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STRATFORD, Ont. - Tony-award winning actor Brian Bedford will play Lady Bracknell in the Oscar Wilde play “The Importance of Being Earnest” at next year’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Bedford will also direct the production, which will feature Ben Carlson (who portrayed Hamlet in the 2008 season), Stephen Ouimette, Mike Shara and Sara Topham, the festival said Wednesday.

“It’s a wonderful and somewhat daunting challenge to play Lady Bracknell,” Bedford said. “I don’t want it to be a ‘drag performance,’ but rather as serious and dimensional as possible.”

William Hutt played the role in the festival’s 1975 production, and reprised it twice.

Bedford has acted and directed in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, D.C., Chicago and, for 26 seasons, at Stratford.

He won the best actor Tony award for Moliere’s “The School for Wives” in 1971.

News from ©The Canadian Press, 2008