Stratford Shakespeare Festival Plays Will Stream Free This Weekend

The Stratford festival runs every year from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada and is one of the most well-known arts festivals in Canada, recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

The festival's "Stage to Screen" program films its seasonal productions and releases them to cinemas around the world.

Here's how to stream Macbeth and Anthony & Cleopatra this weekend:

The Stratford Festival’s 2014 production of Antony & Cleopatra stars Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh in the title roles in this spectacular production.

"Reason and judgment prove no match for the tsunami of mutual passion engulfing Mark Antony, one of the three joint rulers of the Roman Republic, and Cleopatra, the seductive queen of Egypt. Surrendering everything to their desires, they open the floodgates to a civil conflict that will shake the very foundations of their world."

Reviews were mixed to positive when the production premiered in 2014. Robert Cushman for the National Post said: "Yanna McIntosh makes Cleopatra the consummate sexual manipulator, proud of her talents, furious when they fail her.” Of Geraint Wyn Davies, Richard Ouzounian from the Toronto Star said “[he] offers us an Antony of boundless charm and eternal optimism.”

Anthony and Cleopatra would be streaming for free globally on August 13, 2022. A link to the stream has been added to our updating list of free streaming musicals and plays.

Captured live on stage at the Festival Theatre in 2016, director Antoni Cimolino’s acclaimed production of Macbeth "takes audiences to the stark landscape of 11th century Scotland, where a young couple (Ian Lake, Krystin Pellerin) gradually destroy themselves, each for the sake of the other, perverted by the promise of power."

The production was filmed utilizing 10 cameras and more than 130 audio tracks to create an immersive experience on film. The capture manages to bring audiences even closer to Stratford’s intimate production.

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times reviewed the filmed production, saying: “With Lake’s galvanizing performance as an unusually young and sexually magnetic Macbeth, Shakespeare illustrates how ephemeral and illusory power can be."

Macbeth would be streaming for free globally on August 14, 2022. A link to the stream has been added to our updating list of free streaming musicals and plays.