Canadians will not have to travel to the small town of Stratford, Ontario to see a brilliant production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, but today will be able to see it in one of several cinemas across the country.
Canada’s prestigious Stratford Festival was founded on Shakespeare productions in 1952. It still presents 12 to 14 of his works every year, as well as musicals and modern plays attracting hundreds of thousands of people from Canada and beyond.
Recently, three Shakespearean plays were recorded in high definition and will be played in cinemas first in Canada, then around the world and on Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC. The festival intends to record and distribute all 38 of Shakespeare’s plays over the next 10 years.
‘Extraordinary actors’
“It’s an extraordinary group of actors,” says the festival’s artistic director Antoni Cimolino about the King Lear production. “That was another reason why I really wanted this initiative to happen. We are blessed with a company of 120 actors at Stratford who are really equal or better to any in the world…And this company really demonstrates that.”
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The filming was done with 10 cameras and a live audience. “We didn’t want to simply make a film. There are films out there,” says Cimolino. “What we wanted to do was to capture the live experience of being in the festival theatre…and being part of the audience.” One difference in the viewing experience is that cinema goers get to see close-ups.
Expensive, but valuable
The recordings are expensive to produce and distribute and were made possible with the help of donations. Cimolino says although they will never turn a huge profit, they are valuable. “The reason for doing this was about preserving these extraordinary performances and getting word of the Stratford Festival abroad. So, in that sense, it will more than pay for itself.”
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