Final Rating: 2/5
The Stratford Festival debuted back in 1953 as a way for a local journalist, Tom Patterson, to help the flailing community of Stratford. Since the small town in Ontario shared the same name as the home to William Shakespeare, it was only fitting that a theatrical festival would be based on the works of Shakespeare. In the years that have proceeded, Stratford has become the largest theatre-based festival in North America. Every year tens of thousands of people flock to the town of 33,000 to see the best and most innovative Shakespearean adaptations along with a host of other productions ranging from the classics to debuting new shows.
This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino, directed by Barry Avrich, focuses its attention on soon to be exiting artistic director of the Stratford Festival, Antoni Cimolino, whose tenure running the show ran from 2013-2026. The film opens discussing the lost 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the whole world shut down. The festival which runs from April to October every year was just about to open its season, which included productions of Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Chicago and more. In total the festival lost upwards of $25,000,000 due to the pandemic.
For young creatives growing up in Ontario, like myself, Stratford was the gold standard of theatre. Nowhere else could you see the world’s greatest stage actors, performing in stunning venues, with expert craftsmanship. I had the great fortune of seeing such shows as Colm Feore in Cyrano de Bergerac (with notable Stratford alum Christopher Plummer in attendance), Brian Bedford reading Oscar Wilde’s private letters in Ever Yours, Oscar and Martha Henry playing the towering role of Prospero in The Tempest. It is a place of magic and the production quality rivals anything that can be seen on Broadway or London’s West End.
I had the pleasure of seeing several shows starring a good friend of mine, Sébastien Heins (friend of the podcast last heard on episode 111: Da 5 Bloods and Celebrating Black Cinema), including The Tempest, Breath of Kings and The School for Scandal, who was a company member during Cimolino’s tenure that were featured in the film either via discussions, footage or stills.
For those unaware of Stratford’s legacy, it has put on productions starring some of the finest actors ever, including the likes of Alec Guiness, Maggie Smith, Christopher Plummer, Martha Henry, William Shatner, Colm Feore, Erik McCormick among many others. We get a greatest hits montage of the history of the festival with plenty of archival footage and photographs of early iterations and how they expanded from a tented venue to building several permanent buildings.
After a brief introduction, we start getting to the meat and potatoes of the doc, the career of Antoni Cimolino. The son of Italian immigrants who went to the University of Windsor for drama school, met his future wife there and knew his end goal was to be an actor at Stratford. After making his debut as a company member in 1988, he got his first big break in 1992 playing Romeo in the tale of star crossed lovers, Romeo & Juliet.
Reviews for Cimolino’s performance were not great, and he didn’t handle reading what the critics were saying well so he started to look for other avenues to work in the theatre. This is a feeling I deeply resonate with, despite getting a diploma for acting, I was plagued by self doubt and being aware of talents paled in comparison to my peers so I too had a foot out of the door before I even graduated.
Cimolino directed his first play in 2001 and started to take on a larger role behind the scenes. He was appointed to the role as assistant to the Artistic Director Richard Monette, who became a mentor and father figure to Cimolino. Eventually after serving in multiple roles including producing shows, Cimolino was named Artistic Director in 2013, a role that he will hold until the conclusion of the 2026 season.
The film is mostly a paint by numbers documentary, tossing softball questions to Cimolino about his biggest achievements (overseeing the rebuilding of the crumbling Tom Patterson Theatre), his important friendship and professional relationship with Colm Feore and wanting to one day be out-achieved by his successors.
Barry Avrich does include some roadblocks that Cimolino faced, most notable how during the Black Lives Matter protest the festival came under scrutiny for its lack of black and people of colour acting in main roles, directing and in positions of power. Cimolino comes off well responding to the backlash about how they knew that diversity amongst their ranks was lagging instead of being a community leader that they aimed to be. In terms of where they are at now, at least outwardly it does appear that they are casting more people of colour in lead roles, but we aren’t given any statistics or goals they have in place.
The film excels mostly because of how great the festival is for preserving their history. The fact that they film all their shows and have an online streaming service dedicated to allowing people the chance to see shows they may have missed or never saw is a huge asset to the documentary. When Cimolino is discussing his performance in Romeo & Juliet, there is footage shown. When Colm Feore talks about any number of productions he was in, they insert clips.
Unfortunately the production value of the film is akin to puffpiece of good news at the end of a news broadcast. Despite being an almost $100 million dollar per year machine, the film takes no real risks. We get title cards of famous Shakespeare quotes to set up segments that feel like they went to the gift shop and looked at the fridge magnets being sold as inspiration.
The film ends as we approach Cimolino’s final season as Artistic Director. While some of the subjects interviewed seem to suggest this might be his chance to wind down, others posit that he can work anywhere he wants, like running another theatre company, becoming a professor or doing the lecture circuit. The fact that Barry Avrich didn’t wait one more year to get the final moments of Cimolino at the helm makes it feel like this is a business card he can now present to help him land a job elsewhere.
A far more interesting film would be what goes on behind the scenes to mount one of these spectacular shows patrons have been accustomed to seeing for the last 73 years. Cimolino is a milquetoast subject at best, but it all feels too rosy and self congratulatory to be anything of substance, but I suppose all’s well that ends well.
This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to Route504 for the screener.
