Stratford as a town

Stratford has a lot to offer as a town, the Theatre Festival is now more than 60 years old and employs one thousand people year round in various tasks connected with the  Festival, a huge enterprise. I have been looking into our move to Stratford, now that I am retired I really see little point in staying in Ottawa. I came here for study and work, I never planned to die here. One factor to consider though is our friends and we have a lot of old and dear friends in Ottawa, people we have known for 30+ years. We do not know anyone in Stratford and would have to start over which can be difficult at our age. But Ottawa is a very expensive town, oh yes, it ranks up there with Rome and London, I am not exaggerating, I was involved in price comparison studies and Ottawa is not cheap, food, rent, gas and general expenses reflect the fact that it is the National Capital. So how do we entice our old friends to move or at least visit us. I should do a separate entry on this topic of why I am inclined to leave Ottawa.

But I digress, Stratford functions also outside the Festival and has been mindful to keep in mind that it must be more than one industry town. At one time and for more than 100 years Stratford was a major railway hub and international quality furniture maker. Today the furniture industry is gone and the railway is greatly reduced. The Festival brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue which profits to all local businesses, hotels, B& B, restaurants and many shops. To meet the demand of the many tourists and travellers who come to Stratford there are 3 fine chocolate makers with an incredible array of quality hand made chocolates. One is Rheo Thompson rheothompson.com beautiful quality chocolates and candies. The other are Barr Chocolates and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. All are worth a visit because of their in house specialties.

 a very large piece of Fudge with nuts, it weighs about 6 Kg. 

 We actually bought this Creamsicle Fudge it has an orange taste and is quite nice

There is also for the gourmet some 15 fine dining establishment where Chefs outdo themselves with wonderful culinary delights. There are 8 real estate offices, 8 Art galleries, 7 fine coffee houses each one catering to a clientele who prefers good coffee in a relaxed atmosphere. In that category I like Revel Caffè on Market Place. Also 5 bookstores offering a lot of service to its clients in the old fashion way bookstore use to cater to the reading public. I shop at Fanfare Books on Ontario street which has a wide array of books for all taste. For those who love old things 4 antique stores, you can find some real gems often from old Estate sales.  There is also numerous professional services, lawyers offices, Medical doctors, numerous banks, etc... The city does not die during the winter Season as of November, some business have reduced hours but on the whole life goes on. visitstratford.ca

Of the restaurants we enjoyed Pazzo Taverna is a favourite, the Italian cuisine and service are very good, staff are knowledgeable about the wine list and the house specialities. You will not find lasagna or spaghetti on the menu, the chef follows original Italian recipes found in various regions of Italy.
pazzo.ca

Pazzo Taverna on Ontario Street

There is also an excellent Indian Cuisine restaurant Raja on George street, the atmosphere, food and service are excellent. rajastratford.ca

For after dinner drinks and a bite to eat where you are most likely to run into the actors and theatre staff Down the Street Bar on Ontario Street. www.downthestreet.ca

Another favourite restaurant is Mercer Hall Inn mercerhall.ca on the ground floor is the restaurant and  above there are two floors of well appointed rooms and suites, we stayed there and loved it.

We also discovered a new restaurant Bijou on Erie Street, they have no menu, just a blackboard and you read it and choose what you want to eat, there is a prix fixe of  2 plates for a set price and 3 plates for another set price. So it is very simple and good again the service was courteous and knowledgeable. bijourestaurant.com

Stratford is part of what is now called the Nouvelle Ontario Cuisine, focusing on local ingredients and what is in Season. Ontario also has a lot of very good award winning wines. So it makes for a great combination.

Stratford also has many beautiful streets and old homes, it is a town with character.

Stratford Court House

All along the streets arrangements of either fresh herbs or a variety of flowers

What is interesting to note is the display of colours and arrangements everywhere in parks and along streets, a great deal of care has gone into this display throughout the city.

Ornamental fantasy gate in the city centre.

Street scape note that the tall facade were built to impress, the building is in fact not very deep as it can be noticed on the Stratford Tourism building.

Homes on Lake Victoria across from the city centre

It was the Stratford week

Well this year for Ferragosto and the 2000 Anniversary of the death of the first Roman Emperor Augustus on 19 Aug, 14 AD in Nola we went to Stratford, Ontario, the Canadian home of the Shakespeare Festival. The Festival was established by Tom Patterson, a local fellow who had no background in theatre simply an idea for a festival. Quite the success story in Canadian Culture when you think of the tens of thousands of people who attend the festival and all the great names of the English Theatre who played at the Festival each year.

Stratford is a small town of about 30,000 people, established in 1832 as a settlement. The name of the town came from the owner of the first local Inn-Tavern, his establishment was called the Shakespeare and the head of the town settlement thought let's make a word association and call this little settlement Stratford. At the time it was a simple settlement infested with deer, a woody marsh. It grew to become an international centre of fine furniture making until the collapse of the furniture market in the early 1960's with the last manufacturer closing in 1980.  Stratford was also a major railway hub until the late 1970's, trains from all over North America crossed through the town. A very elegant Prairie Style railway station is still in use, though much of the traffic nowadays is freight trains and only four passenger trains daily.

