Dame Maggie Smith, the 2012 recipient of the theatre festival’s legacy award, will be presented with the award in Toronto on Sept. 10. Smith spent four spectacular seasons at The Stratford Festival between 1976 and 1980.

Martin Knelman of the Toronto Star writes: “The timing could hardly be more delicious for those of us who have become hopelessly addicted to her hilarious turn as the sharp-tongued and formidable Violet Crawley, a.k.a. the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the BBC series Downton Abbey.”
Read his full colum HERE.

Maggie Smith in Stratford’s production of As You Like It, 1978.
Smith played Rosalind.