26.27 Season Brochure

26.27 Season

Four Stages. One Season. A World of Stories.

Experience the Season at Canadian Stage

This season, we invite you to discover extraordinary artists and unforgettable stories across our stages. From bold new plays to iconic works revisited, these productions remind us of the power of gathering together for the singular experience of live theatre.

Act now—subscribe and ensure you seize every moment this season has to offer.

Why Subscribe?

Guaranteed Seats

Lock in your seats now for the shows you are most excited to see.

Exclusive Experiences and Discounts

You’ll receive complimentary access to special programs and events at the Bluma, High Park, and more. Plus, enjoy perks like discounts on dining, drinks, and parking to make your night out even easier.

Maximum Flexibility

Plans change. Exchange your tickets for free up to 24 hours in advance and switch to another performance.

Best Deals

Save up to 70% off single ticket prices, plus enjoy early access to shows and exclusive subscriber pricing all season long.

Subscribe today to guarantee your place at the season’s most talked-about shows. Start your unforgettable journey now.

Brendan Healy Artistic Director

Best Value Packages

Keep your seats year after year, and lock in the biggest savings all season long.

Full Season with Holiday Panto

From $110

For the ultimate Canadian Stage insider! Catch all 8 indoor productions so you won’t miss a moment of our exciting season.

Full Season

From $95

See all 7 theatrical productions at the Bluma Appel and Baillie Theatres.

Most Flexible Packages

Choose the performances that work best for your schedule and price point.

Bluma Pack

From $107

Take in 3 large-scale plays and musicals in our flagship venue, featuring some of Canada's most distinguished actors and creatives, with impressive savings and perks.

Build Your Own

From $80

Pick and choose a minimum of 3 shows across venues and genres and curate your own package – with big savings and additional offers.

9 Shows Endless Possibilities

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Moonlight, mischief, and the magic of mistaken identity

A summer staple set against the lush open-air backdrop of the High Park Amphitheatre — Now Magazine

Under the open sky of Toronto’s iconic High Park, Shakespeare’s beloved romantic comedy comes to life. When Viola is shipwrecked and disguises herself as a man, she sets off a whirlwind of mistaken identities, mischievous schemes, and tangled romances.

As disguises unravel and hearts collide, Twelfth Night delivers laughter, music, and the joyful chaos of love. Pack a picnic, gather your friends, and enjoy a summer night of theatre under the stars.

Dream in High Park is a uniquely intimate theatrical experience — Next Magazine

July 12 –

September 6, 2026

Lead Corporate Sponsor

Production Underwriter The Westaway Charitable Foundation

He tried to paint her. She transformed the canvas.

Childress’s play proves that the ways we see ourselves… and what we value in ourselves are reflective of where we are in the path toward progress

— The New York Times

Harlem, 1964. As riots unfold outside, painter Bill Jameson is inside his apartment putting the final touches on a portrait series about Black womanhood. When Tommy is brought in to model, her presence begins to reveal the quiet hierarchies shaping the evening. As drinks are poured and conversation loosens, the group is forced to reckon with how easy it is to repeat the very judgments they hope to rise above.

By turns funny, intimate, and piercingly intelligent, Wine in the Wilderness is a landmark work. Directed by Jordan Laffrenier, whose searing production of Slave Play was a highlight of last season, this revival brings fresh urgency and emotional precision to Alice Childress’ razor-sharp portrait of seeing and being seen.

Attending this play—written in 1969 and rarely staged since…feels like entering a post office or library or bank and spotting a genuine Picasso on the wall

— New York Theatre Guide

September 19October 4, 2026

WINE IN THE WILDERNESS

WRITTEN BY ALICE CHILDRESS

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Written by and starring Ann-Marie MacDonald

A joyful comedy that flips the script on Shakespeare's most infamous heroines

Clever, pointed and entertaining…This play is one of the wildest and woolliest feminist reappraisals that the theatre has seen, and one of the most intellectually ambitious

— Globe and Mail

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of her landmark play, acclaimed novelist and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald steps into the spotlight as Constance Ledbelly, the overlooked academic who tumbles headlong into Shakespeare’s worlds and discovers that the heroines (and even Constance herself) may be capable of far more than anyone imagined.

At once wildly funny and moving, this Canadian classic unleashes Desdemona and Juliet as fierce forces of their own destiny and reminds us that sometimes the bravest act is claiming your own story.

MacDonald's play is smart…But it's equally prepared to be ridiculous, embracing the raunchiness of Shakespearean comedy and adding in a layer of farce — CBC Manitoba

November 6 – 22, 2026

The Bluma Appel Theatre season is underwritten by John & Nancy Embry

Production Underwriter

Supported by the EmpowHer Fund

Founding Donors: Catherine Graham & Katy Graham Debost Janet L'Heureux

The hit show returns –new venue, same buzz!