 The imposing Stratford City Hall

Stratford today is a picture perfect South West Ontario town about 90 minutes West of Toronto on HWY 8. The town has kept all of its 19th century architecture and presents an aesthetically pleasing look. It is also a very wealthy town by the number of large patrician homes dotting its quiet leafy streets. In the middle of town is Lake Victoria, an artificial creation done with a water control dam. The lake is populated with ducks and Royal Swans and on both sides gardens and flower beds.

We met again this year our friends from Pumpkinville, Arizona AKA Phoenix. I learned that Pumpkinville was the original name. We had a wonderful time with them and they are a delight to travel with it was the second time we had vacationed together.

Dr. Spo is my favorite psychiatrist and shirt maker, quite the combination, he has talent and a very different career in fashion if ever he decides to branch out. DAW is Mister Theatre, his knowledge is impressive, he works as a volunteer in the milieu and is a very regular theatre goer.
Combine that with Will who also has very much the same interests and bingo, much good conversations.

We saw 5 different plays this year, my least favourite was King John by Shakespeare, again for me often it is the language which is the obstacle, English is not my first language and Shakespeare convoluted way of saying things has the effect of putting me off. The director was Tim Carroll and King John was Tom McCamus.

On the other hand we saw a Restoration play by George Farquhar (1677-1707) The Beaux Stratagem, very well written, funny, and modern in its outlook. This is the period of Charles II, James II and Queen Anne in England. The play is described as a satire with sympathy on marriage and divorce, I enjoyed this play for its elegance and style. The director was Antoni Cimolino and Colm Feore and Mike Shara played the two main characters.

Mother Courage by Bertolt Bretch with a translation by David Edgar. It is a different translation than the one most people are use to and I preferred it. What a timeless play, the story told still ring true today in our world of globalization and conflicts. The play left me with sadness at the end for Mother Courage and her children. Martha Henry was the director and Seana McKenna was Mother Courage.

The two other plays we saw were Alice through the Looking-Glass a play written by Canadian James Reaney who was born just outside Stratford in 1926. The play is based on Lewis Carroll's story.
The technical effects were highly entertaining and innovative, fast paced and much fun.

Crazy for you, the musical was billed as the new Gershwin musical, the music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and the book written by Ken Ludwig. The Director was Donna Feore and the title role of Bobby Child was played by Josh Franklin, Bela Zangler by Tom Rooney, Polly Baker by Natalie Daradich. High energy and incredible dance numbers with that wonderful Gershwin music.

Stratford Festival Hall

We also attended a talk by Prof Paul Prescott of Warwick University on Sam Wannamaker who was the instigator for the rebuilding of the Globe Theatre building in London.  An interesting talk which exposed some myths about Wannamaker. One being that he was not a life long devotee to the work of the Bard, he came very late to it. In the end I had the impression that Wannamaker wanted a project which would cement his name for posterity, an ego thing perhaps. At any rate the talk debunked the American myth bandied about on Wannamaker's ambitions for the Globe and his devotion to Shakespeare.

La Fête des Rois Mages, Epiphanie

Well here we are in January 2014 the New Year has started and we are at the last holiday of the Christmas Season, Epiphany.

The weather in Canada has been frigid and made for a difficult start for this new year, power failures in major cities, snowfall, extremely cold weather. During the Season we travelled to see family and we entertained friends and neighbours at home, we were also the guests of friends for dinner.

H. Bosch, Adoration of the Magi, c. 1499

We also celebrated with our friends L & Y in Montreal their first wedding anniversary at the restaurant of the Sofitel with a nice champagne luncheon. They had kept their nuptials secret for one year and announced it by sending a beautiful agenda of their courtship with photos. A real labour of love given the elaborate script in 3 languages.

Plum Pudding flambé at dinner on New Year's Eve 

We had our traditional Plum Pudding flambé and some good champagne, one bottle being a Moet et Chandon 2004 vintage. It had a wonderful taste of crisp apples and honey. We listened to the traditional 74th edition of the Vienna New Year's Day Concert from the Golden Hall of the MusikVerein on Austrian Radio. We also played operettas by Franz Lehar and Will waltzed with Nora who was a bit lost.

We also received from our friend J.H. his traditional Christmas Fruit Cake, for the last 30 years each year we get one and they are superb. I do not think that even a person who is not fond of fruit cakes would be able to resist his creation. In a class by itself, I do not know how he does it, if there is some secret in the recipe but they are unlike any other fruit cake made by anyone.

John's Fruit Cake 2014

2014 is a Municipal Election Year in Ottawa and in Ontario for that matter. In Ottawa voting day is October 27.  Lots of new challengers to the posts on City Council and Mayor Jim Watson is running again. The issues are multiple, from the LRT train tunnel construction, public transit, intensification of the centre core of the Capital, re-development of major city streets and the new plan favouring pedestrians and cyclists. Possibly a more European approach to city life.

We are also celebrating the 450 Birthday of William Shakespeare and the 150 Birthday of composer Richard Strauss. It is also the centennial year of the start of the First World War (1914-2014) which had a great impact on Canada as a Nation.

