If variety is the spice of repertory life, the Stratford Festival in Ontario is the place to savor it. Crowning this season's six initial offerings are two intrepidly ventured rarities:
THE WAY OF THE WORLD by WILLIAM CONGREVE
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Restoration drama takes us into a licentious world of high style, low morals and ice-cold wit. Interestingly enough, its aim is never bedroom comedy but drawing-room raillery. It is as if sex had been invented as a topic of conversation —either the veiled allusion or the saucy double entendre.
Congreve was...