O Canada 2023

The Shaw Festival is a theater festival located in Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL), Ontario, Canada, and is the second-largest repertory theatre company* in North America. It was founded in 1962 and Queen Elizabeth came in 1973 in honor of its first theater opening at the current location, staying at the charming Prince of Wales Hotel on the corner of King and Queen Streets.

The Prince of Wales Hotel, yards from our temporary home

Originally, it only featured productions written by George Bernard Shaw, but the repertoire expanded in the 1980s to appeal more widely. I had always wanted to visit and my sister Andrea agreed to go this month and did all the organizing. We persuaded her fifteen-year-old and our mother to join us.

George Bernard Shaw himself

Andrea found a charming house on one of the main streets (with a woodchuck in the backyard; shouldn’t it have been a beaver?) and bought tickets to one play and one musical, Blithe Spirit and Gypsy. I won’t bore you with the details of our miserable trip from Boston to Toronto; suffice it to say that Andrea and Katherine had to wait hours for us although we had planned to arrive together. However, by about 7 we reached our temporary home and found a restaurant for dinner, Bistro Six One. Because we had read that NOTL boasted some good local wineries we asked the waiter for recommendations: Andrea tried a Pinot Grigio, I a Chardonnay, and, as a joke, Katherine asked for a Riesling, which the waiter dutifully brought her with the lemonade she had also requested! Perhaps this rising sophomore looks older than we had realized!

Katherine at Queen's Royal Park

The town is not large but is quite delightful, with many restaurants and shops, flowers everywhere, and such polite drivers one could cross any street without looking for traffic (not that we did – we are from Boston). Once we had parked, everything was just a few blocks away. In the morning, Andrea brought back breakfast pastries, and then we strolled about, admiring the houses and gardens and Lake Ontario. We visited the extremely picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club located on grounds involved in the War of 1812 (it was odd to read historical plaques where we were the enemy). From Queen’s Royal Park, a few blocks south, we could see Fort Niagara on the shores of New York State across the water.

Queen Street (photo credit DreamPlanExperience.com)

After lunch at the Epicurean and a little shopping (the bookstore was unimpressive but I did manage to find a book in a Little Library on Front Street), we headed down Picton Street to the main festival theatre for some Noel Coward. The production was good and our balcony seats were excellent, and while I did not find Blithe Spirit quite as amusing as expected, it was still very enjoyable. Afterward, my mother and I attended Mass across the street at St. Vincent de Paul before joining Andrea and Katherine for dinner at 11th Post on Queen Street before returning to the theatre for Gypsy, a musical none of us had ever seen. It was meant to be the piece de resistance of the entire season, planned before the pandemic, and the vaudeville setting reminded me of stories told by my friend George Greller, whose parents were actual performers of that era. I did not know the story and was surprised to recognize two songs, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Together.” Our seats were in the front row of the very steep balcony. The cast was very good: I was impressed by Kate Hennig playing Mama Rose, Andrea liked Julie Lumsden playing Louise, and Katherine liked our usher, Liam, who was on duty for both shows!

CLM and APM, Fort Niagara in background

This was our second trip to Canada together; what's next - the Calgary Stampede?

* The largest is the Stratford Festival, also in Ontario.