Vaughan to Stratford: the Festival, the river and the drive home after the curtain

Stratford, the Festival's town

Stratford is a town of thirty thousand on the Avon River in Perth County that has run the Stratford Festival since 1953 — a repertory season of a dozen productions across four theatres from April to October, Shakespeare and musicals and new plays, with a company that is the largest classical theatre in North America — and the town has grown a restaurant culture around it that is out of proportion to its size: the Stratford Chefs School's graduates run the kitchens, the pre-theatre dinner is an institution, and the river's swans, the Shakespearean Gardens and the downtown's Ontario Street are the afternoon before the curtain. For Vaughan it is the theatre trip, and the chauffeured version exists for one reason above the others: the drive home after an evening performance, two hours on the 401 at eleven at night after dinner with wine, is the part of a Stratford evening that nobody should be doing.

The evening performance

A couple from Kleinburg in a Premium Sedan: pickup at 3:30, the 407 and 401 to Kitchener and Highway 7/8 west through Shakespeare to Stratford by 5:15; the drop at the restaurant on Ontario Street or by the river at 5:30 for the pre-theatre dinner reserved weeks ahead; the walk or the sedan's five-minute drive to the Festival Theatre for the eight o'clock curtain; the chauffeur in the theatre's lot through the performance; the sedan at the theatre's loop at 10:45 as the crowd comes out; the 401 home; Kleinburg by half past midnight. Nine hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine before the tickets are bought, and both of them had the wine.

The matinee day and the group

A group of eight from Thornhill in an Executive Sprinter for a two o'clock matinee: pickup at 9:30, Stratford by 11:15, the river walk and the Shakespearean Gardens, lunch at 12:15 on Ontario Street, the Festival or the Avon Theatre at two, out at five, dinner at six, the Sprinter at eight, home by ten. Ten and a half hours divided eight ways, and a Sprinter whose tables are where the group discusses the play on the way home. The seniors' groups and the school-parent groups that book the Festival by the busload from Vaughan book this shape; a group of twelve or fourteen is one Sprinter and a group of thirty is the travel desk's coach.

The overnight and the two-play weekend

A couple or two couples doing two productions books the overnight: the evening performance on Saturday, a bed and breakfast or one of the town's inns, the Sunday matinee, and home after — a return pair in a sedan or the Sprinter staying for the two couples, with Sunday's drive home in the late afternoon. The Festival's four theatres — the Festival Theatre on the river's north bank with its thrust stage, the Avon on Downie Street, the Tom Patterson on the river's island, the Studio — are within a walk or a five-minute drive of each other and of every restaurant, and the town's inns are the same; the town's tourism site has the inns and the chocolate trail.

The town, before the curtain

The Avon's swans — released each spring in a parade the town holds in April — the river's paddleboats and the Shakespearean Gardens on the old mill site, the downtown's Ontario Street with the bookshops and the galleries, the Stratford Perth Museum, the Gallery Stratford, the Saturday farmers' market at the fairgrounds, and the Bacon & Ale Trail and Chocolate Trail that the tourism office sells as self-guided tastings — the afternoon before an evening performance, walked from the restaurant's drop. The Stratford Summer Music festival in July and August adds concerts on the river's barge and in the churches.

The pre-theatre dinner

Stratford's restaurants time their seating for the curtain — a 5:30 table for an eight o'clock show is the standard — and the ones a Vaughan couple books weeks ahead are the reason the town is on the dining pages: the Chefs School's own restaurant in winter, the river-side rooms, the Ontario Street kitchens, the inns' dining rooms. The chauffeur drops at the door and collects at the theatre; the walk between them, for most pairings, is ten minutes along the river.

The route

The 407 west to the 401, the 401 west to Kitchener's Highway 8 exit, Highway 7/8 west through New Hamburg and Shakespeare to Stratford — an hour and three-quarters from Woodbridge or Kleinburg, two hours from Thornhill; the last thirty kilometres are two-lane through Perth County's farms and, after an evening performance, dark. The routing estimate's two hours ten is the no-toll version; the fare includes the 407.