In 2014 we are travelling to Salzburg, Austria for the Music Festival in early June and to Stratford, Ontario for the Shakespeare Theatre Festival.

Prosit NeuJahr!

our road trip to the Stratford Theatre Festival 2013

Settlement in Stratford started in 1828, it is located in South West Ontario with a population of 30,000 persons. Part of the river that crosses the city was named the Avon by Canada Company Official John Mercer Jones, the rest of the river which is 273 KM long is known as the Thames, a name given by Governor John Graves Simcoe. The original name in Algonquin language is Askunissippi (Antler) and the lake in the middle of the town is named after Queen Victoria.

Stratford was an important railway junction as of 1858 and then became known for fine quality furniture manufacturing. In 1953 Tom Patterson, a journalist suggested that a Theatre Festival be mounted and only 2 years later, the dream came through. The Festival has become famous because of the big name actors who perform there each summer, in years past, William Hutt, Martha Henry, Sir Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, Peter Ustinov, Dame Maggie Smith and the list goes on. But also the quality of the productions, sets and costumes has enhance the prestige of this festival.

This was my first visit to Stratford and for Will it was a return visit the first in 35 years, he attended each year from 1958 to 1978. We saw Fiddler on the roof, Blythe Spirit, The Three Musketeers, Waiting for Godot and Taking Shakespeare.

Will made a donation of theatre material he had collected through the years and we visited the archives of the Festival and met with its Director, Doctor Francesca Marini. The archives building is a very big site and holds costumes, decor, various objects connected with 60 years of Festival performances.

We went to Stratford after I spoke for about two years with fellow bloggers in the USA, Michael http://sporeflections.wordpress.com and David http://harpersvalley.wordpress.com from Phoenix, Arizona. Both have blogs that I read and both suggested we should meet at Stratford. We also met their friend Martin Katz http://songfest.us/martin-katz-piano/ and Dale Zimmerman and this being a small world it turns out we have friends in common.

The City is beautiful and has that feel of a small town in South West Ontario farming community. It is two hours by car from Toronto and is far away to be untainted by that great miasma of a city.

The plays we saw, Fiddler on the roof was the strongest in my opinion, with Scott Wentworth as Tevye  in the title role. Then Waiting for Godot with Stephen Ouimette, Tom Rooney and Brian Dennehy as Pozzo was dark and oppressive, a different presentation from what I had seen in London with Sir Ian McKellen.  I was put off by the constant giggling of a certain number of people who appeared to think that this was a comedy on the scale of Mame. I think that when Beckett wrote this play in 1953 in French, he had gone through the Second World War and its horrors in France. It was a different time and the play appealed to a public who could relate to recent world events. Today all this is very far from us, so far it is difficult to relate to the characters. It would help if the next producer updated the setting to maybe stage it in a refugee camp today.

Taking Shakespeare with Martha Henry as the old professor whose talent is great and a pleasure to see and a young man Luke Humphrey as the student Murph who is starting in the theatre and whose performance is very uneven. We saw him in the Three Musketeers playing D'artagnan it was tedious and frankly I wanted to throw tomatoes, that is how bad it was. Maybe 20 years from now when he grows up....

Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit was a delight, though it is a period piece somewhat removed from our world today. Ben Carlson played Charles and Seana McKenna played Madame Arcati. In the end you realize that none of the characters are very nice people.

We stayed in a beautiful B&B which was more along the lines of an efficiency apartment but very pleasant. We could walk to all venues easily. I liked the fact that it was quiet, more so than Ottawa.

We are scheduled to go back next year to see our friends again and in the meantime I have to investigate more about life in Stratford, Ontario.





 

King Lear

Who has not heard in the English speaking world of the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. Written between 1603-06, a powerful tragedy of a King who gives away foolishly to two of his three daughters his kingdom, falling victim to their flattery. Thinking that he can retire and they being loving will take care of him.

The National Arts Centre English Theatre under the direction of Peter Hinton presented an all Aboriginal cast of players and set the play in 17th Century Canada. The set and costumes was the great forests of Canada and the actors wore the traditional costumes of Natives in 1660. I had forgotten that Natives when speaking English have a natural soft pronunciation and a slight accent. We were plunged into a very different reality, no longer England or Europe but Canada and North America, when the French, Natives and the English fought for control political, economic and military. The decor, sound of native drums, war cries, was quite beautiful and I really enjoyed the play, which is saying a lot given that I do not usually like Shakespeare. Before the start of the play, in the Foyer of the NAC, a large group of Natives who were supporting cast of this production did some chanting with drums, the echo throughout the theatre was impressive. I think what I found the most seductive was the introduction of this Canadian element which spoke to the audience. It brought me back to the time of my ancestors who arrived in 1660 in Quebec City on a French Royal troop ship, suddenly it felt more personal.

August Schellenberg was Lear, Monique Mojica as Goneril, Tantoo Cardinal as Regan, Jani Lauzon as Cordelia, Billy Merasty as Gloucester, Lorne Cardinal as Burgundy, Craig Lauzon as Kent, Jeremy Proulx as King of France.

The NAC describes this presentation of King Lear as; A play has big as Canada, resonating with our own history.