A hoot for every long-suffering Rogers customer

— Toronto Star

Telecom tycoon Ted Rogers built an empire turning Canada’s airwaves into cash. Now his son Edward, long dismissed by his father, is fighting for control of the family business. Meanwhile, shrewd public servant Matthew Boswell is determined to derail Rogers’ billion-dollar takeover of Shaw Communications.

From award-winning playwright Michael Healey (The Master Plan, The Drawer Boy) and starring Tom Rooney (Fifteen Dogs, Uncle Vanya) comes a story of outsized ambition, personal grudges, and corporate power.

Inspired by one of the most dramatic boardroom showdowns in Canadian history, this riveting new drama examines the price of pushing back, the unraveling bonds of kin, and the legacy that money can—and cannot—buy.

A dizzying one-man showcase for Tom Rooney — The Globe and Mail

The sold-out phenomenon returns for a limited engagement

November 8 –December 13, 2026

A Crow’s Theatre production, presented with Canadian Stage Based on Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Control of Canada’s Telecom Empire by Alexandra Posadzki

The Baillie Theatre season is underwritten by The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation is generously supported by:

The classic story, turned on its heel

There's no show like the panto, there's no city like Toronto — Globe and Mail

Think you’ve outgrown the panto? Think again.

Our new take on Cinderella delivers all the glitter and spectacle of the beloved tradition with a clever, contemporary edge. Packed with infectious pop anthems, sly humour, and spectacular stagecraft, this is a holiday outing designed as much for grown-ups as it is for kids.

Whether you’re reliving the tradition or discovering it for the first time, this is holiday theatre with wit, style, and a knowing wink.

December 5, 2026 –January 3, 2027

Old history. New rules.

Bold, intelligent theatre that resonates with today’s audiences

—Toronto Star

They haven’t seen each other since the 1980s. Now two accomplished architects are reunited in a glass-walled Toronto office tower on the eve of a high-stakes competition. Both intend to keep things strictly professional. That proves harder than expected.

As a long-buried chapter of their shared history resurfaces, a polite reunion turns into a pointed, funny sparring match about memory, ambition, and how much the rules have changed. Meanwhile, their twentysomething colleagues look on and aren’t shy about weighing in.

Smart, topical, and wickedly witty, Sex in the ’80s is a workplace comedy about generational change and the risky business of revisiting the past.

A playwright who knows how to keep audiences leaning forward

— San Diego Union-Tribune

January 16 –February 7, 2027

The Baillie Theatre season is underwritten by The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation

Supported by the BraveWorks Fund

Founding Donors: Alexandra Baillie

Ian & Kiki Delaney

SEX ’80S IN THE

WRITTEN BY AND STARRING KATE HENNIG

CABARET

WRITTEN BY JOHN KANDER AND FRED EBB

Dancing at the edge of history

One of musical theatre’s most unforgettable works… thrilling and chilling in equal measure

— TimeOut

Few musicals feel as essential to revisit —or as urgent to re-examine—as Cabaret. Set in Berlin as the shadows of extremism lengthen, Cabaret invites us into a world of music, seduction, and dangerous denial. Beneath its unforgettable songs lies one of musical theatre’s most incisive examinations of how societies unravel. Not overnight, but slowly, and in plain sight. With a bold new vision by director Kimberley Rampersad, this production invites Toronto audiences to experience Cabaret not as a relic of the past, but as a work of thrilling theatrical intelligence and modern relevance.

Stunning...a masterpiece of musical theatre penned as a cautionary tale and not at all leavened by the embrace of paradox

— Vulture

February 13 – 28, 2027

The Bluma Appel Theatre season is underwritten by John & Nancy Embry Production Underwriters

Jim Lawrence & David Salak

Jeremy Opolsky & Rhonda Zwingerman Krawczyk Family Foundation

Kimberley Rampersad Director/ Choreographer

Growing up takes a lifetime

A natural-born raconteur, regaling audiences... with a stream of mostly chronological stories and anecdotes delivered rapid-fire

— Winnipeg Free Press

In Raised by Women, Métis playwright and performer Keith Barker delivers an intimate, stand-up-inspired solo show that’s as funny as it is searching. With sharp wit and big heart, Keith traces his upbringing by formidable women in Northern Ontario and the complicated legacy of a father who was largely absent but never insignificant. Moving seamlessly between laughter and reflection, this deeply personal performance finds grace in the mess, proving the funniest stories are often the most true.

Barker is a true trailblazer — Mooney on Theatre

March 27 –April 11, 2027

The Baillie Theatre season is underwritten by The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation

Production Underwriters Alan Rowe & Bryan Blenkin

RAISED

WRITTEN BY AND STARRING KEITH BARKER

CREDITORS

WRITTEN BY AUGUST STRINDBERG, ADAPTED BY JEN SILVERMAN

Every desire has a cost

Wretchedly compelling

— The New York Times

At a secluded seaside hotel, a young artist and his magnetic wife find their marriage unsettled by the arrival of a charismatic stranger. What begins as friendly conversation turns into something sharper: a slow, surgical dismantling of certainty, confidence, and love.

