"Let your indulgence set me free," was William Hutt's last line in his final stage performance at the Stratford Festival on Friday night.
The audience heeded Hutt's call, bidding the 85-year-old stage legend adieu with a thunderous applause at the end of his farewell performance as Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Many audience members had tears in their eyes as Hutt graciously bowed for his last curtain call, capping off 39 seasons at the Shakespearean festival in Stratford, Ont.
"It's a bitter sweet night," said Stratford Festival's artistic director, Richard Monette. "It's bitter because he's retiring and it's sweet because he represents everything that's best about the Stratford Festival of Canada."
Hutt's numerous roles at Stratford include Macbeth, King Lear, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, and James Tyrone in Long Days Journey Into Night.
Hutt has become a mentor to many Canadian actors, including Michael Therriault, who will play Gollum in the stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in Toronto.
"He'll be greatly missed, he's an icon," said Therriault. "I'm so glad he's taking a rest. He deserves it. But it's sad for us to lose him from this stage."
The audience was a combination of the hometown crowd, tourists, Stratford alumni, and many Hutt fans, including CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson.
"For those of us who were here at the beginning this is kind of a reunion night in celebration of him, for what is obviously a big night in his career," said Robertson.
Leslie McWhinnie travelled from Ottawa for the final sold out performance, and signed one of four tribute books for Hutt.
"He has the emotion, he has the skill, he has the bravura. He has what it takes," said a teary McWhinnie. And her passion for the actor was echoed by many others.
"It's the fact that he's a super human being and he's the greatest actor we've ever produced in Canada. He can do comedy and drama equally well, which most of the greats couldn't do, not even (Sir Laurence) Olivier," said fan Doug Leja.
And In the final scene of The Tempest, as Hutt delivered the line, "I shall miss thee," the words washed over the silent crowd, as the reality of the end of a brilliant, storied career sunk in.
Prepared with a report from Melissa Durrell of CTV News Southwestern Ontario, in Stratford
