Kainchee Lagaa + Jhooti: The Begging Brown Bitch Plays – House of Beida Inc and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

The Begging Brown Bitch Plays are about lying, sex, and rebirthing oneself: over and over and over again. Zaiba Baig, Peabody Award-winning co-creator of CBC/Max/Sphere Media’s Sort Of, explores deception, desire, and family fractured by displacement in these two unflinching stories of Brown trans women caught between worlds. Kainchee Lagaa and Jhooti are playing as a double bill with a short intermission between the shows.

April 1 – 18

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre – 18 Alexander Street

https://buddiesinbadtimes.com/show/the-begging-brown-bitch-plays/

The Moors – Riot King TO

A young governess arrives at a mysterious manor on the remote Moors of England after exchanging many letters with the master of the house. But when the door opens, the only residents are his spinster sisters, a maid (or is it two maids?), and a lovelorn mastiff pining for a far-flung moor-hen. But when there seems to be no child to care for, she’s left to wonder why she has been brought here. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and the dangerous results of yearning to be seen. Drawing inspiration from classic Victorian Gothic novels by the Brontë sisters, but twisting the genre to become something weirder and wilder, The Moors is undeniably queer and unmistakably modern.

April 3 – 19

BMO Incubator at The Theatre Centre – 1115 Queen St W

https://www.riotking.com/moors

Strife – A Punctuate! Theatre Production in Association with Tarragon Theatre

Monique, a tough and tenacious oil patch worker, is reeling from the brutal murder of her brother Nathan, an Indigenous climate activist. His violent death leaves Monique at a crossroads: trust the justice system or take action herself.

As she wrestles with her grief, Monique is plagued by a recurring dream in which she reconstructs Nathan’s bones from an owl pellet. This enigmatic vision is guided by the Owl, a spectral presence that is both a harbinger of darkness and a conduit for spirits with unfinished business. As the Owl urges her deeper into the mystery of her brother’s murder, Monique must confront the forces responsible and decide how far she is willing to go to find the truth.

Tense, poetic, and deeply visceral, Strife is a powerful reflection on loss, resilience, and the battle between hope and vengeance.

April 7 – 26

Tarragon Theatre Extraspace – 30 Bridgman Ave

https://tarragontheatre.com/plays/2025-2026/strife/

Canuck Cantatas – Against The Grain Theatre

Canuck Cantatas presents a triptych of bold new mini-operas from some of Canada’s most exciting creative talents: composers Sarah Slean and Danika Lorèn join forces with librettists Emma Pennell, AtG Artistic Director Royce Vavrek, and Vern Thiessen to bring to life vivid snapshots of fictional Canadian characters, each one a carefully crafted stone in the ever-evolving mosaic of Canadian identity.

April 10 – 12

Redwood Theatre – 1300 Gerrard St. E

https://atgtheatre.com/upcoming/canuck_cantatas/

Clyde’s – Canadian Stage

Set in a struggling truck stop sandwich shop, CLYDE’S follows a group of formerly incarcerated cooks fighting to rebuild their lives under the watchful eye of their tough-as-nails boss, Clyde. As the kitchen heats up, the cooks channel their ambition, creativity and frustration into crafting the perfect sandwich. A buoyant play full of hilarious and heartful characters, CLYDE’S is a transcendent story about second chances, found family, and reconnecting with the world. Full of sizzling wit, big heart, and mouthwatering ambition, with CLYDE’S Nottage serves up a thrilling, high-energy ride. Helmed by returning director Philip Akin (The Lehman Trilogy, Fat Ham), an all-star cast lead by Sophia Walker (Slave Play, Fairview) takes on this deliciously funny and deeply moving play.

April 11 – 26

Bluma Appel Theatre – 27 Front St E

https://www.canadianstage.com/shows-events/season/clyde%E2%80%99s

Pelléas et Mélisande – Opera Atelier

Opera Atelier proudly unveils the company’s unique version of Debussy’s Impressionist masterpiece, Pelléas et Mélisande.

Debussy’s dark fairy tale takes place in the depths of a forest, where a prince discovers a beautiful woman weeping beside a pool of water. She draws the prince into a supernatural world from which there is no escape.

Christopher Bagan’s new orchestral arrangement, created specifically for Opera Atelier, will make its world premiere in Toronto with an historically-informed ensemble of soloists from Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

April 15 – 19

Koerner Hall – 273 Bloor St W

https://www.operaatelier.com/shows/pelleas-et-melisande/

Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary – Crow’s Theatre

Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary is a visceral and lyrical reimagining of the gospels’ most enduring female icons, interrogating what happens when four women who bore witness to miracles are finally allowed to speak.

