“This production has a remarkable intimacy, crystallized by the formidable actor Graham Abbey, whose relationship with the audience becomes one of the closest I’ve ever seen in a Shakespearean drama, even though Abbey is playing a character named Philip the Bastard.”

“The Stratford Festival’s King John is a very good production of a play about a very bad king. Tom McCamus plays him, rivetingly, as a neurotic narcissist who, unlike his fellow Shakespearean tyrant Richard III, makes the fatal mistake of caring whether people like him.”

“I’m not sure whether it’s correct to say that McCamus is a source of endless delight in the production that opened Wednesday. But it’s certainly accurate to say that you can’t take your eyes off him from the moment he first shambles onto the stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre…”

“The play is stacked with a heavyweight ensemble cast but the night really belonged to Abbey. It was arguably his best performance. He’s never looked more comfortable and he makes the most of every moment on stage.”

“a very cynical play about politics….[Carroll is] presenting King John as if it were at the intimate, indoors Blackfriars Theatre in Stratford’s intimate, indoors Tom Patterson Theatre…I had enough fun playing Carroll’s game this time around to see this King John as half-full, rather than half-empty.”

“The play is stacked with a heavyweight ensemble cast but the night really belonged to Abbey. It was arguably his best performance. He’s never looked more comfortable…McKenna and Collins…are well-matched adversaries and such fun to watch.”