Overview
September 20 – 23, 2023
4 Days
Stratford Festival is North America’s largest classical repertory theatre company with another outstanding line up for 2023. Presenting classics, contemporary dramas, and musicals, they put special emphasis on the plays of Shakespeare. Roll back in time, and the year was 1950.The railway had just pulled out of Stratford. In a bid to breathe new life into the community that sits on the idyllic Avon River, journalist Tom Patterson tabled the idea of a Shakespearean Theatre. How fitting that one of the theatres in the Stratford collection is named after this remarkable man.
For 2023, we have increased this tour by one day. Included are FOUR shows in addition to an optional extra show. A new hotel location for Jolly Tours, right in the heart of Stratford is the ideal location.
Download the Details of this Tour Here
Image Gallery
Click any image to enlarge
Day One – We will check in at our centrally located host hotel in Stratford after a delightful group dinner enroute, very close to Stratford. This evening at 8:00 PM you have option to attend “The Wedding Band” at the Tom Patterson Theatre. (This optional show should be reserved at time of booking, but no later than tour balance due) (D)
Day Two – Breakfast is included each morning. Take time for a short walk this morning to explore your surroundings. Discover how easy it is to access the Festival Theatre grounds, the waterfront and more. At noon today look forward to the first play in this year’s line-up at the Avon Theatre. It is a classical fantasy called “A Wrinkle in Time”, perhaps you recall the movie starring Oprah Winfrey? Our group will have a Post Show Chat with one or more cast members following the show. Option to exchange this performance with Shakespeare’s “King Lear”. This evening will be the first of two musicals we will see at The Avalon Theatre. The outrageous musical comedy, Monty Python’s “Spamalot”. A full plated dinner with time at your hotel to re-group and refresh will certainly help with the pace of this day. (B, D)
Day Three – A fabulous ‘newer’ comedy, “Les Belles-Soeurs” this afternoon at the Festival theatre, portrays 15 Quebecois women in grand theatrical style. Ample time to enjoy your Italian Buffet dinner before the second and last musical, “Rent”, also at the Festival Theatre. It was originally set in Manhattan in the 1990’s. With its iconic song list, you will be tempted to sing along. (B, D)
Day Four – Following breakfast, we will check out and take the short drive over to St Jacobs. The famously known Farmers Market of St. Jacobs will be a welcomed stop this morning before we begin our journey back to Eastern Ontario. Our expected time of arrival in Cornwall will be approximately 7:00 PM this evening (B)
Inclusions
- Transportation via Deluxe Motorcoach
- 3 Nights’ Hotel Accommodation in Stratford, Arden Park
- 3 Breakfasts, 3 Dinners
- Reserved Orchestra Seats for Four included shows
- Post Show Chat with Cast
- Visit to St Jacobs Farmers Market
- Cancellation Insurance* (* Surcharge may apply on upper age brackets )
- Luggage Handling
- All Taxes and Gratuities on Included Meals
- Jolly Tour Director
| Room Occupancy | Cost Per Person |
|---|---|
| Double | $ 1,799 (Taxes Incl. $ 204.49) |
| Triple | $ 1,699 (Taxes Incl. $ 192.99) |
| Quad | $ 1,639 (Taxes Incl. $ 186.09) |
| Single | $ 2,169 (Taxes Incl. $ 247.16) |
Deposit $ 500 PP Upon Registration
Balance Due Date: 21 July 2023
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES
All show performances include an audience advisory. To be informed, please check Stratford Festival Website.
A WRINKLE IN TIME
A STRAIGHT LINE IS NOT THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO POINTS. (INCLUDED)
This new adaptation directed and written by Thomas Morgan Jones is based on the classic fantasy by Madeleine L’Engle, in which a young heroine leads her brother and a friend on a spectacular journey through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy, to save the world and rescue her father who mysteriously disappeared while working on an astounding scientific concept.
MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT
(INCLUDED)
Monty Python’s Spamalot offers up a hefty share of irreverence in a hilarious spoof of the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as they go in search of the Holy Grail. This outrageous musical comedy by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, lets us look at our flaws and foibles and in doing so allows us to laugh at the things that make us human.
HIS SUCCESSION PLAN WILL SLAY YOU
LES BELLES-SOEURS
A KITCHEN TABLE CONFIDENTIAL (INCLUDED)
After 32 years, Michel Tremblay’s masterpiece, which revolutionized Québécois theatre and is renowned the world over, returns to Stratford on the Festival Stage. Written in 1965, Les Belles-Soeurs portrays 15 Québécois women expressing their anger, desperation and frustration loudly, rudely and audaciously. Germaine Lauzon has won a million stamps in a contest. She invites her family and neighbours into her kitchen to help paste them into booklets. Fighting for any power in their suffocating lives, the women yell, backstab, dream and steal in grand theatrical style. Setting: Montreal, 1965.
RENT– “FORGET REGRET, OR LIFE IS YOURS TO MISS…”
(INCLUDED)
Set in Manhattan in the 1990s and inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, this rock musical by Jonathan Larson follows a group of young East Village artists, performers, and philosophers as they struggle through the hardships of poverty, societal discord, and the AIDS epidemic in the search for life, love, and art. With a song list that includes the iconic “Seasons of Love,” Rent tells a story as relevant today as when it took Broadway by storm more than 25 years ago. Setting: 1990s East Village, New York.
WEDDING BAND
“SOME TRUTH HAS NO NOURISHMENT IN IT.” (OPTIONAL)
The stellar work – written with great precision and powerful storytelling by Alice Childress – gives an emotional portrayal of a relationship between a Black seamstress, Julia, and a white baker, Herman, in the shadow of the First World War and the 1918 flu epidemic in Charleston, South Carolina. The couple’s deep love and commitment faces the cruel racism of the Deep South in this revealing portrayal of interracial love, forced to navigate the societal racism of laws and culture, along with heartbreaking judgment from their own families and communities. Written during the Civil Rights era, the play resonates in our modern times of racial reckoning with movements such as Black Lives Matter, across North America, and at a time when a new pandemic is tragically altering lives. Setting: South Carolina, 1918.
