Stratford's Music-Filled Twelfth Night, With Brian Dennehy, Will Be Filmed for Cinemas

By Kenneth Jones
25 Oct 2011

Brian Dennehy
Brian Dennehy
Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's 2011 production of Twelfth Night, directed by artistic director Des McAnuff, will be filmed for screenings at Cineplex and participating theatres across Canada in 2012.

The film will be produced and directed by Barry Avrich, who also produced the Ontario festival's films of Caesar and Cleopatra in 2008 and The Tempest in 2010.

As reported, Twelfth Night features Brian Dennehy as Sir Toby Belch, Stephen Ouimette as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Tom Rooney as Malvolio, Andrea Runge as Viola and Sara Topham as Olivia, with Ben Carlson as Feste, Trent Pardy as Sebastian, Cara Ricketts as Maria and Mike Shara as Orsino.

The music of Twelfth Night, written by McAnuff and Michael Roth, has been released on CD and is also available for download on CD Baby.

McAnuff said in a statement, "The nature of theatre is such that we practice our craft in the eternal present. After a production closes it lives only in our memory, but this is a rare opportunity to capture it in a more enduring medium. Twelfth Night has had an exuberant response from student and adult audiences all season long. In fact we had to add a performance to help meet the demand for tickets. I'm absolutely delighted that it will be the third production filmed during my tenure."

General director Antoni Cimolino said, "These screenings give people across Canada a taste of what we do here in Stratford and an opportunity to see some of this country's finest artists at work."

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's 2011 season runs until Nov. 6, featuring Camelot, Twelfth Night, The Misanthrope, The Grapes of Wrath, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Homecoming.