At its official Stratford Festival matinee opening, The Hobbit draws exactly the audience one might expect: families, children, and devoted admirers of Tolkien’s enduring adventure. Such productions remain essential to the Festival’s mandate, helping cultivate young theatregoers who may one day return as lifelong audience members—or even artists themselves. The engagement of many in the Avon Theatre lobby and auditorium remains unmistakable before the curtain. It remains there during the interval/intermission.
Tolkien’s world has never been an easy sell for those of us who remain unmoved by the elaborate connections and myths of fantasy. Kim Selody’s stage adaptation does little to alter that resistance. It doesn’t cast the same spell on viewers like me who are less invested in fantasy. In his Director’s Note, Pablo Felices-Luna recalls reading The Hobbit during his first years in Canada and finding that, while his English was serviceable, it was not yet strong enough for him to fully connect with the story.
That’s also me too. My ‘trying to understand and connect with the world of Tolkien English’ does not fully engage me with these stories and flights of fantasy.
I’m trying. I’m not there yet. Will I ever be? I don’t know.
What this Stratford production offers, however, is a handsome and technically accomplished piece of theatre. That’s a good thing, as word of that getting out will most certainly attract audiences who will want to see the show and see other theatre at the Festival.
Director Pablo Felices-Luna and his creative team take considerable care to transport the audience to Middle-earth. Lorenzo Savoini’s sleek, circular ring set creates an evocative playing space, while Michael Walton’s lighting lends the production texture and atmosphere. Debashis Sinha’s sound design and music—an intricate blend of instrumental colour, environmental noise, and ominous underscoring—help sustain the production’s otherworldly mood.
The adaptation opens with Sara-Jeanne Hosie’s Old Took, who establishes the family lineage and ushers the audience into the story. Richard Lee’s Bilbo soon emerges as an appealingly grounded centre—genial, agile, and quietly self-possessed. Costumed with flair by Ting-Huan挺歡 Christine Urquhart, Lee looks every inch the reluctant hero from his bulging tummy, baggy pants and oversized sandaled feet. Tim Campbell brings vocal authority and respectful presence as the wizard Gandalf, who draws Bilbo into Thorin Oakenshield’s quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. Aaron Krohn gives Thorin the necessary weight and gravity.
Along the way, Bilbo encounters trolls, goblins, elves, giant spiders, and the sinewy, unsettling Gollum, played with notable physical agility by Michael Man. The discovery of the ring—still only a portent here, but an unmistakably charged theatrical one—adds a glimmer of mystery to the narrative. By Act 2, the production builds toward a large-scale battle intended to settle questions of courage, loyalty, and fate.
The puppetry stagecraft is especially and unquestionably accomplished. The first appearance of Smaug—voiced with relish by Campbell and animated through an elegant collaboration of performers and mechanics—has genuine theatrical power. The climactic battle likewise makes strong use of light, sound, movement, and machinery, creating sequences that are rich in visual invention and often genuinely thrilling.
Yet this is also where the production reveals its limitation.
For all its visual intelligence, The Hobbit remains dramatically remote. It is possible to admire the production’s craftsmanship, its design fluency, and its technical confidence. I’m not feeling fully drawn into the story’s emotional life.
That emotional distance remains the central obstacle in this production. While it is an often-impressive staging of a beloved fantasy, it’s one that feels detached. While watching the performance, I’m viewing it from a distance rather than feeling any personal connection to the characters’ emotions.
For audiences already enchanted by Tolkien, that may well be enough.
For others, the performance may register as a polished spectacle in search of a deeper pulse. That would be me.
This Hobbit dazzles the eye more readily than it stirs the heart.
Running time: approximately two hours and 15 minutes with one interval/intermission.
The production runs to October 23 at the Avon Theatre, 99 Downie Street, Stratford. For tickets: stratfordfestival.com or call 1-800-567-1600.
SCHULICH CHILDREN’S PLAYS and THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL present
The Hobbit, based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien
Adapted by Kim Selody
Directed by Pablo Felices-Luna
Set Designer: Lorenzo Savoini
Costume Designer: Ting – Huan 挺歡 Christine Urquhart
Lighting Designer: Michael Walton
Composer and Sound Designer: Debashis Sinha
Stage Manager: Kim Lott
Performers: Tim Campbell, Heidi Damayo, Ijeoma Emesowum, Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Aaron Krohn, Derek Kwan, Richard Lee, Michael Man, Jennifer Villaverde
