2025 Festival Season: Macbeth
This season’s Stratford Festival’s Macbeth is for people who don’t love Shakespeare and for people who do. Why? Because visionary director Robert Lepage is back with a love story and a gritty Macbeth set in the Quebec biker wars of the 1980s and &lsquo90s. The Toronto Star recently called him the “enfant terrible of Canadian theatre.”
Known for his highly original stage and film productions, Lepage, a Canadian writer, director, designer, actor and artistic director of Ex Machina, is celebrated around the world for his stunning, boundary-breaking work. In cultural circles around the globe, he is a superstar. His franchise is magic. His landmark production of Shakespeare’s little-known play Coriolanus took Stratford audiences by storm in 2018. Just picture what he will do with this famous tale, the play whose title must not be uttered!
Just a small sample of the breadth and depth of his body of work:
Plays &ndash The Seven Streams of the River Ota and The Dragons’ Trilogy
His solo creations &ndash The Far Side of the Moon and 887
Operas &ndash The Damnation of Faust and Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle
Multimedia &ndash The Image Mill and The Library at Night.
In addition, he was a creative consultant on several Peter Gabriel concert tours, and directed two major Cirque du Soleil productions.
His awards for his contributions to the performing arts in Canada are numerous: National Arts Centre Award (1994), the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award (2009), both presented by the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation Officer of the Order of Canada (1994) then promoted to Companion (2009) and the Glenn Gould Prize (2013).
Six years in the making, Robert Lepage’s production of Macbeth is entering the final stages of its creation. Word on the street is out about the six life-like motorcycles that have been specially built for this show and there are whispers of all the special effects that will augment the writing, particularly through the use of new and old technologies. This horror story of unchecked corruption and a killing spree is a tragedy that extends far beyond its time, so audiences will have no trouble relating to this Macbeth. This is a play not to be missed this Festival season.
For tickets and information visit the Stratford Festival website.
Thanks to Bill and Peggy for this article. They've promised a follow-up piece showcasing the stellar cast in the production.
