Follow CBC’s publicity team on Twitter @CBC_Publicity .
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For more information, please contact:
Kylie McGregor
Entertainment publicist, CBC
Kylie.McGregor@cbc.ca
416 205 8638
(office) / 416 948 6181 (mobile)
