October was a total whirlwind! So many incredible shows giving me PLENTY to write about! November is going to be no different; there’s tons going on around the city! I only wish I could make it to everything!

Make sure you check out not just this post, but also my Beyond the Box post to see what all is on offer right now! The ones included here you’ll get to read my thoughts on throughout the month!

Rocking Horse Winner – Tapestry Opera and Crow’s Theatre

First debuting in 2016, ROCKING HORSE WINNER became the literal dark horse of awards season, going on to garner 9 Dora Award nominations and winning 5 (the most for any show that season), including Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Direction, and Outstanding Production in categories that included the Canadian Opera Company and the juggernaut Come from Away. After postponing a planned 2020 revival production, it’s finally back on stage from November 1 to 12, 2023.

November 1 – 12

Streetcar Crow’s Nest Theatre – 345 Carlaw Avenue

Rocking Horse Winner – Crow’s Theatre (crowstheatre.com)

Walk With Me While I Remember You – Mammalian Diving Reflex

Walk With Me While I Remember You invites audiences on an extraordinary excursion with local young people, who all share in their experiences of loss and bereavement. Moving through a nature path, participants follow a series of young people as they celebrate, laugh, reminisce and release. Vast, subtle and gently unfolding, this performance offers profound moments of meaning and glimpses of lives lived and lost. In today’s society, grief is ever-present and buried. Through this one-on-one participatory walking performance, patrons will be led through a natural environment and given the space to listen, reflect and share. Walk With Me While I Remember You is a loving tribute to the joys and heartaches of life, family, and finding connections where we least expect.

November 4 and 5

Evergreen Brickworks – 550 Bayview Avenue

Good Mourning Festival – Evergreen

The Drowning Girls – Wren Theatre

The Drowning Girls recounts the story of Bessie, Alice and Margaret, three of the many wives of George Joseph Smith, an Edwardian opportunist who made a living marrying women, taking out life insurance policies for them and subsequently drowning them in their baths. Three ghostly brides surface from bathtubs full of water, to gather evidence against their womanizing, murderous, husband by reliving the shocking events leading up to their deaths. As they make their case, they discover how they have been victimized not only by George Joseph Smith, but also by society at large. Full of rich images, a myriad of characters, a quirky sense of humour and lyrical language, The Drowning Girls is both breathtaking fantasia and social critique. 

November 7 – 12

Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen Street East

THE DROWNING GIRLS Tickets in Toronto, ON, Canada (ticketleap.com)

The Bright Divide – Soundstreams

THE BRIGHT DIVIDE isa riveting new concert experience featuring Rothko Chapel by American composer Morton Feldman, and the world premiere of mark by Canadian composer Cecilia Livingston with original text by Duncan McFarlane. The Bright Divide is inspired by the work of two artistic masters: Mark Rothko, one of the most important painters of the 20th century and one of the finest artists of all time, whose richly colourful works continue to captivate viewers; and Feldman, a contemporary of Rothko, and a major figure in 20th-century classical music. Bringing the vision to life will be internationally celebrated stage director Tim Albery, with David Fallis as conductor and music director. Steven Dann is the featured viola soloist in both works on the program.

November 10 and 11

TD Music Hall – 178 Victoria St

The Bright Divide – Soundstreams

Bad Roads – Crow’s Theatre

In the Donbas region of Ukraine, a war is raging, and people want to understand why. Based on astonishing testimonies from the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, BAD ROADS explores the heartbreaking effects of conflict on intimate relationships and a country’s social fabric. 

November 2 – 26

Streetcar Crow’s Nest – 345 Carlaw Avenue

Bad Roads – Crow’s Theatre (crowstheatre.com)

The Rocky Mountain Special – Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

An elderly trans woman is haunted by her cringe-worthy younger self aboard the Rocky Mountain Special, a luxury coach from Calgary to Vancouver that she’s been riding for the last forty years. A guitar-driven, one woman musical tour-de-force about the quintessential Canadian urge to run from your past, The Rocky Mountain Special is a prayer for healing, a love letter to the lost kids of fragmented diasporas, and a playlist for the road-trip home.

November 14 – 19

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre – 12 Alexander Street

The Rocky Mountain Special — Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Withrow Park – Tarragon Theatre

Three people gaze out their living room window as the days pass. Across the street in Withrow Park life goes on – or is it a dream?

Then a knock at the door. Time has found them, hiding in plain sight. Or possibly it’s just a man in a wrinkled suit. But they must act, now, or forever be devoured by their own indifference. Logan Avenue awaits, and beyond it, heaven, perhaps. They can no longer live on the periphery of their own lives. They must invite the young man to dinner.

With direction from Jackie Maxwell, and from the mind of Morris Panych, Withrow Park asks what we see in the darkness, and who is watching us from the light.

