The Next Stage Theatre Festival is the curated, boutique festival produced every winter by the Toronto Fringe.
49th Day takes us to a cemetery in Việt Nam, where a young woman makes offerings and performs rituals for her deceased grandmother. A poetic investigation of intergenerational trauma and displacement, this piece is a love-letter to elders and grandparents everywhere.
Take vacations. Shower regularly. Befriend the nanny. Hire a sex worker. Buy art. Murder the planet. Retire. Get comfy as a panicked CEO takes a surreal journey through the product pipeline. Surveying our vast economic landscape, Consumption Patterns reveals a world at war with itself—offering a bracing glimpse of what’s to come.
This tender musical shines a light on grief and death as experienced for the first time by a group of teenagers. Every Silver Lining was a breakout hit of the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival, featuring a dynamic group of the most exciting new voices in Canadian musical theatre. Pairing profound lyrics with catchy tunes, this show is for anyone looking to laugh and cry in the same breath.
Escaping to the West, a young trans woman runs away from Bangladesh with only one suitcase and a secret. As she fears for her life in her new surroundings, can she trust you to keep her safe? Bilal Baig offers a truthful drama that authentically and unapologetically puts queer and trans bodies at the centre of the storytelling.
In the age of body positivity, where does chronic illness fit? Disabled artist Ophira Calof plays her body as a character finally getting its moment in the spotlight, using music, comedy and storytelling to explore the relationship between her body and mind as they navigate a world that wasn’t built for them. This show includes an informal conversation at the end of each performance. Every performance of this show includes access measures.
Does saying “I Do” to someone new mean saying “I Don’t” to each other? For better or for worse, the sisters have to negotiate what their relationship will look like now that there is a third person in the mix. Can they survive this new chapter of life without the person who has always been by their side? Can they still be Morro and Jasp?
Award-winning drag tragicomedienne Pearle Harbour presents her cabaret spectacular Agit-Pop! – musical meditations for the pre-post-apocalypse. Developed over five years of live performance, Agit Pop! is an ever-changing collection of Pearle’s favourite, best, and most heart-wrenchingly hilarious short acts.
Catch the stars of the hit CBC comedy series that #StartedAtTheFringe live on stage! Tallboyz Guled Abdi, Vance Banzo, Tim Blair, and Franco Nguyen bring their absurdist but relatable sketch comedy to Next Stage for a side-splitting one-night-only performance.
TEASE is a feminist burlesque comedy that is as salty as it is sweet in its exploration of sex, politics, and what it means to be a woman. Combining elements of clown, sketch comedy, improv, music, and dance, this show will surprise you at every turn.
Tita Power! One of the sell-out hits of the 2019 Toronto Fringe, Tita Jokes is back and better than ever. Featuring new sketches, new songs, and a sixth Tita, this all-Filipina, all-fun sketch comedy show will bring so much heat from the Philippines that you’ll forget that it’s winter.