Festival Theatre (Shaw Festival)

The Shaw Festival is the second-largest repertory company in North America, and the only theatre in the world that specializes in plays written by Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries (1856-1950): "plays about the beginning of the modern world." Their productions run from April to October each year, in three very different theatres. Here you can see up to a dozen plays performed by one of the world's finest acting companies, in a beautiful village just 20 minutes down-river from Niagara Falls and only two hours from Toronto. (861 seats) This is the first building that you see when you come into Niagara along the parkway. Out of a grove of oaks and then across the Commons, the Festival Theatre nestles among its trees and gardens. This is their flagship theatre. It's commodious and elegant - all rose-coloured brick and shingled roofs. Here they do the plays that need "scale", some size and grandeur, whether they be dramas or comedies. And where on a summer evening you can stroll in the gardens and watch the moon rise over old Fort George.