Brought to life by the powerhouse ensemble of Sabryn Rock (Shaniqua in Abstraction – director), Michelle Monteith (Bad Roads), Nancy Palk (Prodigal), Belinda Corpuz (Narnia) and Amaka Umeh (Narnia, The Wolves), in the play, four women emerge from the desert, each bearing the same name: Mary, Mary, Mary, and Mary. As history folds in on itself, they raise their voices in a story of faith, sacrifice, and rebellion. Blending ancient scripture with her trademark incisive, contemporary wit, Erin Shields (Here We Are, Paradise Lost, If We Were Birds) reclaims the stories of four women who stood at the gates of revolution—only to be sidelined by history– Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mother of John Salome, and Mary the Sister of Lazarus – and gives them the opportunity to tell their side of the story.

April 7 – May 3

Guloien Theatre at Streetcar Crowsnest – 345 Carlaw Ave

https://www.crowstheatre.com/shows-events/mary-mary-mary-mary

She Holds Up The Stars – Red Sky Performance and Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Red Sky Performance, a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance, returns to the TSO with She Holds Up the Stars. Created and directed by Sandra Laronde and based on her award-winning novel, this groundbreaking production blends an original Indigenous story with life-sized puppets, movement, storytelling, theatre, visual design, and Eliot Britton’s orchestral score.

She Holds Up the Stars follows a young Indigenous girl searching for her mother’s truth. Through an unexpected bond with a spirited horse, she finds courage and resilience in a world shaped by beauty and cruelty, and the deep pull of land and family.

April 19

Roy Thomson Hall – 60 Simcoe St

https://www.tso.ca/concerts-and-events/events/she-holds-up-the-stars

Hamlet, Sweet Prince – The Rest Is Silent Society

Hamlet, Sweet Prince is a queer, abridged, contemporary telling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet through the lens of patriarchal violence. Using Shakespeare’s original language, director Alex Jodi Verge reimagines Hamlet in a modern-day office setting.

After the sudden death of Denmark’s CEO, his brother Claudius has taken charge of Denmark and married the late CEO’s wife. When the ghost of the late CEO appears and tells his son Hamlet to avenge him, Hamlet is faced with the requirement to cause further violence. Grappling with this weight sends Hamlet spiraling down a path that leads toward death and destruction for all who step foot into Denmark’s office.

In Hamlet, Sweet Prince, Hamlet’s fatal flaw is not indecision, it’s the perpetuation of violence. Hamlet is a character torn between their feelings–grief, fear, confusion, passion–and the violence that is repeatedly thrust upon them by the patriarchy they’re trapped in.

April 16 – 25

That Art’s Group – “The Rehearsal Hall” – 1110 Dupont Street

https://therestissilentsociety.thundertix.com/events/261446

The Division – Project: Humanity and Pyretic Productions in Association with Crow’s Theatre

After publishing a eulogy for his renowned watchmaker grandfather in a national newspaper, Andrew is confronted by an accusation in the comments section. The charge sends him on a 19,000-kilometre journey through Ukraine and Europe with daunting questions—and the rare timepiece he’s inherited. Retracing his grandfather’s footsteps as a soldier and immigrant, he unearths a family mythology that has astonishing implications for the present.

In a landscape where history is both weapon and wound, Andrew’s search pulls him deep into the stories of a shrinking Ukrainian village, into the fallout of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and into the silence of the dead.

Originally featured at Lincoln Center, NYC, The Division is a gripping new work on identity, legacy, and the slyness of memory. With his acclaimed blend of documentary theatre and deeply personal storytelling, Kushnir faces the unspoken truths that shape both our individual and collective histories — and our here and now.

April 21 – May 17

The Studio Theatre at Streetcar Crowsnest – 345 Carlaw Ave

https://www.crowstheatre.com/shows-events/the-division

Zombocalypse! – Eldritch Theatre

The Dead rise from their graves to feast on the flesh of the living in a suburban high school in 1985. A jock, a brain, a rebel, a preppie and a basket-case barricade themselves in their school cafeteria to fend off the gathering hordes of their hungry, undead friends, only to discover that their real enemies are each other.

It’s totally the Breakfast Club, but like with Zombies.

April 29 – May 10

Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen St E

https://eldritchtheatre.ca/zombocalypse/

How to Catch Creation – Obsidian Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre Company, and Nightwood Theatre co-production

A paean to one of humanity’s most basic and most profound desires–to leave something meaningful behind–HOW TO CATCH CREATION follows four artists and intellectuals, wrestling with creativity, legacy, and the complexities of love and family. Griffin is a newly freed citizen after more than a decade in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and is determined to      become a parent. Tami, a driven art professor, feels her creative fire slipping. Stokes, a young painter, searches for purpose, while his partner Riley      yearns     to find where she belongs. When they uncover the work of a Black queer feminist writer from the 1960s, her words ripple across time, intertwining their lives in unexpected ways. Beautifully weaving across five decades, HOW TO CATCH CREATION challenges us to reconsider who gets remembered and who gets to define the future.

April 23 – May 17

Baillie Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts – 50 Tank House Lane

https://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/howtocatchcreation

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