The festival’s golden boy, Colm Feore, heads up the cast of Shakespeare’s Scottish play as Macbeth, a man whose hunger for power is outstripped only by that of his calculating spouse (Yanna McIntosh). To Oct. 31. Festival Theatre.

Ambition also plays a pivotal part in one of the Bard’s earlier tragedies, Julius Caesar. Cutthroat is the name of the political game leading up to and following Caesar’s assassination, which leaves Rome in the hands of Brutus and Cassius, both of whom have underestimated the determination of the late ruler’s acolyte, Mark Antony. To Oct. 31. Avon Theatre.

Remaining true to the grand tradition of theatrical comedies, there’s cross-dressing, long-lost children and mistaken identities galore in Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a peek into the republic of Rome. To Nov. 7. Avon.

Director Gary Griffin appears to have solved the problem of Maria by whisking up-and-comer Chilina Kennedy away from the Shaw Festival to play one half of New York’s very own Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story. To Nov. 8. Festival.

Ill-fated love gets another nod with an adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play, Cyrano de Bergerac. As if romancing the fairer sex isn’t hard enough, what is one to do when saddled with an enormous schnozz? Why, use your rapier wit to act as a go-between for your fellow soldier and the bewitching object of your affection, of course. To Nov. 1. Festival.

Homonyms, imaginary friends and a tangle of lies wreak havoc in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. John and Algernon ditch London life to go a-courting in the country but can’t seem to spot the gaping holes in their plan to woo the lovely Gwendolen and Cecily. Brian Bedford pulls double duty as director and a gender-confused Lady Bracknell. To Oct. 30. Avon.

The morality police are no match for the denizens of Bartholomew Fair. Shut down due to debauchery in the 1850s, the real-life event is revived here through the hypocritical Puritan Zeal-of-the-Land Busy; Ursula, an obese pig woman who sells swine and, ahem, other kinds of flesh; and a host of gamesters and thieves. To Oct. 2. Tom Patterson Theatre.

Trapped in a provincial town, Chekhov’s Three Sisters—Irina, Masha (a stunning Lucy Peacock) and Olga—would do anything to return to big-city life in Moscow. Too bad their brother, his wife and their wallet don’t see it that way. To Oct. 3. Tom Patterson.

Shakespeare’s mischievous love letter to amour is a frothy confection that has lost little of its charm, despite countless trips by Puck, Titania and Bottom through A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To Oct. 30. Festival.

Resistance is futile as Phèdre (Seana McKenna) attempts, unsuccessfully, to bury her not-so-motherly feelings for her stepson, Hippolytus. This being a Greek tragedy by way of Racine, long-simmering passions plus blurry familial boundaries equals things ending very badly indeed. To Oct. 3. Tom Patterson.

In Morris Panych’s latest play, The Trespassers, Hardy—a candidate for best granddad, if ever there was—educates his grandson on the finer points of thieving, gambling and seduction. To Oct. 4. Studio Theatre.

George F. Walker further ups the festival’s CanCon quotient with Zastrozzi, his gothic comedy about a bunch of bad seeds, including a master criminal, a whip-toting seductress, a thuggish sidekick and a reformed murderer. To Oct. 3. Studio.

The elements that conspire to make us who we are form the heart of Sunil Kuruvilla’s play Rice Boy. Paraplegic teenager Tina (Anita Majumdar) is biding her time until her impending arranged marriage, not knowing that her life will be turned upside down when her young Canadian cousin arrives in India. To Oct. 3. Studio.