Fifty Seasons at Stratford

This is an excellent coffee table book for anyone who has ever been a faithful follower and attendee of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Ontario Canada. This text follows the Festival from its inaugural season in 1953 up to its fiftieth in 2002. The photographs in this book are worth the price alone. Another strength are the anecdotes of some of the festival company favorites and its behind the scenes vignettes. The actual text is written by Canadian critic Robert Cushman and it is the book's only (slight) weakness. Mr. Cushman has organized the book chronologically and comments on most of the productions in some form. This is a nice touch, but is also the book's weakness. Cushman's, or others, comments become the "word of God" so to speak about that production, and that irritated this reader. Mainly because some productions that I loved were given the short shrift by Mr. Cushman. But this is not a huge fault with the book, and as mentioned earlier, it is worth buying if Stratford is something that you value in your life. This book is also able to be purchased at the Festival's two theatre stores in Stratford, ON, as well as online.