Stratford 2026 season to include ‘Something Rotten!’ and two new plays

TORONTO — The Stratford Festival will remount “Something Rotten!” in 2026, which will be the last season with artistic director Antoni Cimolino at the helm.

The southern Ontario theatre festival says the smash 2024 production, which tells the tale of two of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, will return by popular demand.

The season, which runs from April 20 to Nov. 1, will also feature productions of “The Hobbit,” based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novel, Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”

Two new plays will have their world premiere: “The Tao of the World,” written and directed by Jovanni Sy, and “The King James Bible Play,” written by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman.

Cimolino, who has been artistic director of Stratford for 14 years, will also direct a production of “The Tempest” as part of his farewell.

The theme of this year’s festival comes from a line in that play, Cimolino said in a press release.

“The theme of ‘This Rough Magic’ captures the heart of what theatre does best: it conjures illusion to reveal truth,” he said in the statement. “On stage, we witness life in all its complexity, crafted through stories that are both timeless and deeply resonant.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2025.