Which vehicle

A Premium Sedan for a couple; a Sprinter for a group of six to fourteen; a Luxury SUV for a family at a musical with children old enough for three hours — the Festival's family productions are the summer's; a stretch limousine for the anniversary that the stretch page describes, with the theatre's loop taking it.

What the chauffeur replaces

The drive home at eleven after dinner and a play; the theatre's lot at the end of a performance, when six hundred cars leave at once; the group's three cars and three drivers. The fare is one number in the booking engine, and for a couple it is the price of the wine and the sleep on the 401; for a Sprinter of eight it undercuts three cars and is the version the groups book season after season.

Seasons

April to October for the Festival, with the summer's full repertory and the fall's last weeks the busiest; the swans' parade in April; Stratford Summer Music in July and August; the town's Christmas lights and the Chefs School's winter restaurant for a December evening without a play; the Festival's schedule and tickets on its site from the winter.

Pairing it

Stratford pairs with St. Jacobs and Kitchener on the way, with Bayfield and Goderich an hour west for a lake-and-theatre weekend, and with London an hour south-west for a family with a Western student and Festival tickets.

The Festival, for planning

The season opens in April with previews and runs to late October across the four theatres; the repertory means a dozen productions rotate through the week, so a Saturday evening and a Sunday matinee are two different plays and a couple that books the overnight sees both. Tickets go on sale in the winter with the members' priority, the Festival Theatre's Shakespeare and the Avon's musical sell first for the summer's Saturdays, and the Festival's site has the calendar by theatre; a Vaughan couple books the vehicle when it books the tickets, because the summer Saturday evenings are the site's own busiest theatre nights and the Premium Sedan is the vehicle the same couples ask for by name.

The Festival Theatre's loop

The Festival Theatre sits in Queen's Park on the Avon's north bank with a lot behind it and a loop at its front doors, and at the end of an evening performance the lot's six hundred cars leave through one exit onto Queen Street; a chauffeured couple is at the loop, the sedan is at the loop at the minute the confirmation says, and the drive home begins while the lot is still queuing. The Avon Theatre on Downie Street downtown has no lot to speak of and the sedan waits on the street the chauffeur knows; the Tom Patterson on the river's island has a small lot and a walk; the Studio is beside the Avon.

A family's musical, in order

A family of four from Maple with children of ten and thirteen for a Saturday matinee of the summer's musical: the Luxury SUV at 9:45, Stratford by 11:30, the Avon's drop; the river's paddleboats and the swans until 12:30, lunch at the market on Ontario Street, the Avon's two o'clock curtain, out at 4:45; the Chocolate Trail's three stops — the tourism office's tasting passport — until six; dinner by the river; the SUV at 7:30 and home by 9:15. Nine and a half hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine, and a Stratford day that the children rate by the chocolate.

The town's other seasons

Stratford without a play is still a town worth the drive for a couple: the Chefs School's winter restaurant, which opens in the off-season and books out; the December lights and the Christmas market; the April swan parade, when the town walks its swans from their winter quarters to the river with a pipe band; Stratford Summer Music's July and August concerts on the river's barge. The town's tourism site has each; the sedan is the same.

Pickup notes

The 407 and 401 from every Vaughan community to Kitchener's Highway 8 exit, then 7/8 west; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road, a Thornhill one at Bathurst. Give us the performance, the theatre, the curtain, the dinner's reservation and the addresses in order, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the curtain time on it.

Bayfield and the lake, as the Sunday

An hour west of Stratford on Highway 8 is Lake Huron at Bayfield and Goderich, and a couple's Festival weekend that ends with a Sunday on the lake — Bayfield's Main Street of galleries and inns, the beach, Goderich's octagonal square and its harbour — is the version this site books for the summer's last weeks; the Bayfield post covers the towns, and the sedan drives Highway 8 home through the county's farms rather than the 401.

Booking it

Book an hourly evening or day from your Vaughan address with the performance, the theatre and the dinner reservation in the notes, a return pair for the overnight, or a Sprinter for the group's matinee; tell us the seats and the addresses in order, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the curtain time on it.

Book the Stratford evening