It feels like July flew by! With the summer comes plenty of outdoor theatre and lots of fun things to look forward to! I’m always so excited by all of the Shakespeare that gets done in the summer time. Here’s what to expect reviews of this month:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream* – Canadian Stage

2023 marks 40 magical years of Dream in High Park as well as the 10^th time A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM has been presented in the park (including the inaugural year of the Dream.)

Directed by Dream in High Park veteran performer Jamie Robinson, this special anniversary production features a dynamic company of performers including Louisa Zhu, Jadyn Nasato, Megan Legesse, Steven Hao, Ryan G Hinds, Shelly Antony, Stuart Hefford, Frank Chung, Aaron Willis, Julie Tepperman, Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin, and Angel Lo.

*Unfortunately Opening Night last month got rained out, so that’s why this review is coming to you a bit later than initially anticipated.

July 21 – September 3

High Park Amphitheatre – 1873 Bloor Street W

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (canadianstage.com)

Suddenly Last Summer – Riot King

Riot King is back with another exciting, site-specific production! Don’t miss the limited run of ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ by Tennessee Williams presented at Sorry Studios. Named one of Williams’ most poetic plays, ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ is a strange and unnerving Southern Gothic play that explores mental health, repressed desires, and the lengths a dysfunctional family will go to keep dark secrets hidden.

August 9 – 13

Sorry Studios – 61 Elm Grove Avenue

“Suddenly Last Summer” presented by Riot King (brownpapertickets.com)

Shakespeare By Any Other Name – Dauntless City Theatre

An exciting dive into the world of ‘The Bard’, the play is a fast-paced adventure about what Shakespeare means. Paying homage to the original text, but with wit and irreverence, Shakespeare By Any Other Name invites the audience to take ownership over Shakespeare’s work and words, and then fall in love with it all over again.

Shakespeare By Any Other Name is to a traditional Shakespeare play what The Harlem Globetrotters is to basketball. It is an opportunity to radically invite the audience into their favourite parts of Shakespeare, but also revisit their relationship with this behemoth of Western Theatre. 

August 4 – 27 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday only)

St. James Park – 120 King St E

Bard In St. James Park presents Shakespeare By Any Other Name – Old Town Toronto

Lady M (Margaret) part of SummerWorks 2023 – 1s1 Theatre and Why Not Theatre

Lady M (Margaret) is a new, Deaf-led adaptation of Macbeth that explores Shakespeare’s famous power couple with an intersectional experience for both Deaf and hearing audiences. Adapted, created and directed by internationally-renowned, Scotland-based theatre maker Ramesh Meyyappan, this world premiere performance work is the inaugural production by 1s1 Theatre featuring Dawn Jani Birley and Sturla Alvsvåg in the title roles.

August 5 -12

The Theatre Centre, Franco Boni Theatre – 1115 Queen Street W

Lady M (Margaret) | SummerWorks

Living with Shakespeare – Driftwood Theatre

Living With Shakespeare, created by Jeremy Smith and Steven Gallagher, brings Jeremy officially back to the stage for the first time in over a decade as he reckons with his life-long relationship to the Bard of Avon. Weaving scenes, passages, and music from Shakespeare’s greatest plays with personal stories from Jeremy’s lifelong relationship to the Bard, Living With Shakespeare is an exploration of our continuing fascination with the world’s most recognizable playwright. Living With Shakespeare runsAugust 5-27, 2023 in nine Ontario communities including Kingston, Bloomfield, Quinte West, Peterborough, Oshawa, Pickering, Ingersoll, Toronto and Burlington.

August 5-27

Several locations, Toronto location at Kew Gardens Park

Bard’s Bus Tour | Driftwood Theatre Group

OTÎHÊW – Shakespeare in Action

This reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy is set in a north-western factory fort along the Saskatchewan river in 1816, the year of no summer, in which a volcanic eruption cast a smoke so thick the sun was not visible for months. The story takes place at the height of imperial trading that drove colonization over sovereign Indigenous lands. otîhêw, an affluent “child of the fur-trade”, is a Métis woman bound in the historical “custom-of-the-country” to Desmond, an Afro-Indigenous fur-trader, complicating her duty as the leader of her people.

Playwright PJ Prudat weaves together themes of duty, love, betrayal, and familial bonds in a poetic and powerful play that will both surprise audiences familiar with Othello and captivate audiences encountering the story for the first time. 

August 5-20

Little Avenue Memorial Park – 22 Little Avenue

otîhêw – Shakespeare In Action

The Drowning Girls – Guild Festival Theatre

This true crime tale about three women married to and murdered by the same man brings an air of mystery to The Greek Theatre. Directed by GFT’s very own Co-Artistic Director Helen Juvonen. Featuring Alicia Barban (Citadel Theatre: Almost a Full Moon; Musical Stage: Songbird Series), Blythe Haynes (Lighthouse Festival: The Real Sherlock Holmes), and introducing Georgia Findlay. Hauntingly poetic and unnervingly playful, this award-winning play has been an international hit with acclaimed productions around the world since its premiere in 2008.

August 17-27

The Greek Theatre, Guild Park and Gardens – 201 Guildwood Parkway, Scarborough

Tickets and Passes — Guild Festival Theatre

DEATH: A Love Story – Dandelion Theatre

DEATH: a love story is a fast paced, existential, dark comedy which explores the effects of mental illness on romantic partnerships and the sacrifices we make for the ones we love.  When Jack and Moonie wake up to discover that they have died, they plead with the powers that be to send them a companion – to be dead but not alone.  When the lights come up and they see each other for the first time in three years, these old friends and ex-lovers must reconnect after an extended absence in surreal circumstances to discover how they died.  With hints of Waiting for Godot and No Exit, as well as classic romantic comedies such as When Harry Met Sally, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, or Past Lives, this show stays light while getting deep and explores the beautiful cracks that make us human.

August 17-20

Sweet Action Theatre – 180 Shaw St #106

Dandelion Theatre presents “DEATH: a love story” (zeffy.com)