If you go: Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Information: A large-format, 68-page festival booklet, including play descriptions, schedules and a visitors' guide to accommodation services, hotels, B&Bs, cottage rentals, restaurants, wineries, shopping and other attractions is available from the Shaw Festival, Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada L0S 1J0; 1-800-511-7429 or fax 1-905-468-3804; www.shawfest.com. The Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce publishes its own visitors' guide and runs an accommodations service, 1-888-619-5981, 1-905-468-1950 or www.niagaraonthelake.com. Tickets (from above numbers) vary according to theater, location, day of week and play. The range is Canadian $42-$82 (U.S. $34-$66.40), with some shows discounted as low as $20 (U.S. $16.20) for students and $30 (U.S. $24.30) for seniors. Festival Theatre (869 seats): Shaw, "You Never Can Tell" (through Nov. 26); Styne, Sondheim and Laurents, "Gypsy" (through Oct. 30); Shaw, "Major Barbara" (through Oct. 29). Royal George Theatre (328): Weill and Brecht, "Happy End" (through Oct. 28); William Inge, "Bus Stop" (June 28-Nov. 27).

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario -- The many Pittsburghers who like to get away to Niagara-on-the-Lake probably connect it mainly with summer, from bustling school-vacation sidewalks to ice cream cones softening in the warmth.

But most of those Pittsburghers have become fond of it primarily as the home of the 44-season-old Shaw Festival, with its dozen plays a year, produced in three theaters and featuring a sterling acting company. And theater knows no specific season, even at the Shaw, which keeps extending its schedule further into the fall.

That's particularly true this year, when the two most deservedly popular shows will run the longest -- Shaw's sparkling "You Never Can Tell" at the Festival Theatre (through Nov. 26) and William Inge's endearing "Bus Stop" at the Royal George (through Nov. 27).

I reviewed "You Never Can Tell" with great delight after my first trip to the Shaw in June; this clever comedy about family ties, social expectations and (of course) sex war is gloriously produced, tickling the eye as much as the ear and mind. It's worth a visit all on its own. "Bus Stop" may not be that good a play, but it is skillfully staged and offers warm pleasures.

I review "Bus Stop" today along with a very intellectually satisfying version of one of Shaw's heavyweights, "Major Barbara," which also continues (through Oct. 29), and a seldom-seen musical drama of more rarified appeal, the Brecht-Weill "Happy End" (through Oct. 28).

Also continuing is "Gypsy" (through Oct. 30), a capable production I reviewed earlier. On my recent trip, I talked with its star, Nora McLellan, who enthused over how the show has matured over the several months since I saw it.

Of course, you do lose something by waiting to visit in the fall. The Shaw's third theater, the Court House with its thrust stage, closes today, and with it goes Lillian Hellman's "The Autumn Garden." This is a play well worth reviving, especially by a company as strong in women as the Shaw. But though CMU grad Martha Henry directed it with pace and balance, she also cut it considerably to bring it in under three hours. Audience-friendly that may be, but I think it cost the play some of the artful meander and audience discovery that would justify its usual comparisons to Chekhov.

Two Shaws, "Gypsy," "Bus Stop" and "Happy End" -- that's a substantial menu this late in the season.

G.B. Shaw, "Major Barbara"

Starting out in a drawing room with a comedy of family revelation as witty as Oscar Wilde, "Major Barbara," first produced in 1905, soon expands into an exploration of the major issues of the new and tumultuous century -- war, religion and the destinies of millions. Mr. Shaw provocatively opposes two institutions -- the big armament manufacturers and the Salvation Army, which is to say militant, socially progressive Christianity, but it could be other religions, too -- with the same approximate motto, "blood and fire." Both institutions serve the establishment, Mr. Shaw points out: "All religious organizations exist to sell themselves to the rich."

In fact, his provocative suggestion is that the arms maker is the more democratic, because anyone can wield a gun. Only bullets make revolutions, he says of a world where revolution was needed. Director Joseph Ziegler has the Army sing Blake's prophetic/apocalyptic "Jerusalem" as, during one set change, its "dark satanic mills" assemble themselves on stage.

