Imagine hundreds of years of Shakespearean experience gathered as a group for the first time in a newly built theatre, getting to know the nuances and spaces, rehearsing, readying for opening night.
Veteran actor Colm Feore recounted the excitement as the cast and crew of Richard III were finally able to enter Tom Patterson Theatre, two years after the pandemic shut the world down.
“It’s an infinite, wonderfully embracing, cozy space that is big enough to do what we need to do but small enough to just talk to people,” Feore told StratfordToday.
The $72 million project alongside Lakeside Drive was to open in 2020. The season was cancelled, the following one scaled-down and held mostly outside under a tent – similar to the Festival’s humble first year in 1953, when Richard III was on the playbill, with Sir Alec Guinness as the lead.
New and familiar faces comprise a talented cast and crew for the 2022 edition.
“We have some remarkable players,” said Feore. Including veterans, new and middle of career, Feore said there is at least 550 years of Shakespearean experience in the room. “An enormous amount of confidence and understanding about how this stuff works. So there is a ghost of a chance we might get some of it right.”
There were changes to the original cast. The community was saddened by the loss of Martha Henry, who died of cancer last October. Henry’s good friend Diana Leblanc was cast in her place as the Duchess of York. Seanna McKenna, who played the title role in 2011, returns as Queen Margaret.
Though experience will add to performance, Feore lamented that 34 years have passed since he played the title character at the Festival Theatre.
“When Richard III was my age, he had been dead for 32 years.”
Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino directs Richard III, which runs May 10 to Oct. 30.
Diversity is no stranger to the festival stage
The theme for the Stratford Festival’s 70th season is new beginnings. The Festival Theatre will feature Hamlet, Chicago and The Miser. Also at Tom Patterson Theatre are All’s Well That End’s Well and Death and the King’s Horseman. Little Women will be performed at Avon Theatre. Studio Theatre is the venue for Every Little Nookie, Hamlet-911 and 1939.
There has been a call for increased diversity in some parts of the entertainment world. The Stratford Festival has long since made that a priority and continues to shine by example.
Hamlet will feature Amaka Umeh in the lead. Umeh was recently honoured with the Harry Jerome President’s Award, which honours those who have made important and lasting contributions to the African-Canadian community. Umeh is also cast in the drama Death and the King’s Horseman, alongside a talented cast, from Nigerian Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka.
Feore said the theatre is proud to nurture talent, regardless of background.
“When diversity and inclusion started to become a big deal, we said, well sure, okay, that doesn’t change anything for us. We have always been like that.”
Feore said the theatre is open to everyone, offering freedom to allow for every kind of possibility.
“The extraordinary thing about the festival as a company is we have the depth of talent and experience that we can all share with each other…where we can turn to each other and say ‘hey you’ve played this part before, help me out here. Stop me going down blind alleys’. It is an enormously valuable resource when you consider how little time we have to mount these shows and get them up and running.”
Over the years, Feore has skillfully navigated between the age old Shakespearean stage, Hollywood blockbusters on the big screen, and, more recently, television via streaming services - acting in the immensely popular Umbrella Academy.
The Netflix hit was watched in 45 million households during season one and 43 million the following season. Hotly anticipated season three drops in June.
Feore’s character, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, is a billionaire industrialist, who has adopted children and prepped them to save the world. It is ahead of its time in diversity inclusion, Feore said. Transgender actor Elliot Page announced on his Twitter page earlier this year that his character on the show will come out as transgender in season three, now to be known as Viktor Hargreeves.
Feore is unsure if showrunner Steve Blackman and Page collaborated on the storyline but the character was moving down a path. “I know that at a certain point it became clear there would be a transition, the question was does this stay a secret or does this get celebrated as an opportunity and I think they made the right choice to celebrate it as an opportunity.”
Slowed by the pandemic, the show takes about six months to film, then Netflix takes another six months or so to add their magic and translate it into dozens of languages.
Streaming is still relatively new to Feore and a world removed from a thrust stage – but he was fortunate to be a part of David Fincher’s House of Cards, the first series to have all episodes complete on the same day, released as a package and ready for binging.
The world of television hasn’t been the same since.
“It put an enormous amount of pressure on everyone - you need to have a perfect television show, perfect as you can make it, ready to go the moment you push send and hope that people binge watch it over the weekend and you can check the algorithms and see how much they like it.”
“It changed the world.”
Feore said there is a connection between roles, despite their varied presentation. The madness of Sir Reginald Hargreaves has been channelled many times before. With the hurried pace of television filming, sometimes providing one or two takes to actors, experience goes a long way.
“It helps the foundation and it gives you a springboard to being confident…It doesn’t hurt to have someone playing him who has also played Hamlet, King Lear and Richard III and all the others I have had the good fortune to play.”