November 7 – December 3

Tarragon Theatre – 30 Bridgman Avenue

Withrow Park – Tarragon Theatre

Letters From Max, a ritual – Necessary Angel Theatre Company

Don’t miss the Canadian Premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s new play, Letters From Max, a ritual an adaptation of her award-winning 2018 book. This New York Times Critic’s Pick brings to life the profound connection and friendship between playwright and MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and her student, poet Max Ritvo.

Letters From Max, a ritual chronicles Ruhl’s and Ritvo’s epistolary journey together. Their correspondence sparks with humour, urgency, and humanity in the face of the return of Ritvo’s Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of paediatric cancer.

November 10 – December 3

The Theatre Centre – 1115 Queen St W

Letters From Max, a ritual — Necessary Angel Theatre Co.

The Lehman Trilogy – Canadian Stage

The story of a family and a company that changed the world, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY stars an eminent trio of Canadian theatre veterans – Ben Carlson, Jordan Pettle, and Graeme Somerville – as the Lehman brothers, their sons, and grandsons in this extraordinary feat of storytelling, told in three parts on a single evening. The story begins on a cold September morning in 1844, with a young man from Bavaria standing on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history. An epic theatrical event, written by Italian novelist and playwright Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power, this centrepiece production is directed by Canadian theatre powerhouse, Philip Akin.

November 14 – December 2

Bluma Appel Theatre – 27 Front Street East

The Lehman Trilogy (canadianstage.com)

Stations – Harbourfront Centre

Since the 1980s, Lecavalier has established herself as a trailblazer in the contemporary dance world, with collaborations with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and Crystal Pite.

For the first time in her impressive career, Lecavalier will perform a solo work of her own choreography, and perhaps her most personal yet. Stations, which originally premiered in February 2020 in Düsseldorf has been hailed as “intoxicating” and a “kinetic marvel.”

The 60-minute work is separated into four stages, delineated by four moveable columns of light – which can be interpreted as seasons of life. Stations is a potent work about freedom and Lecavalier’s body defies limitations. It encapsulates an artist of worldly experience and expression, with each minute movement intensely loaded with nuance and intention.

November 23 – 25

Fleck Dance Theatre – 207 Queens Quay West (3^rd Floor)

Stations – Torque – Harbourfront Centre

Jack – A Beanstalk Panto – The Capitol Theatre

The Capitol Theatre’s annual holiday panto returns this winter! Commissioned by the Capitol, Jack – A Beanstalk Panto is written and directed by award-winning star of stage and screen, Rebecca Northan. Magic, murder, and mayhem lead the way in this world premiere re-telling of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale. Featuring a hilarious harp, gregarious goose, and a whole lot of gold, this musical version of Jack won’t be like anything you’ve seen before.

November 24 – December 23

The Capitol Theatre – 20 Queen Street, Port Hope

jack a beanstalk panto – Cameco Capitol Arts Centre (capitoltheatre.com)

Monster and Here Lies Henry – Factory Theatre

ABOUT MONSTER:

Daniel MacIvor’s chilling one-person show returns featuring powerhouse performer Karl Ang. Finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Drama, Monster peels back the psychological layers of 16 different characters to reveal the dark heart of individual experience. With a masterful blend of suspense, humor, and raw emotion, Monster invites us to confront fears and embrace the complexities that make us human. 

ABOUT HERE LIES HENRY:

Damien Atkins steps into the iconic role of Henry in Daniel MacIvor’s seminal one-person show Here Lies Henry about a man alone in a room with a mission to tell us something we didn’t already know. Henry is nervous, a self-proclaimed liar, and compelled by some unknown force to tell his life story. MacIvor’s spellbinding head-scratcher of a one-man play twists and turns, flips and sidesteps through Henry’s struggle to grasp the meaning of life, love, beauty, death, truth and lies. 

Monster: November 16 – December 10

Here Lies Henry: November 23 – December 17

Factory Theatre – 125 Bathurst Street

What’s On — Factory Theatre

Prophecy Fog – Coal Mine Theatre

PROPHECY FOG begins with a journey into the Mojave Desert in search of Giant Rock, armed with the question: can a site still be sacred if it has been desecrated? The story follows a girl in the mountains of B.C with a pocket full of stones, a rainbow warrior’s prophecy, and a mysterious inscription that obscures our past. The show is created and performed by award-winning Indigenous artist Jani Lauzon with direction by Franco Boni.

November 12 – December 10

Coal Mine Theatre – 2076 Danforth Ave

PROPHECY FOG — CMT (coalminetheatre.com)

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B. Kinnon, D. Moyes, D. Nelson

And to my supporters who’ve bought me a coffee:

Angelica and Paul

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