In recent seasons Richard Monette, artistic director of Canada's Stratford Festival, has come under critical fire for not producing enough Shakespeare, but the just-announced 1998 season should placate the grumblers with four works by The Bard spread across all three theatres.

"The tremendous response we've experienced this year to such plays as Coriolanus and Oedipus Rex confirms that our patrons share our commitment to the great works of drama that lie at the core our mandate," says Monette.

The four Shakespeares are Julius Caesar, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Winter's Tale.

Also on the schedule are the musical Man of La Mancha, Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Miracle Worker, Moliere's The Miser, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Tennessee Williams' , and a remounting of 1996's critically acclaimed Waiting For Godot, starring two of the Festival's hottest young actors, Tom McCamus and Stephen Ouimette.

The 1998 season continues Monette's formula of international classics, popular musicals, a family show and Shakespeare -- a formula that has pulled the theatre solidly into the black after running a sizeable deficit under previous artistic director, David William. The Stratford season runs May 11 to Nov. 8, 1998. Casting will be announced at a later date.

-- By Mira Friedlander