Renowned Stratford Festival commissions new Anne of Green Gables play [Video]

Toronto-based playwright Kat Sandler has been tapped to adapt Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 bestseller about an orphan who blossoms on Prince Edward Island for a 2025 audience.

That means whimsical Anne Shirley will be taking a trip from Avonlea to the Avon Theatre at the revered Stratford Festival in southwest Ontario, in a new non-musical theatrical production that will run from April to October. 

“I’m obsessed with it. I love it,” Sandler said of Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables during an interview this week.

“I grew up with the audio cassettes … and the miniseries, so it’s just such an honour to get to touch this piece of Canadiana that so many people have such beautiful, beautiful memories and experiences with.”

She wants to share that love with a new generation not familiar with the story, some of whom lurk within her own family.

“My little sister was like, ‘Oh, that’s the girl from Newfoundland with the potatoes.’ And …