In this razor-edged reimagining of Strindberg’s classic, Artistic Director Brendan Healy and an all-star cast transform a classic battle of the sexes into a thrilling psychological chamber piece about ego, desire, and the stories we tell about ourselves. Seductive, unsettling, and darkly funny, Creditors asks: who owns the narrative and who pays the price?

...the psychological warfare and tension remain electrifying, with fresh stakes and unexpected emotional turns

— New York Stage Review

A chilling study of power, manipulation, and desire

— The Guardian

Canadian Premiere

April 9 – May 2, 2027

The Bluma Appel Theatre season is underwritten by John & Nancy Embry

Production Underwriters

David W. Binet

Elaine Kierans & Shawn McReynolds

Art/Explored

Conversations, events, and behind-the-scenes experiences—complimentary for subscribers and donors! *

New at Canadian Stage, this series brings audiences closer to the creative process. Through lively conversations, hands-on experiences, and behind-the-scenes access, these events offer insights that extend beyond the stage.

Writing Women

In this special event, two of Canada’s acclaimed playwrights come together for an intimate conversation about writing women’s stories across changing times. Ann-Marie MacDonald and Kate Hennig reflect on their artistic journeys and how the post-#MeToo era has brought new perspective to their work.

The Craft of Transformation

*

What does it take to step into a character and bring them fully to life on stage? Moderated by Artistic Director Brendan Healy, celebrated Canadian actors Paul Gross, Allan Louis, and Caroline Toal come together to explore the craft of acting, reflecting on their artistic journeys, and what keeps them returning to the stage.

26.27

Inside the Actor’s Studio

When: November 14 | 10am-12pm or January 18 | 5pm-7pm

Led by professional actors familiar to Canadian Stage audiences, this interactive event offers a glimpse into how actors bring characters to life from first reading to final performance. Through demonstration and optional participation, discover the tools actors use to listen, respond, and connect. No experience required—only curiosity.

Why We Tell Stories

When: February 22 | 7pm

In times of uncertainty and change, stories help define who we are and what we value. In this timely conversation, the directors of this season’s mainstage productions come together to share insight into their craft and the role storytelling plays in shaping perspective and cultural conversation. This intimate event invites us to consider the role of artists today and why storytelling has never mattered more.

Inside the World of Creditors

When: March 10 | 6pm

How does a play’s physical world come to life? Join

Artistic Director Brendan Healy and designer Gillian Gallow for a rare behind-the-scenes look at the worldmaking process behind Creditors. Through an intimate tour of the production’s scenography, discover how the physical shape of a play is brought to life, from early concepts to the final staging. The evening includes a wine & cheese reception and the opportunity to meet and mingle with members of the creative team.

Best Value Packages*

Bluma Pack

See all 3 shows at the Bluma! Choose any performance night and price zone with the most flexibility.

Bonus: purchase additional shows in other venues at this locked-in discount rate all season long!

Build Your Own

Choose a minimum of 3 productions from any venue and enjoy big savings and perks. Purchase additional shows at this locked-in discount rate all season long.

Become a Subscriber

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July 2026

December 2026

January 2027

Invest

Extraordinary.

Ticket sales cover only 54% of what it takes to bring ambitious theatre to life. Your generosity fuels the artistry on our stages—from the first commission to opening night—and ensures that bold, thought-provoking work continues to thrive in our city.

When you invest in Canadian Stage, you champion artists, nurture new voices, and help create the unforgettable experiences that bring audiences together.

Become a Donor with a gift of $75+ and enjoy exclusive benefits*, including:

• Invitations to special donor events throughout the season

• Complimentary drinks at the Berkeley

• Access to the private donor lounge at the Bluma

• Personalized concierge ticketing and support

event

Thank you to our 26.27 Season Supporters

Season Sponsors

Bluma Appel Season Underwriters

John & Nancy Embry

David W. Binet

Trina McQueen, O.C.

Baillie Theatre Season Underwriter

The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation

Production Underwriters & Sponsors

Elaine Kierans & Shawn McReynolds

Jeremy Opolsky & Rhonda Zwingerman

Krawczyk Family Foundation

The Westaway Charitable Foundation

Programmatic Support Lead Donors

BraveWorks

Alexandra Baillie

EmpowHer

Ian & Kiki Delaney

Catherine Graham & Katy Graham Debost Janet L'Heureux

Marion Armstrong Charitable Foundation

Kingfisher Foundation

Dream in High Park Lead Sponsor Government

Alan Rowe & Bryan Blenkin

Education & Community Outreach

Marilyn & Charles Baillie Family Foundation

Future Forward Fund New Work Development

Ed & Fran Clark

The Paul Butler and Chris Black Foundation at Toronto Foundation

Henry White Kinnear Foundation

The Joan and Clifford Hatch Foundation