Canadian theatre comes into its own

guardian.co.uk: "Back in the late 1970s I was a regular visitor to Canada's two big theatrical jamborees: the Stratford Shakespeare festival and the Shaw festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In those days, if I'm honest, the big draw at Stratford was the luminous presence of Maggie Smith, which was then run by her fellow Brit, Robin Phillips. Paying a whistlestop return visit last week to both festivals, I was staggered by the changes. Both Stratford and the Shaw have grown in scale: each town now has four theatres offering a combined total of 23 productions. And, although Stratford is run by the part-American Des McAnuff and the Shaw by the Belfast-born Jackie Maxwell, both festivals now rely much more on home-grown talent. I never once heard those agonising debates about cultural identity that were a feature of my first visits."