The Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, will begin streaming a selection of its stage productions of William Shakespeare’s plays online for free, starting with “King Lear.”

The shows are gorgeously filmed, comparable to “The Met: Live in HD” or “National Theatre Live.” And as 67-year-old Stratford is the most robust classical theater festival in North America, the acting is first-rate.

These are a few of my favorites in the lineup. Colm Feore’s turn as “King Lear” is a particularly frail, heartbreaking take on the grumpy monarch; director Robert Lepage’s “Coriolanus” reconceives what can be a convoluted political chat-fest as a sexed-up episode of “House of Cards”; and Tom McCamus’ “King John” is as much an English sovereign as he is Mick Jagger.

Before each play is available to stream on Thursdays at 7 p.m., the broadcast will kick off with an interview with the show’s star at 6:30 p.m.

Here is the full schedule: “King Lear” (April 23 to May 14), “Coriolanus” (April 30 to May 21) “Macbeth” (May 7 to 28), “The Tempest” (May 14 to June 4), “Timon of Athens” (May 21 to June 11), “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (May 28 to June 18), “Hamlet” (June 4 to 25), “King John” (June 11 to July 2), “Pericles” (June 18 to July 9), “Antony and Cleopatra” (June 25 to July 16), “Romeo and Juliet” (July 2 to 23) and “The Taming of the Shrew” (July 9 to 30).