Toronto
CAMP – Branch Out Theatre
CAMP, written and composed by Naomi Tessler, is a powerful, award-winning play that juxtaposes two 15 year old girls’ experiences—Lila at Jewish sleepover camp in Canada and Greta- in Auschwitz- a concentration camp. This research and me-search informed play explores themes of womanhood, intergenerational trauma, sisterhood and resilience. Though separated through time, space and absolutely different life circumstances, both girls share stories of love, shame, sexual violence, overcoming oppression and singing as a form of resistance- leaving the audience with greater appreciation for the triumphs of young women and the importance of healing intergenerational wounds.
November 5 – 14
Sweet Action Theatre – 180 Shaw Street
https://www.universe.com/events/camp-tickets-3VL0J6
When You Close Your Eyes – Pepper’s Ghost Productions
In a small bleak town where no one ever comes and no one ever leaves we find a group of young women, stuck in all that they have ever known. When a newcomer arrives, promising the way out; we discover what it takes to get everything you see When You Close Your Eyes.
This original horror musical is written by Jessa Richer with additional compositions by Jason Kokkovas. Directed by Jacqui Sirois and choreographed by Alli Carry this production follows the sold-out workshop back in 2024 and promises to be bigger and bloodier than ever.
November 5 – 15
VideoCabaret – Deanne Taylor Theatre – 10 Busy Street
De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail – Soulpepper Theatre Company
DE PROFUNDIS finds Oscar Wilde languishing in a prison cell, cut off from the world that once adored him. As he writes a letter to the man he loved, memory, regret and desire crowd the silence, turning confinement into confession. In this intimate, 90-minute musical fantasy, Robbie Ross and Bosie emerge through Wilde’s fractured memories as a genre-spanning original score moves from Irish ballad to Broadway and electro-pop. Weaving together Wilde’s trial testimonies, letters and epigrams, DE PROFUNDIS reveals Wilde unmasked: lover, icon and exile—insisting that even in the darkest places, love can still reach us.
November 3 – 29
Michael Young Theatre at Young Centre for the Performing Arts – 50 Tank House Lane
https://soulpepper.ca/whats-on/de-profundis-oscar-wilde-in-jail
Toronto Burlesque Festival – REVERIE
The Toronto Burlesque Festival 2026 headliners include: Internationally renowned
Afro-Indigenous burlesque dancer and Miss Exotic World (2022) Lou Lou la Duchesse
de Rière (Montreal); Chicago cabaret legend and 2x Number One Burlesque Figure in
the world Jeez Loueez (New Orleans / Chicago); International Burlesque Icon Jezebel
Express (New York / Newfoundland); and a special appearance from Burlesque
Legend and Burlesque Hall of Famer Lovey Goldmine (Las Vegas) with a career
spanning 50 years.
Whether you’re a seasoned burlesque aficionado or discovering the art form for the first
time, the Toronto Burlesque Festival invites audiences on a dazzling journey with the
top performers in burlesque, cabaret, and drag. The full 2026 lineup will be announced
in the coming weeks. In addition to four spellbinding showcases, each with a different
cast, TBF will offer two days of public workshops on November 13 and 14, led by the
festival’s headliners and featured performers.
November 12 – 15
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre – 12 Alexander Street
https://buddiesinbadtimes.com/show/toronto-burlesque-festival/
American Buffalo – Coal Mine Theatre
One of Mamet’s earlier plays, AMERICAN BUFFALO unspools in a cluttered, run-down Chicago junk shop, as three small-time crooks plot to steal a valuable coin collection. As the heist unravels, the men’s frustration and paranoia intensify. The result is a test of their trust, friendship, and the American Dream.
November 8 – December 6
Coal Mine Theatre – 2076 Danforth Ave
https://www.coalminetheatre.com
Weesageechak Begins to Dance 39 – Native Earth Performing Arts
Weesageechak Begins to Dance is Native Earth’s annual performing arts festival showcasing new works and works-in-development by Indigenous artists across Turtle Island and beyond.
Now, in its 39th edition, eight creators from Canada and Australia have been invited to showcase new and developing works at the festival that put Indigenous artists and their creative impulses at the forefront, shifting the expectations of Indigenous stories in the performing arts landscape.
November 20 – 29
Native Earth’s Aki Studio and Minogitoon Workspace – 585 Dundas St. E
https://nativeearth.ca/shows/all-shows/wees39
Hunger – Alumnae Theatre
A timely drama about currency in a time of conflict. In an isolated farmhouse during a time of war, Johanna and Max attempt to hide two persecuted individuals, Isaac and Rivka, in an alcove behind their walls. When the money runs out, they are forced to take in a third refugee, Helen, whose father is willing to pay very well for her safety. But the alcove isn’t big enough for three, and as the war outside reaches its climax, hunger reduces the protectors and the protected alike to a surreal state of desperation.
