The 2024/25 season is in full swing, with many of our favourite theatres coming to life again! October is shaping up to be another busy month with plenty of festivals and season openers to attend!
13 Plays about ADHD All At The Same Time – Circlesnake Productions
13 Plays About ADHD All At The Same Time is, a 75-minute comedy of, well, thirteen plays, about ADHD, that happen, yeah, you get it: it’s exactly what it says on the tin. It’s basically if The Muppets were trying to put on a seminar about ADHD, but the rest of the cast have their own ideas about what should be on stage. The Hosts of the seminar wrestle with the other performers for control of the play, only further unraveling the show. The play features a dazzling array of genres, styles, and formats that, as one of the Hosts puts it “simulates the experience of ADHD, guaranteed that if you don’t have ADHD before the show you’ll have it by the end”. The show includes segments for audience participation, such as “The Shame Pit” in which we read out an email I received verbatim calling me out for repeatedly failing to meet a deadline, and the audience is invited to share their own moments of skin-crawling embarrassment. The intention of the show is to entertain while creating space for audiences to genuinely share and confront the complexities (and absurdities) of living with ADHD. The show is part of a larger discourse about ADHD, and mental health more broadly, arising over social media.
October 4 – 13
The Assembly Theatre – 1479 Queen St. W
Wonderful Joe – TO Live
Wonderful Joe is a love letter to imagination, hope, and the art of filling broken hearts with gold. Master manipulator Ronnie Burkett brings this story to life with his signature style—inspired storytelling, exquisite attention to detail, and technical genius.
Joe and his dog Mister lose their home, and facing separation, head into the world for one last grand adventure where they encounter Mother Nature, Santa Claus, Jesus, and the Tooth Fairy; witness a troupe of homeless players in a cardboard theatre; and show a disenfranchised teen how to jump over the moon in a playground rocket ship.
Provocative, topical, compassionate, and entertaining, Ronnie Burkett’s work has revitalized puppet theatre, consistently attracting adult audiences who are enthralled by the colourful characters populating his miniature world of big ideas.
October 5 – 23
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallet Theatre – 27 Front Street East
TO Live – Event Details Page – Wonderful Joe 2024
GOBLIN MACBETH: A Spontaneous Theatre Creation – Tarragon Theatre
Three Goblins discover the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Intrigued by Shakespeare’s writing, they seize control of Tarragon Theatre, tearing through the building and forcing audiences into the Mainspace – which is in the midst of installing the set for a show to come later in the 24-25 season – and compel audiences to participate in their first attempt at “doing theatre” – and, excited by its bloody content, they’re doing Macbeth.
In a piece that blends menacing creatures, fantasy and tragedy with a uniquely interactive and thrilling theatre experience, the Goblins are presenting a new take on Shakespeare – and we invite audiences to join in on the wicked fun, if they dare.
October 3 – 27
Tarragon Theatre Mainspace – 30 Bridgman Ave
GOBLIN:MACBETH – Tarragon Theatre
Next Stage Festival – Toronto Fringe Festival*
Toronto Fringe is proud to announce the programming and casting for the 17th Annual Next Stage Theatre Festival taking place October 16-27, 2024, with six compelling shows from Toronto, Edmonton, and Halifax including solo shows, musicals, and dramatic theatre.
Next Stage Theatre Festival is the Toronto Fringe’s boutique, curated performance festival that allows for elevation and creative risk-taking by six talented companies who are poised and ready for their next stage. Audiences will enjoy programming in two theatre spaces in Buddies in Bad Times Theatre with shows in both the Chamber and Cabaret.
Back by popular demand, Next Stage will host a screening of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show on October 27 featuring an all-Deaf shadow cast for the first time in history, presented by The Disability Collective!
*I will be reviewing all 6 mainstage shows of the festival. Due to scheduling, they’re going to be broken up a bit, but there will be reviews for all 6 shows!
