Stratford Festival 2026: Your complete guide to all the shows this season

The Stratford Festival’s 2026 season is a lineup of greatest hits and comes amid a transitional period for North America’s largest repertory company. It marks Antoni Cimolino’s final season as artistic director, after 14 years at the helm. He’s set to be replaced later this fall by Jonathan Church, the British-Canadian arts leader who led several major regional houses in the U.K.

In all, there are 12 productions running across Stratford’s four stages. Among the highlights: the musical comedy “Something Rotten!” is returning after its acclaimed run in 2024; director and choreographer Donna Feore is reviving “Guys & Dolls” for the second time; and Cimolino is taking another crack at Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” after previously directing the work in 2018.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to all the shows, including reviews from the Star’s theatre critics and exclusive features on the productions.

This roundup will be updated throughout the season as more shows open.

Othello

Iago unmakes Othello. Yet it’s Iago who makes an “Othello.” Shakespeare’s greatest villain may not be the title role in this tragedy. But make no mistake: he is its central character. It’s Iago who plants seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind. It’s Iago who leads the Moorish general into falsely believing that his wife, Desdemona, is unfaithful. It’s Iago who quietly, sadistically tightens the screws, ensnaring his victims like a python would its prey, leading Othello toward his undoing. And in Evan Buliung, director Haysam Kadri has found a bone-chilling antagonist for his blistering, period-set revival, running at the Stratford Festival’s Tom Patterson Theatre. Buliung’s Iago is like a manipulative chess player: Venice and Cyprus are his chessboard; his compatriots are merely his pawns; and everything, for him, is like a game. Until Sept. 27 at the Tom Patterson Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Othello.”

The Importance of Being Earnest

It can be tempting to read too much into “The Importance of Being Earnest,” beyond what’s in the text. Wilde, of course, was imprisoned for “gross indecency” (i.e. engaging in homosexual acts) shortly after the show premiered in London. Some could argue that the play is his treatise against these warped social ideals. But there isn’t much in “Earnest” to support this deeper reading: While the comedy does satirize the rigidity of Victorian society and the hypocrisy of the upper class, as many shows had previously done, “Earnest” has little else to offer of significant substance. In Stratford’s new revival, director Krista Jackson treats the work like the trivial farce that it is. And though occasionally dense in spots, leaving several laughs on the table, it’s a mostly charming comic soufflé with a trio of delectable central performances. Until Oct. 23 at the Avon Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

Waiting for Godot

The masterstroke of director Molly Atkinson’s mostly marvellous, occasionally overdirected, new revival lies in how she makes use of the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage. Without changing a word in Beckett’s script, Atkinson makes the 1953 play feel new once again, pulsing with vitality. By using a wide thrust stage like the Festival’s, Atkinson quietly alters her audience’s relationship with Beckett’s characters. In this revival, the country road in Cory Sincennes’ set bisects the auditorium, cutting across the stage from the downstage left vomitorium to the upstage right exit. It creates an environment in which we’re not so much watching Vladimir and Estragon from a distance, but waiting alongside them, implicated in their struggle. Until July 31 at the Festival Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Waiting for Godot.”

Read Joshua Chong’s critic’s notebook on why Stratford’s Festival Theatre is one of the most important stages in the world.

The Hobbit

The worst thing a children’s play can do is talk down to its audience — to dilute and oversimplify important themes simply because of the deeply flawed assumption that children are too young to grasp them. And it’s exactly this that sinks the Stratford Festival’s dour adaptation of “The Hobbit.” Kim Selody tries to include every plot point from the original book, even if that means reducing it to a useless line of narration. Throughout his play, there’s little character development. Scenes lack any sense of tension. His dialogue feels stiffer than Gandalf’s staff. The only thing this adaptation seems concerned about is moving its characters from one scene to the next. Until Oct. 23 at the Avon Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “The Hobbit.”

Something Rotten!

There are few things more amazing than “Something Rotten!,” the musical comedy being remounted at the Stratford Festival after its hit run in 2024. In my review of the original production, I said there probably isn’t a musical better suited for Stratford than the uber meta “Something Rotten!” Two years later, I stand by those words. This uproarious and ingenious show, a giddy fantasia for any musical theatre kid or Shakespeare lover, places the Bard and the genre of musical theatre on a collision course. And there’s no better home for it than at Stratford’s Festival Theatre, where shows like “Guys and Dolls” and “The Tempest”; “Rent” and “King Lear” and “Chicago” and “Hamlet” can all coexist in any given year. Until Oct. 31 at the Festival Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Something Rotten!”

