This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino studies the solitude of Stratford’s outgoing artistic director

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This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino

Directed by: Barry Avrich

Runtime: 78 minutes

Release date: Airs on the Documentary Channel Aug. 30, followed by a CBC Gem release on Sept. 18

Over the course of his storied career in Canadian theatre, Antoni Cimolino, outgoing artistic director of the Stratford Festival, built a reputation for being a good collaborator. By all accounts, he’s generous and playful in the rehearsal hall, a Stratford mainstay who for most of his life has prioritized the institution above all else. If there are bodies buried inside any of the fest’s four theatres, Cimolino undoubtedly knows where they are.

What’s surprising, then, about This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino, is the profound sense of loneliness that seems to underscore the top job in Canadian theatre – and the way that solitude bubbles up throughout the film.

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Barry Avrich’s latest documentary, filled with talking-head interviews, archival footage and behind-the-scenes peeks at how the festival runs, confirms that, yes, Cimolino cherishes his collaborators. As Avrich tells it, sprinkling arty Shakespeare quotes between chapters of the movie, Cimolino’s the kind of person you’d want on your team for a group project.

But the film also illuminates just how much of an island Cimolino has had to become on his journey to retirement – an occupational hazard, it seems, when nearly every theatre artist in the country wants something from you, be it a splashy directing gig or some Shakespearean dream role.

Small talk, reveals Cimolino, feels different now than it did when he was an emerging actor or up-and-coming director – there’s no such thing as a casual beer with a young performer or playwright when you hold the keys (or the dagger) to their future. (As The Globe and Mail’s theatre reporter and critic, I’ll confess I relate to that sentiment.)

It’s one of the more revealing threads in Avrich’s otherwise too effusive film, which briefly examines scandals from the Cimolino era – the festival’s handling of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, mainly – but overwhelmingly focuses on Cimolino’s successes at the festival. And there have been many, from his nimble handling of the pandemic (which Avrich uses to bookend the film) to his oversight on the reconstruction of the gorgeous Tom Patterson Theatre.

But the film betrays that Avrich, who made headlines in 2025 with his controversial documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, might be overly close to his subject. Avrich has been behind the camera for a number of the festival’s stage-to-screen archival recordings, and when I interviewed him for a Q&A about This Above All, he confirmed that he and Cimolino are friends.

Barry Avrich peeks behind the curtain at Antoni Cimolino’s retirement

That closeness is something of a double-edged sword in the film. Cimolino is surprisingly candid in places – a moment where he questions if he’s spent enough time with his children over the years is confessional and poignant – and the film carries the air of celebration that Avrich told me he hoped to achieve.

But that intimacy between documentarian and documentee also makes the film feel a bit like an ad for the festival – which, when incoming artistic director Jonathan Church fully takes over in a few months, will likely experience a significant artistic overhaul.

Why Jonathan Church’s hire could be a mixed bag for the Stratford Festival

Worth noting, as well, is Avrich’s recent CBC Arts essay about the film and his friendship with Cimolino, in which he extols that Canadian theatre “owes everything” to the outgoing director. There’s a compelling argument to be made in that vein – Cimolino’s impact on this country’s theatre ecology has indeed been significant – but it all feels a little gushy in the context of the largely laudatory film.

Then again, there are some fabulous nuggets in the documentary that diehard festivalites will appreciate. Colm and Donna Feore recall a moment when Cimolino sneakily used Donna as a means to encourage better acting from Colm. Key arts journalists (including former Globe theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck) share context for Cimolino’s artistic choices and organizational manoeuvres. Fleeting interviews with Cimolino’s wife, Brigit Wilson, further complicate the festival figurehead with wistful glimpses into the couple’s busy home life. (While Cimolino loves to cook, we learn, he’s seldom had the time during his tenure at the fest.)

All in, This Above All achieves what it sets out to do – it immortalizes Cimolino as the Stratford Festival’s most dedicated leader, with tantalizing glances at what the artistic director has had to trade off over the years of ascending the institution’s ranks. And while Avrich’s film is overly chummy in places, it’s also quite touching: Cimolino has called Stratford home for the lion’s share of his life, and the imminent pain of leaving the festival leaps off the screen.

Even so, it’s not quite time for him to say goodbye – Cimolino has one final season at the festival, where this summer he will helm The Tempest as well as Eduardo De Filippo’s comedy Saturday, Sunday, Monday. One final summer of sweaty rehearsal rooms, impish antics with the Feores and glorious opening nights at the largest repertory theatre company in North America. Then, it’s curtains on the Cimolino era.