October 16-27
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre – 12 Alexander Street
Next Stage Shows | Toronto Fringe Festival (fringetoronto.com)
My Name is Lucy Barton – Canadian Stage
Lucy Barton wakes after an operation to discover – much to her surprise – her mother at the foot of her bed. They haven’t seen each other in years. During their days-long visit, Lucy contemplates her desperate rural childhood, her adult life in New York, and the state of her relationships as both a daughter and a mother.
Starring renowned Canadian actor Maev Beaty, and directed by former Shaw Festival Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell, this striking one-woman show rings breathlessly true. This haunting adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout’s beloved novel has mesmerized audiences on Broadway and in the West End.
October 18 – November 3
Bluma Appel Theatre – 27 Front Street E
My Name is Lucy Barton (canadianstage.com)
Acis and Galatea – Opera Atelier
This pastorale was considered Handel’s most popular opera during his lifetime, and is considered today the perfect introduction to opera for new and young audiences, as it is sung in English and features beautiful music for singing and dancing.
Acis and Galatea tells the story of the water nymph Galatea, and her love for the Arcadian shepherd, Acis. It is inspired by the Greek myth, as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
The 2024 production will introduce Toronto audiences to two new French tenors – Antonin Rondepierre as Acis and Blaise Rantoanina as Damon. Opera Atelier Co-Artistic Directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg worked with both artists during their recent productions in Versailles.
Rondepierre and Rantoanina will be joined by OA audience favourites, soprano Meghan Lindsay as Galatea and bass baritone Douglas Williams as Polyphemus.
October 24-27
Elgin Theatre – 189 Yonge St.
Handel’s Acis and Galatea — Opera Atelier
Comedy is Art Festival – The Theatre Centre
There are *nine* shows on the schedule this year, featuring over 50 artists including Andrew Phung, Hannan Younis and Rakhee Morzaria, Brandon Hackett and Jonathan Langdon, Bougie B Bougé, Clif Knight, Daphney Joseph, Darren Leo, and Small Friend Tall Friend, plus the multi-Dora Award-nominated show Holiday! An Improvised Musical from Bad Dog Theatre Company, and so many more.
This year’s festival brings 7:30pm and 9:30pm shows with estimated run times between 60-75 minutes. All shows are intended for adult audiences (18+) unless otherwise noted.
7:30pm: first things first: hilarious shows that respect your bedtime: with something for everybody, these carefully curated early evening performances are the *chef’s kiss* of comedy. come ready to laugh as the city’s best and brightest comics light up the stage – without compromising your sleep schedule.
9:30pm: late-night snack packs: designed to give you a little taste of everything, our late-night snack packs are a delightfully chaotic selection of comedic offerings guaranteed to amuse your bouche*.
(*or something. there’s not actually any food, but the shows will be funny. promise.)
October 22 – 26
The Theatre Centre – 1115 Queen St W.
comedy is art 2024 – The Theatre Centre
Interior Design – Tarragon Theatre
True friends stab you in the front. – Oscar Wilde
An attempted intervention between a group of girlfriends backfires spectacularly in this new play from award-winning playwright Rosa Laborde (Léo, Light), directed by Tarragon favourite Kat Sandler (Mustard, Yaga) Interior Design is a comedy of messy renovations and even messier truths.
October 15 – November 10
Tarragon Theatre – 30 Bridgman Ave
Interior Design – Tarragon Theatre
Playing Shylock – Canadian Stage
A new work derived from Vancouver playwright Mark Leiren-Young anddirected by another icon of the Canadian theatre landscape, Martin Kinch, in PLAYING SHYLOCK, a production of The Merchant of Venice is cancelled mid-performance after public outcries about the play. The actor playing Shylock delivers a candid and passionate appeal about identity, public discourse, and the theatre.
October 26 – November 24
Berkeley Street Theatre – 26 Berkeley Street
Playing Shylock
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