I am looking forward to my (now becoming annual) girls day-trip to Stratford in a couple of weeks. Three of us drive down in the morning, bring a picnic lunch to eat by the Avon River, see a play, dine in a restaurant, and then return to Toronto.

This year we’re going off-book and seeing a non-Shakespearean play: Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller. Starring Seana McKenna (Elizabeth) and Lucy Peacock (Mary), it promises to be wonderful. McKenna fulfilled a lifelong dream last year, playing Richard III, and she was a marvel. Peacock recently made waves at UNC playing Queen MacBeth in a “gender-bending adaptation” of the Scottish play.

Yesterday, I started reading Timothy Findley‘s 2001 novel Spadework. I recently picked it up at Value Village and don’t even remember hearing about it before. As it turns out, it is set in Stratford, and begins with a married couple of “theatre people”, a 30-year-old actor and his 35-year-old, independently wealthy comfortable, set-maker wife. I’m 150 pages in and it’s something of a page-turner. One of the memorable scenes takes place at Down the Street, the restaurant that we’ve enjoyed the last couple of times we’ve been in Stratford, and apparently a theatre-people hangout. So I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled this time, although we’re usually there far too early to star-gaze. As for lunch, Jane, the set-maker, likes to drink wine in a paper cup down by the river when she takes a break from work, so I’m pretty sure a couple of G&Ts at lunch, similarly disguised, are worth the risk.

Related articles

• Strong performances, great design team create theatrical brilliance (lfpress.com)
• Peacock immerses herself in Mary role (lfpress.com)