November 11 – 22
Studio Theatre at Alumnae Theatre – 70 Berkeley St
https://alumnaetheatre.com/hunger.html
The Last Glory Hole – Scott Thompson
Written and performed by Scott Thompson, and directed by Alan Kliffer (Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody), The Last Glory Hole is a series of all new, hilarious, raunchy, and provocative monologues touching on everything from the state of sensitivity in modern society to Buddy’s globetrotting adventures through the ballrooms, boardrooms, and bedrooms of the planet.
November 5 – 8
Factory Theatre Mainspace – 125 Bathurst
https://purchase.factorytheatre.ca/EventAvailability?EventId=58002
GROUNDSWELL FESTIVAL 2026 – Nightwood Theatre
Join us as we celebrate creation, conversation and community at our 41st annual Groundswell Festival! This November, our annual Groundswell Festival is coming to the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre to spotlight brand new works from Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip (WFTH) playwright’s unit led by Program Director Intisar Awisse and Program Associate Mya Wong. Hear new plays from Alison Adams, Rais Clarke-Mendes, Sal Currie, Nicci Pryce, Vanessa Spence, as well as new Nightwood works in development. Also check out two professional development sessions with Intisar Awisse, Andrea Donaldson and Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster.
November 9 – 16 and December 15
Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre – 877 Yonge St
https://www.nightwoodtheatre.net/groundswell-festival-2026/
Immersion Festival – dance immersion
Immersion Festival is an eagerly-anticipated celebration of Canadian cultural life for audiences, and a sought-after performance and networking opportunity for renowned and aspiring artists, with 3 distinct stage performances, 12 workshops, a dance education roundtable, and community gatherings. Performances and workshops are open to all.
November 8 – 22
Betty Oliphant Theatre – 404 Jarvis
https://danceimmersion.ca/immersionfestival/
Nirbhao (Without Fear) – Hart House Theatre
Four South Asian women find themselves trapped in a strange place that feels like home but offers no way out. Across generations and lived experiences, they begin to uncover what connects them, as buried truths and difficult questions about womanhood, family, identity, and freedom rise to the surface.
November 5 – 7
Hart House Theatre – 7 Hart House Circle
https://harthouse.ca/theatre/show/nirbhao-without-fear
Endgame – Canada Ireland Foundation and Druid Theatre
This Canadian premiere of Druid’s Endgame, directed by Garry Hynes, features the original cast Bosco Hogan and Druid Ensemble members Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, and Rory Nolan in Beckett’s tragicomic tale of a man living with his parents and his servant in a world beyond time and place which earned a Critic’s Pick from the New York Times – ‘it’s awfully good to be in their company … the fine, funny artists of Garry Hynes’s venerable Druid troupe’.
November 18 – 28
The Corleck Theatre – 3 Eireann Quay
https://www.druid.ie/productions/endgame-2?book=1#dates
Rogers v. Rogers – A Crow’s Theatre production, presented with Canadian Stage
From the creative duo behind Crow’s smash-hit THE MASTER PLAN, playwright Michael Healey and director Chris Abraham, ROGERS V. ROGERS is adapted from Alexandra Posadzki’s 2025 National Business Book Award Winner Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Control of Canada’s Telecom Empire (2024), which documents one of the most dramatic boardroom showdowns in Canadian history. Bringing Healey’s trademark political wit and comic precision to a story as much about corporate dynasties and the fragile mechanisms of public trust, as it is about the legacies left to us by our parents, at the heart of ROGERS V. ROGERS lies the collision between the mutinous power struggle rocking the Rogers family and the massive merger pitting them against the Competition Commissioner of Canada. At the heart of the production, is a jaw-dropping tour-de-force performance from inimitable veteran stage actor Tom Rooney, dexterously playing every character in this mythic tale at rapid fire pace. Wildly hilarious, with razor-sharp wit, ROGERS V. ROGERS is also a timely and complex imagining of two men with something to prove against the backdrop of a democracy under pressure. The production returns after a sell-out smash run last season.
November 8 – December 13
Berkeley Street Theatre – 26 Berkeley St
https://www.canadianstage.com/shows-events/season/rogers-v.-rogers
WILL THE REAL SIR GREG PLEASE STAND UP? – Sir-Greg-on-the-run-Productions
WILL THE REAL SIR GREG PLEASE STAND UP? offers a rollicking meta-theatrical answer to a torturous mega-problem. Comedy titans Keith Cole and David Benjamin Tomlinson (the listing here is alphabetical) compete for the friendship of young actor Graham Conway (Cecil) in a new musical that is sure to set Toronto gay hearts aflutter, and theatrical toes a tappin’.
The Sir Greg plays have one key thing in common; they all feature a very wise older gay man named Sir Greg who owns a cookie store and is somewhat of a genius of human emotion; he flies in at the end of each of these comedies and — like an effeminate deus ex machina — offers life-saving advice to younger men and women who are gay, or gay obsessed, or simply gay confused.
From the patio at PAL, to the afterparty at the Doras — from the back room at The Eagle to the balcony at Steamworks — homophiles and theatrephiles alike have been consumed with one question — who is the REAL Sir Greg?
