Artists to watch on Toronto stages this winter

If one of your new year’s resolutions was to see more great theatre this year, congratulations — you’re in luck. There are dozens of solid shows going up in the next few months. So even if the weather dips into the minus double digits, these talented folks will generate enough dramatic heat to keep you warm until the spring.

And keep in mind the long-running shows that are still playing, like The Lion King and Come From Away, which are both guaranteed to be running (as of today) until August and April, respectively.

Akosua Amo-Adem

Table for Two at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, February 7 to March 2

In a little over a decade, the intense, gloriously versatile Amo-Adem has built a career as one of the city’s most exciting actors. Who can forget her work in shows like Better Angels: A Parable, The Middle Place, Domesticated, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls, Pipeline and Three Sisters? Now, after teasing a bit of her own writing in 2021 in a tryptich called The Home Project, she premieres her first full-length play, Table for Two, about the rituals of modern dating. Abby is a Ghanaian-Canadian woman whose swiping and matches on dating apps haven’t resulted in a partner — yet, much to the chagrin of her mother and the amusement of her friends. With the great Djanet Sears directing a cast that includes Bola Aiyeola, Ryan Allen and Meghan Swaby, this show — a co-production between Soulpepper and Obsidian — promises to be the perfect date this Valentine’s month. Tickets and info here

Maja Ardal

For Both Resting and Breeding at a private residence, January 15 to 31

The formidable Ardal — writer, actor, director, artistic director of Young People’s Theatre in the 1990s — doesn’t appear very often these days on Toronto stages. So any time she does is cause for celebration. Her latest project, which she directs and co-stars in with Amy Keating, Richard Lam, Jamie McRoberts and Alexander Thomas, is a doozy. Set in 2150 when humans have become gender-neutral, identifying themselves with the pronoun “ish,” Adam Meisner’s script is about two historians who are transforming a residence into a museum. The twist? As the group begins work on the museum, they start re-enacting the behaviours of their gendered ancestors. With this production and a revival of Mike Bartlett’s play Cock playing here before touring to Japan, Barrie’s Talk is Free Theatre is sure to get people talking (and laughing) about identity issues. Tickets and info here

Neema Bickersteth

The Wolf in the Voice at Tarragon Extra Space, February 4 to 23

Bickersteth’s gleaming, silvery soprano and keen dramatic instincts have graced more than a dozen memorable Toronto productions, including Century Song, which she co-created, Caroline, or Change, The Cave, The Penelopiad and, most notably, the recent restoration of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. Most of those shows featured her singing voice, the subject of Martin Julien and Brian Quirt’s world premiere show in association with Nightswimming, in which Bickersteth and her fellow vocalizing thespians Jane Miller and Taurian Teelucksingh share stories and songs about the titular “wolf in the voice.” Tickets and info here

Ins Choi

Kim’s Convenience at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, January 30 to March 2

Talk about homecomings. Almost exactly 13 years to the day, Choi’s play Kim’s Convenience — the show that inspired a CBC and Netflix phenomenon and boosted the careers of several of its stars — is returning to Soulpepper, where it opened in January and, several extensions and tours later, became the theatre company’s most popular show ever. Back then, Choi played young rebellious son Jung; now he’s stepping into the shoes of the play’s central character, Mr. Kim, or Appa, the plain-talking, first-generation Korean immigrant/owner of a variety store who’s estranged from his son. Soulpepper’s artistic director, Weyni Mengesha, who directed that first production, is back for this version, which now includes Esther Chung, Ryan Jinn, Brandon McKnight and Kelly Seo in the cast. Tickets and info here

Caleigh Crow

There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death Or, The Born-Again Crow at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, March 9 to 29

Crow took on a small but key role in the recent Stratford Festival production The Diviners, based on Margaret Laurence’s classic novel. But she’s taking centre stage this season with her provocatively-titled play, which won the prestigious Governor General’s Award for Drama (English) last November. When I discussed this play last summer with Buddies’ artistic director ted witzel before the season launch, he raved about Crow’s viciously funny imagination. This is, after all, a play in which a talking crow gets the frustrated central character to use her political rage creatively. With Jessica Carmichael directing, this Buddies and Native Earth Performing Arts production promises to be the sleeper hit of the season. Tickets and info here

The Ensemble

Fifteen Dogs at the CAA Theatre, January 28 to February 16

When I reviewed the original production of Fifteen Dogs for the Globe two years ago, I wrote that it delivered “one doggone spectacular tale.” Thousands of audience members agreed; director Marie Farsi’s adaptation of André Alexis’s Giller-winning novel became a huge hit at Crow’s, and was extended several times. Now the show is back as part of the Off-Mirvish season. How Farsi will transfer the intimate theatre-in-the-round setting of the play from Crow’s to the much larger CAA space remains to be seen — Uncle Vanya worked differently, but just as effectively, when it made the same trip. But one thing you can count on will be the inspired performances by Tom Rooney, Laura Condlln, Stephen Jackman-Torkoff, Tyrone Savage, Mirabella Sundar Singh and — replacing original member Peter Fernandes, who’s crowning his young career in Fat Ham this season — Dan Chameroy as the crafty beagle Benjy. Our tails are already wagging thinking about this play. Tickets and info here

Paul Gross and Martha Burns

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Bluma Appel Theatre, January 18 to February 9

