Joseph Schenk

Review of Stratford Festival

I'm here for 7 days and will see 8plays. As of now...

I'm here for 7 days and will see 8plays. As of now I've seen 3. O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night was terrific! All of the performances were first class. The studio Theatre is intimate with great acoustics. You could hear every word from the performers. Also at the studio I saw Shakespeare's comedy of errors. Once again the performances were First Rate. The play is fun and not as impactful as the O'Neill. I also saw the Tempest last night at Festival Hall. It was not so good. If you sit to the right or left of the stage, you missed quite a lot of the dialogue. In other words there are bad seats in this house, quite a lot of them. Also in the seats on either the left or the right you're often times looking at the performers backs who are Central parts of the action. I have a couple of more plays at this venue to come and I will get the hearing aids maybe that will allow me to hear the various speeches. My hearing is not faulty, I want the reader to know that. It's the Acoustics or the design of the theater that are the problem.

Overall, Stratford Festival is delightful. I will come back again. I'll probably also give another review after seeing a few more plays.