The Stratford Festival

In 1953 a journalist in a declining railway town persuaded the British director Tyrone Guthrie to come and stage Shakespeare in a tent, on the grounds that the town happened to be called Stratford and its river the Avon. It worked. The festival is now the largest classical repertory theatre company in North America, running a season of a dozen or more productions from April to October across four venues, mixing Shakespeare with classic drama and musicals. The main Festival Theatre kept the tent's arrangement: a thrust stage designed with Tanya Moiseiwitsch that puts the audience on three sides, a form that has influenced theatre design widely since.

What you actually see

• The thrust stage - the Festival Theatre's original 1950s design.
• The repertory season - a dozen or more productions running in rotation.
• The costume warehouse - tours of the company's enormous stock.
• The Avon riverbank - the park and gardens along the water.

When to go

The season runs April to October, with the fullest programme from June to September and the highest prices at weekends. Booking opens months ahead and popular titles sell out. Weekday matinees are the cheapest way in. The town is quiet outside the season.

Honest expectations

Stratford is a two-hour drive from Toronto with no practical public transport option beyond a seasonal coach, so it is an overnight rather than an evening out. Accommodation is limited and prices rise with the season. Outside the festival months the town has little to hold a visitor.

Nearby

Toronto is two hours east; the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake is the other Ontario company.