We don’t really have a star system in Canadian theatre. But if we did, Gross (Due South, Men with Brooms, Stratford’s King Lear) and Burns (Michael: Every Day, Soulpepper’s The Maids and Happy Days, Coal Mine’s Yerma, with Louise Lambert) would be near the top. The real-life couple met acting in a play several decades ago, and famously played a sparring ex-couple in Slings & Arrows, but these days they rarely appear onstage together — their last collaboration was in 2014’s Domesticated, which also featured Amo-Adem. Now they’re stepping into one of the most celebrated, and enduring, American plays of the 20th century as squabbling couple George and Martha in Edward Albee’s 1962 drama. Directed by Canadian Stage’s artistic director Brendan Healy and co-starring Mac Fyfe and Hailey Gillis (another real-life couple) as Nick and Honey, this production is sure to get people talking during the show’s two intermissions. Tickets and info here

Louise Lambert

People, Places and Things at Coal Mine Theatre, February 9 to March 2

The radiant Lambert has been a standout in several Coal Mine productions, including Yerma (2023) and Detroit (2022), for which she got a much-deserved Dora nomination as a free-spirited former addict who wants to change her life. Now, in Duncan Macmillan’s much-produced script, she plays another addict, Emma, an actor who breaks down during a play and enters rehab, which ironically requires the same kind of truth-telling demanded of her chosen profession. With her Detroit co-star (and Yerma director) Diana Bentley at the helm, and an ensemble that includes Oliver Dennis, Farhang Ghajar, Kwaku Okyere and Fiona Reid, expect this to be one of the hottest tickets of the season. Tickets and info here

Alon Nashman

The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Centre, February 13 to 23

Productions of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice are rare these days, mostly because producers are afraid of the play’s perceived anti-Semitism. But as the brilliant Playing Shylock recently asked us, why deny the world one of the most complex, and layered Jewish characters in the canon? As if picking up this same thought, the fierce indie company Shakespeare BASH’d is reviving the play next month with a largely Jewish creative team, led by director Julia Nish-Lapidus and starring Nashman as the money lender Shylock. The nuanced writer/actor, of course, is a Canadian theatre mainstay whose roles include many written by Wadji Mouawad (Scorched, Forests, Alphonse and Birds of a Kind), as well as Steve Martin, Steven Adly Guirgis and Michael Frayn. With a cast that includes Jesse Nerenberg, Ori Black, Adriano Reis, James Wallis and Howland Company’s Hallie Seline and Cameron Laurie, this staging of the familiar play is sure to make audiences see different things in it. The run is brief, however, and Shakespeare BASH’d productions always sell out; so don’t sit on getting tickets. Tickets and info here

Note: So Sumi is running a ticket giveaway to The Merchant of Venice. See details below.

Jonathan Wilson

A Public Display of Affection at Crow’s Theatre, March 25 to April 20

Officially Wilson’s new solo show doesn’t begin previews until late March, but I’m really excited for it — and we’ve had snow before in April, right? The writer/performer’s first autobiographical solo play, the Dora Award-nominated My Own Private Oshawa, remains one of the cornerstones of queer theatre and storytelling in this country. Since then, he’s gone on to win raves in shows like The Lion King (the first Toronto run, which won him a Dora), The Normal Heart and, most recently, Gay for Pay with Blake & Clay and its sequel, Blake & Clay’s Gay Agenda). A Public Display of Affection, directed by Mark McGrinder, artistic director of Studio 180 Theatre, who’s producing in association with Crow’s, seems like a companion piece to Oshawa, exploring Toronto’s long-altered queer scene with laughter and poignancy. Tickets and info here

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Free theatre workshops!

Expect Theatre, the folks behind the bingeable audio drama podcast PlayME (new season launching soon), is hosting a series of free online theatre-related workshops called PlayPEN.

This month’s workshops include Perfect Pitch, by Jillian Keiley (January 13), Small Screen, Big Stage, by Chloé Hung (January 20), and Create Your Own Residency, by Amiel Gladstone (January 27).

Next month’s series includes workshops by Colin Rivers, Marcus Youssef, Beau Dixon and yours truly. Mine, titled Critical Thinking: The Role of Theatre Criticism & How To Use It, takes place live virtually on February 24 and will explore the role that criticism and arts journalism plays in a changing theatre landscape. Who are theatre critics, where do we come from, and do our assessments matter — or not? And how can you use what we say and write to help spread the word about your show?

Follow Expect Theatre’s Instagram and newsletter for application details. UPDATE: Applications are now open for the February workshops.

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Ticket giveaway!

So Sumi is giving away a pair of tickets to the Shakespeare BASH’d production of The Merchant of Venice, which runs February 13 to 23 at the Theatre Centre. See info here.

To win them, you must subscribe to this newsletter (free or paid) and correctly answer the following question: What was the name of the real-life theatre figure played by Alon Nashman in a show he co-wrote for the Stratford Festival in the 2010s?

Deadline for entries is Tuesday, January 14, at 6 pm ET. One winner will be randomly chosen from among the correct answers and notified the following day. Please send answers to SoSumiContact@gmail.com, with Merchant of Venice Contest in the subject heading.

Note: the company will try its best to accommodate your date choice, but not all performances may be available.