Goblins, ghosts, superstition take the stage at Stratford Festival

Ever-popular Ghost Tours of the Avon Theatre also return Oct. 16 to 30

Bruce Horak, Ellis Lalonde and Rebecca Northan in Goblin:Macbeth.Photo by Tim Nguyen

Superstitions, ghosts and goblins highlight the month of October at the Stratford Festival.

Renowned Shakespeare scholar Sir Stanley Wells calls in from the “other Stratford” – where he is honorary president of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – to speak with artistic director Antoni Cimolino in the Meighen Forum’s final Celebrated Speaker event of the year.

Via a media release, the Festival said the Meighen Forum will also offer a hint of Halloween throughout the month with such events as Goblin:Macbeth – a spontaneous theatre event by Rebecca Northan with Bruce Horak – and Theatrical Superstitions, hosted by David Prosser with Seana McKenna.

The festival’s ever-popular Ghost Tours of the Avon Theatre also return Oct. 16-30 thanks to seasonal demand for this behind-the-scenes offering.

The tours begin as twilight falls and guests are led on a backstage exploration filled with lore about ghostly apparitions that wander in the historic theatre.

In the special Celebrated Speaker event on Oct. 22, Cimolino and Wells have an in-depth conversation in which they explore the findings of Sir Stanley’s latest book What Was Shakespeare Really Like?

In a tale of three goblins stumbling upon the complete works of William Shakespeare, Northan, Horak and Ellis Lalonde "blend improvisation, fantasy and tragedy in an electrifying and fresh interpretation of the classic play Macbeth," the festival says in a news release. Performances run from Oct. 12 to 28 at the Studio Theatre.

This October, mark Friday the 13^th with a look at theatrical superstitions, as host Prosser is joined by veteran actor and director McKenna, Dr. Ross Stuart, emeritus professor of theatre at York University, and stage manager Cynthia Toushan to have a discussion about the mysterious traditions carried out by theatre practitioners the world over.