Stratford festival tackles Rocky

TORONTO — Get ready to do the Time Warp at the Stratford Festival in southwestern Ontario.

The festival says it plans to present The Rocky Horror Show as part of its 2018 season, which includes a wide variety of theatrical genres along with its usual Shakespeare works.

Donna Feore will direct the Richard O’Brien cult classic.

The festival notes the production “speaks to our desire to live life in an uninhibited way,” which falls in line with the 2018 season’s theme of free will.

The repertory theatre company plans to present a total of 12 productions next year.

Tickets for the 2018 season will go on sale to festival members on Nov. 12 and to the public on Jan. 5.

Artistic director Antoni Cimolino will helm The Tempest, starring stage veteran Martha Henry as Prospero.

Feore will helm another songand-dance production, The Music Man.

Other shows in the lineup include the previously announced Coriolanus, directed by theatre maverick Robert Lepage in his festival debut. The festival says the production will use real-time video and elements of social media.

Director Nigel Shawn Williams will also make his festival debut, with To Kill a Mockingbird.

The playbill also includes: Julius Caesar, directed by Scott Wentworth; The Comedy of Errors, directed by Keira Loughran; Long Day’s Journey Into Night, directed by Miles Potter; Napoli Milionaria, directed by Cimolino, and An Ideal Husband, directed by Lezlie Wade.