November 11 – 15
Dovercourt House (basement) – 805 Dovercourt Road
The Unauthorized Hallmark(ish) Parody Musical
The Unauthorized Hallmark(ish) Parody Musical tells the story of Holly, an overworked Big City executive who returns to her quirky small hometown to save Christmas! Along the way, Holly juggles an old flame, a looming corporate merger, a cookie contest conspiracy and a moose on the loose!
Packed with your favorite holiday movie tropes and original pop songs such as, Judge That Cookie and It Feels Like Christmas (Because It Is Literally Christmas), the show offers a hilarious twist on the classic holiday movies you already know and love.
November 28 – January 3
Meridian Arts Centre – 5040 Yonge St
12 Dinner – Talk Is Free Theatre
“Steve” serves as our guide and confidant as he shares with us the story of a year’s worth of monthly trips to the family home for what inevitably become uncomfortable interactions with his mother, who is suffering from depression.
November 26 – December 10
Hope United Church – 2550 Danforth Ave
https://www.tift.ca/shows/twelve-dinners-toronto
RUNAWAYS & CONVERSATIONS AT THE RETURN OF SPRING – Mermaid Parade
“Point your body like an arrow into the world and run.”
RUNAWAYS explores the heartache, hardships, and survival strategies of women fleeing from the harm men continue to inflict on them. A vintage diner in the middle of the night. Four young women hiding out, each from a different era, all the worse for wear. Molly (Laura Dae, Twelfth Night, Theatre Erindale ), disguised as a boy, fleeing indentured servitude in 1750’s Ireland. 1900’s Sharpshooter Lil (Tristan Moore, Ismene/Chorus in Antigone), wearing a gunbelt. Emily (Kayla Waawaase Brabant, Heathers-The Musical, Connect Theater), a Puritan from the 1690’s. Lizzie (Vanessa Whyte, Romeo and Juliet, Tottering Biped), an escaped slave from the 1850’s. Jenny (Cameron Helmkay, The Threepenny Opera, Theatre Erindale/Unbridled), a runaway wife from the 1930’s, is the last arrival, shaking the rain from her hair. An eternal Waitress (Astrid Van Wieren, NARNIA, Bad Hats Theatre; Come From Away) hovers, offering empathically inquisitive hospitality, while the runaways share their desperate stories of fear, discrimination, and abuse. But eventually they must leave the temporary sanctuary of the diner to take to the road again, alone, seeking safety and a hoping for a respite from men’s cruelty.
“Let us meet this poisoned spring and see it through.”
In CONVERSATIONS AT THE RETURN OF SPRING, Demeter (Astrid Van Wieren) and her daughter Persephone (Anya Swannie-Reynolds, The Alchemist, Theatre Erindale) reunite each spring to confront how the greatest feminine energy, Mother Nature, is manipulated and brought low by mankind, with dire results to the environment.
Persephone, who has been living among the spirits of the dead, better understands why humanity acts the way it does, whereas Demeter, divine and disillusioned, views them from a greater distance. Trying to reach her mother, Persephone channels the harrowing experiences of four common women in a series of persona-shifting trances. The play culminates with Demeter’s dramatically vivid account of her visions of one of humanity’s darkest hours.
Both plays are directed by Mermaid Parade co-artistic director Jon Michaelson (After/BAAL (play with songs, Banff & Toronto workshops); This Wide Night (play); The River You Step In (feature)). Set and lighting design by Graham Maxwell. Sound design & photography by Shaun McPherson, with music from Rinde Eckert.
November 18 – 29
VideoCabaret – 10 Busy Street
GTA
Red! A Big Bad Wolf Panto – Capitol Theatre Port Hope
When Red leaves home with a basket of treats for her Granny, all she has to do is stick to the path and avoid talking to strangers…but there’s a groovy beat in the darkest part of the woods, and every young girl is up for adventure! When she crosses paths with a bad-ass Wolf, Red’s journey takes a turn that she never expected.
Red! A Big Bad Wolf Panto features an all-star cast including: Zoë O’Connor as Red, and Paul Bates as Wolf, with Gabi Epstein, Nicky Nasrallah, Colin Asuncion, Alex Furber, Malinda Carroll, and Griffin Hewitt, with musician Justin Han.
November 20 – December 27
Capitol Theatre Port Hope – 20 Queen St, Port Hope
https://capitoltheatre.com/red/
Letters of Ice and Sand – Talk Is Free Theatre
A powerful new work by contemporary Ukrainian playwright Oleg Mikhailov, Letters of Ice and Sand makes its world premiere in Barrie. Written from inside a nation at war and spanning generations of conflict—from the Soviet-Finnish Winter War to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine—the play gives voice to those whose lives have been shaped by violence, displacement, love, and loss, offering a deeply human perspective on one of the defining global crises of our time.
November 19 – 28
80 Bradford Street, Barrie
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