September 30, 2011

Shakespeare Festival Reveals 2012 Season

It has only been a matter of weeks since Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan bid its final farewell to the summer stage for another season.  Indeed, the dust has barely settled - yet as the staff and crew take a much-needed moment to catch their breath, next year’s fine selections for the Festival MainStage have them eager to begin the whole process all over again.

The troupe tackles a heavy-hitting combo of comedy and tragedy in 2012, presenting one of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies, As You Like It, alongside one of the  greatest plays in the English language: the tragedy of Hamlet.

All the world’s a stage…
Brothers banish brothers, young women run from tyrannical fathers, and all end up in the magical, mystical forest of Arden where heroic rescues inspire love at first sight.  The forest setting is perfect for a young girl – who is disguised as a boy – to offer advice to her secret love on courting and winning her heart.  As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies, featuring his most articulate heroine: Rosalind, the wonderful, zany jest Touchstone, and the melancholy Jaques with his famous speech “All the world’s a stage, and the men and women merely players.”

To be, or not to be…
The ghost of his recently deceased father, seeking revenge for an unjust death, visits the melancholy Prince Hamlet with an unsettling request.  It is revealed that his brother Claudius, who has since married the queen and usurped the throne, murdered the former King in his sleep.  Hamlet is left to avenge this wrongdoing, but finds himself unable to act without further proof.  His indecision quickly leads to the madness and death of his girlfriend Ophelia and her Father.  Hamlet stages an elaborate play  – The Mousetrap – to determine the guilt of Claudius who has incensed Ophelia’s brother to revenge her death by challenging Hamlet to a duel.  The bloody conclusion makes Hamlet the greatest tragedy ever written.

Both productions are scheduled to play in repertory from July 11th to August 26th – a slight change in 2012 that will see the festival running a week later into August.  More information will be revealed in the coming months.

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