Read Debra Yeo’s feature on how Shakespeare has been transformed into a rock star on Ontario stages.

Read Joshua Chong’s feature on the show’s 275 costume changes.

Read Joshua Chong’s critic’s notebook on watching “Something Rotten!” from the stage manager’s booth.

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” is widely considered one of the great American dramas of the 20th century. It’s been presented on Broadway seven times — including twice in the past five years. Its published script sits on millions of bookshelves in homes across the U.S. and Canada. And more than seven decades after it premiered, the play remains a staple in many high school English curricula. So, what do we owe a classic work like this? Is a set of strong performances enough to justify a new production? Or must a director offer more to illuminate the text in fresh ways? I found myself asking those questions as I watched the Stratford Festival’s third revival of “Salesman.” And I’m torn. Until Oct. 24 at the Avon Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s review of “Death of a Salesman.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

I usually dread the fifth act of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when Peter Quince and his troupe of incompetent Mechanicals perform their abysmal “Pyramus and Thisbe.” That, however, couldn’t be further from the truth for director Graham Abbey’s new revival of “Dream.” So delightful is this play-within-a-play sequence that when Spencer-Davis’ Nick Bottom asks Theseus (Evan Buliung) whether he’d like to see the epilogue, one audience member seated behind me on opening night piped in with a “Yeah!” even before Buliung could deliver his line. The unfortunate catch is that it takes four long acts before Quince’s Mechanicals get their moment in the spotlight, and what precedes it is a surprisingly uneven, overdirected production where striking visuals come at the expense of the central performances. Until Sept. 26 at the Tom Patterson Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Guys and Dolls

You don’t play with perfection. And by perfection, of course, I mean the Stratford Festival’s 2017 revival of “Guys and Dolls,” the jewel in the company’s crown of musicals over the past decade. Most directors know that if you absolutely must restage a show you’ve previously done, you’d better serve up a completely fresh vision. To present anything less — to offer anything that recalls what came before — will only invite cruel comparison. But Donna Feore, as she’s proved time and again, is not like most directors. Why pave over perfection when you can tinker with it instead? That’s exactly what she does with her latest revival of “Guys and Dolls,” in which she borrows the blueprint from her 2017 production, casts new leads, and reimagines some key moments while tightening others. Until Nov. 1 at the Festival Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Guys and Dolls.”

The Tempest

Stratford Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino’s production, quite a bold departure from his previous “Tempest” in 2018, makes it crystal clear what motivates Prospero, the exiled duke-turned-sorcerer who seeks revenge against his enemies. Here, Geraint Wyn Davies’ protagonist isn’t an amoral Machiavellian politician. Instead, he’s guided by one thing only: an unwavering love for his daughter. It’s this love that informs his moral compass — no matter how warped or imperfect it may be at times. And it’s what anchors this revival. Beyond this central relationship between Prospero and Miranda, however, Cimolino’s production is of more mixed success, with uneven performances from this cast. Until Oct. 24 at the Festival Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “The Tempest.”

Shows opening later this season

• “The Tao of the World”: Jovanni Sy, who directed and co-wrote “Salesman in China” in 2024, returns to Stratford to direct the world premiere of his latest play, “The Tao of the World,” a modern rom-com that’s inspired by William Congreve’s restoration comedy “The Way of the World” and pokes fun at Singapore’s ultra-rich. From Aug. 2 to Sept. 26 at the Tom Patterson Theatre.
• “The King James Bible Play”: Nina Lee Aquino, artistic director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre, returns to direct this world premiere by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, about the making of the King James Bible, and a group of women working on a play about that endeavour. From Aug. 6 to Sept. 26 at the Studio Theatre.
• “Saturday, Sunday, Monday”: In his final work as artistic director of the festival, Cimolino returns to a playwright whose work he knows well: the Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo. This comedy, starring Graham Abbey and Rose Napoli, follows a Neapolitan family plunged into chaos when a simmering rift comes to a head. From Aug. 4 to Oct. 24 at the Avon Theatre.