“For perhaps the first time in the Stratford Festival’s history, the show you absolutely, categorically cannot miss this summer was not written by William Shakespeare. It’s not a musical, either, or even a restoration comedy…
Sandler’s adaptation – some of her best writing in recent years – manages to have its cake and eat it, too, with a script that welcomes children and adults alike into its care from the very first line. It’s both funny and achingly sad; straightforward yet nuanced and supple. Like Anne herself, Sandler’s treatment of her is one of gripping contradictions that stretch the imagination and satisfy the soul…
And what’s an adaptation without a spitfire Anne leading the way? Caroline Toal is that and more, spunky and sprightly as Canada’s favourite redhead, as convincing in the play’s darker moments as in its more lighthearted tales of tweenage girlhood.”