At first I thought this “play”:https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/PlaysAndEvents/Production/Bronte was about what the world would have been like without the Brontë sisters. Then I realized it was a play on words, pardon the pun. The world without is what they called the world outside their family home. This is a play by Toronto-based playwright Jordi Mand and presents the three sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne as the sole actors on stage. The action takes place in their home on five specific nights between 1846 and 1849. For those unfamiliar with the authors’ lives, the program includes a chronology from 1812 with their parents’ marriage to 1861 with their father’s death. It is a poignant and often funny story about their struggles to write and to be able to write under their own names, though not all of them wanted to go public, and to co-exist as sisters and writers. It was a well-acted, thoughtful play.
One of the non-Shakespearean productions at the Stratford Festival 2018, this play is running at the Studio Theatre until October 18. There is free parking downtown after 6:00 pm. Although they don’t have a senior’s rate for plays, there are often deals that can be had on tickets if you sign up for emails and watch online.