Against this backdrop, Mr. Shaw tells a typical Shavian tale of a family exploring its own unconsidered prejudices and roots, challenging complacent beliefs. Andrew Undershaft (a terrific Benedict Campbell, articulate and strong) almost meets his match in his daughter, Barbara (Diana Donnelly), but the Ayn Rand-like father proves a powerful seducer.

It is high praise to note that the Shaw production is always forceful and clear, scoring the comedy but never losing sight of the issues at stake. This is a masterful play, not exactly fun, but full of strong stuff on which to chew.

William Inge, "Bus Stop"

Mr. Inge's canvas is far more compact than Shaw's, his material far from epic. But his old-fashioned genre painting of a play has a lovely richness, impeccably realized by a strong ensemble cast of eight under the careful leadership of director (and artistic director) Jackie Maxwell.

Set on a snowy mid-'50s night in a diner in a small town in rural Kansas, "Bus Stop" depicts four passengers stranded for several hours with their driver, waiting for the roads to clear. No one's going anywhere, so Mr. Inge can give them and three townspeople the sort of careful, slow-paced exposition you can relax and savor.

The diner is staffed by hard-bitten Grace (Mary Haney) and idealistic young Elma (Diana Donnelly). Gruff sheriff Will (Michael Ball) keeps order, which is necessary, because rambunctious young cowboy Bo (Martin Happer) seems to have kidnapped equally young chantoosie Cherie (Nicole Underhay). The other two passengers are Bo's leathery sidekick, Virgil (Peter Krantz), and an embittered, ambiguous scholar, Dr. Lyman (Norman Browning).

By now you may recall having seen the movie with Don Murray and Marilyn Monroe as Bo and Cherie. Their explosive and inevitable relationship is the central story -- a midwestern "Romeo and Juliet" to parallel the Shakespearean passage Dr. Lyman and Elma recite. Those two are a couple of a different sort, with a whiff of danger, and there is a homey, comic pairing of Grace and Will (you can make what you want of their emblematic names).

The only character without any personal attachment is Will, who fulfills the combined roles of Prince and Father Lawrence, creating the rough order within which the comedy can work itself out.

In the intimate Royal George, the actors survive close scrutiny with ease. Underhay's Cherie is a hapless kid, cuter than kittens, as is Happer's Bo, though it's hard to forgive him his initial stupidities.

My only hesitation is the music, which seems much more supper club than Kansas. But director Ms. Maxwell and designer Sue LePage achieve the impossible in creating about six or seven distinct acting areas on the postage-stamp set. The company manages to keep sentimentality at bay. It's a charmer.

Brecht and Weill, "Happy End"

The cast (a robust 19 strong) is also an attraction for "Happy End," which is a baldly socialist parable along the rough lines of Brecht and Weill's "Beggar's Opera." As in that previous show, its glory is its score, mellifluously mordant in the style of such later derivatives as "Cabaret" and "Chicago." It features three genuinely great songs: "Bilbao Song," "Mandalay Song" and "Surabaya Johnny," the latter an achingly sweet parody and re-creation of American pop music of the '20s.

Another derivative, or at least parallel, is "Guys and Dolls," which has a similar central love between a Salvation Army gal (waif-like Glynis Rainey with a big voice) and a sinner, although in this case the sinner is not just a gambler but the notorious Bill Cracker (an incisive Benedict Campbell, allowing no soft edges), more Bill Sykes than Sky Masterson. But the plot doesn't make much sense. Brecht is more interested in the politics, paralleling Bill's gang to the Salvation Army and both to the truly rapacious Ford, Rockefeller, et al. "Hosannah" they sing with full irony: "God bless oil and gas and steel."

Dark it is, this tale of power exercised and betrayed, and too didactic to be fully satisfying. But that darkness and a roughly textured production are welcome in a company more likely to tilt in the other, more audience-pleasing direction. A little Brecht and Weill is good for our souls. And what a tart bookend this makes to the festival's other Salvation Army play, "Major Barbara"!