Planned around our 15th anniversary of being together...Celebrated at Langdon Hall hotel we had discovered 2 years ago, at this time of the year (see blog August 2009)
Really charming place! Dinner on Friday night, a few hours after seeing "Hosanna" at Stratford (more on this further down). Delicious: greens from the house garden and a wild rice risotto with chanterel mushrooms - especially good - for apetizers; lobster and grilled halibut for main courses; we shared our dessert, a toasted sesame cannelloni full of ginger ice cream! All that paired with une coupe of Pommery, some Vouvray, Pinot Noir from the Niagara peninsula and Chardonnay.
Very large room in the Cloister, across from the Main House; equipped with a wood-burning fireplace, which of course we lit up (the picture below)! Expansive grounds with a vegetable garden, a pool, tennis courts, and miles of walking tracks in the surrounding forests. Went Saturday morning for a run, equipped with a map. Got lost though - for no fault of ours I might add - had gone for 5 km, ended up running for an hour or so, all the way to Blair along the surrounding highways, a good 8 or 9 kms! Followed by a - earthy or hearty, if not healthy - breakfast on the patio at the rear of the Main House (the picture above), with the sun shining - oughly enjoyable!
Back to Stratford, to catch "the Misanthrope", English version. Excellent! I had forgotten how witty Molière could be. Well translated, "en vers". Cast, as usual, superb! Bedford was supposed to direct that play and be in it (Oronte), but had to cancel because of health reasons. Ben Carlson as the main protagonist (Alceste) is as ardent as ever in his rendering. I think he is very much "defining" the Festival these recent years. I have seen him in many varying roles over the last 3 or 4 years: so talented, in drama as well as in comedy. I have seen him in Hamlet (Hamlet) and Julius Ceasar (Brutus), but also in The Importance of Being Earnest, and this year singing in Twelfth Night (Feste). Comes from the Shaw Festival where he had many years. Born in Canada, I believe, but of American parents. Very active in film as well...Great and long career ahead of him, one would think.
Saw Michel Tremblay's "Hosanna" the day before. Thought I had seen it in Montreal some 40 years ago when it came out at Théatre des Quatre Sous in 1973, but I was already abroad then; perhaps it is extracts I have seen since on TV... Anyway, I knew the story very well, as it is a play that has marked its time in Québec. A topic not particularly addressed in theatre in those days: homosexuals and drag queens, and done "en joual", which added such realism to the piece (François Rozet would have not approved!) It is also very "scorching", the couple, Hosanna and the ageing homo biker Cuirette, being so mean to each other! The language is very crude, as it is in the French version. Character was played by Richard Monette when it came out in English in the early seventies, first in Toronto then for a short stint - it was not apparently very successful - on Broadway. Monette was to become longest serving director of the Festival later on - died prematurely a few years ago!
Looking at the crowd that afternoon, primarily people old enough to be retired, I wonder to what extent they appreciated the play...
