Tony Award-winner Brian Bedford will play the pious Tartuffe at the Stratford Festival, his longtime artistic home in Ontario, in summer 2000.

The Moliere comedy about a falsely pious patron and those taken in by him will play the Festival Theatre Aug. 1-Nov. 3, 2000. Official opening is Aug. 11. The translation is by Richard Wilbur.

Bedford won the Best Actor Tony on Broadway for The School for Wives in 1971, and was nominated for Best Actor in Two Shakespearean Actors (1992), Timon of Athens (1994) and The Moliere Comedies (1995).

Despite his gigs elsewhere, British-born Bedford is considered a Stratford regular, having acted in dozens of shows at the prestigious festival founded by Tyrone Guthrie.

Stratford artistic director Richard Monette will stage the comedy, which has a scenic design by founding festival designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch (realized by Desmond Heeley), costumes by Ann Curtis, lighting by Kevin Fraser and music by Gabriel Charpentier. The cast also includes James Blendick as Orgon, Keith Dinicol as Cleante, Seana McKenna as Dorine, Tim MacDonald as Damis and Lucy Peacock as Elmire.