Irresistible – that’s the only way to describe the variety, quality and excitement that make up the Stratford Festival’s 2020 season.

First, there is our stunning new Tom Patterson Theatre, with ravishingly beautiful public spaces and gardens. Its halls, bars and café will be filled throughout the season with music, comedy nights, panel discussions and outstanding speakers to make our Festival even more festive.

In the wake of an election in Canada, and in anticipation of one in the U.S., our season explores the theme of Power. Recent years have seen a growing acceptance of the naked use of power. Brute force is in vogue on the world stage, from international trade to immigration and the arms race – and, closer to home, in elections, in the workplace and even in social media engagements. Through comedy, tragedy, song, dance and farce, the plays and musicals of our 2020 season explore the dynamics of power in society, politics, art, gender and family life.

In our new Tom Patterson Theatre, we present the two plays that launched the Stratford adventure in 1953: All’s Well That Ends Well and Richard III. The new venue is also home to a new musical, Here’s What It Takes; a new movement-based creation, Frankenstein Revived; and a series of improvisational performances – each one unique and unrepeatable – called An Undiscovered Shakespeare.

But the fun isn’t all confined to one theatre. Our historic Festival Theatre showcases two of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, as well as Molière’s brilliant satire The Miser and the first major new production in decades of the mischievous musical Chicago. At our Avon Theatre, you can enjoy a completely different kind of musical, the side-splitting Monty Python’s Spamalot, along with the family favourite Wendy & Peter Pan and the political thriller Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel’s bestseller.

And the Studio Theatre is home to a delightful new play, Hamlet-911; a modern American classic, Three Tall Women; and an Indigenous classic, The Rez Sisters. The Stratford Festival team has been working for years to achieve this 2020 vision. And now we are proud to unveil a dazzling new theatre, fifteen sparkling new productions and some three hundred Meighen Forum events to delight you. We hope to make you laugh and move you as never before.

So, come, taste the invigorating and intoxicating elixir of Power!

How can you resist?