The Top 10 Toronto theatre productions of 2025
Anne of Green Gables, Red Like Fruit, The Welkin, Kim’s Convenience and Bright Star top my list of the most memorable shows of the year
I always look forward to compiling these year-end theatre lists.
When I consider the dozens of potential “best” shows (out of the roughly 180 I see), I always feel like the hours I spend seeing, thinking, talking and writing about theatre is time well spent.
These days — and I know I’m not alone — I’m finding my attention span shrinking. Maybe it’s because of all those three-minute reels we’ve become used to scrolling through on our phones. Fun and distracting, yes, but also exhausting and ultimately not very satisfying.
So it’s a relief, and a privilege, to get to go to the theatre and spend 90 or 130 minutes focused on one thing. It might not all work — and many much-anticipated shows this year didn’t — but what you’re seeing onstage is the work of dozens of people. Live theatre is not the result of AI or chatbots or algorithms but the fruits of genuine artistic effort and imagination.
Here are 10 productions from Toronto and the major surrounding festivals that affected me the most. I’ve included other shows I loved, as well as terrific remounts/extensions (same production, different venue or cast), at the end.
1. Anne of Green Gables
Stratford Festival, April 25 to November 16
Did anyone expect an adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved classic to become one of the most inventive and exciting plays of the year? Or that Howland Co. mainstay Caroline Toal had it in her to convincingly capture Anne-with-an-E’s indomitable spirit? Writer/director Kat Sandler and the Stratford Festival obviously had faith in both things, and proved it in a production brimming with imagination — a major theme in the show. Sandler’s additions, especially in the bold and playful second act, showed how it’s possible to take a familiar story and refashion it for a contemporary audience. The ensemble, full of veterans and gifted emerging artists, seemed energized by the process. So were we. Only question: remount when and where? See my review here.
2. Red Like Fruit
2b theatre/Luminato/Soulpepper, May 28 to June 15
In Hannah Moscovitch’s bracing and defiantly original play, a journalist (Michelle Monteith) sat back and watched as a man (David Patrick Fleming) read out, word for word, her investigation into a case of domestic abuse. It took a while to get used to the play’s rhythms and spare presentational style, coolly directed by Christian Barry. But at about the 2/3 mark, the creators’ intent snapped into place with disturbing force and clarity. This wasn’t an easy play to experience, but as stories of abuse, corruption and gaslighting continue to make headlines, it felt essential — and necessary. See my review here.
3. The Welkin
Howland Co./Soulpepper/Crow’s, September 4 to October 5
In an 18th century English village, a woman (bahia watson) is sentenced to hang for a murder, but she claims she’s pregnant, and so the court appoints a jury of her female peers to decide if she’s telling the truth. If she is, she will give birth to her child then likely be shipped off to the new world. From this intriguing premise, Lucy Kirkwood explores class and power, truth and justice — all from a distinctly female perspective. The result, confidently directed by outgoing Soulpepper artistic director Weyni Mengesha, was so full of life and ideas that one viewing couldn’t do it, er, justice. Three companies — Soulpepper, Crow’s and the Howland Co. — pooled resources to stage the production, which had a huge, multi-generational cast and exquisite design team. The verdict? Unforgettable theatre. See my review here.
4. Kim’s Convenience
Soulpepper/American Conservatory Theater/Adam Blanshay Productions, January 30 to March 16
Not many Canadian plays get a chance to return in a different staging, reframing material for a new generation of actors — and audiences. But 14 years after its Soulpepper debut and nearly four years after its spinoff sitcom ended, Weyni Mengesha tweaked her own original staging of Ins Choi’s dramedy with uncompromising honesty, featuring Choi himself in the role of the stubborn, principled Korean-Canadian proprietor of a Moss Park convenience store and featuring a talented new cast and design team, marking the play as a bonafide classic. See my interview with Choi and Mengesha here.
5. Bright Star
Garner Theatre Productions/Off-Mirvish, September 30 to November 2
Okay, not everyone loved this production of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s bluegrass musical inspired by a real-life story of love, loss and resurrection in the American South. But in a sea of shows scored with boomer jukebox hits, it stood out with its heart, optimism and belief that justice should prevail. The songs and narrative felt familiar, but comfortingly so, like a good country song. The brilliance of this production was staging it with actor musicians (director was Jacob Wolstencroft, with musical direction by producer/actor Donna Garner), resulting in a fully realized world where instruments were part of a character’s expression. The gifted ensemble was headed by a glorious, multi-faceted performance by Kaylee Harwood, who after starring in shows elsewhere, finally got to show the home crowd what she can do. See my review here.
6. Waiting for Godot
Coal Mine Theatre, September 14 to October 12
I’ve seen three or four stagings of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic, but seldom have I been as moved as I was while watching Kelli Fox’s clear, effective production. She and her superb design team provided the perfect backdrop for Didi and Gogo’s existential journey in which they wait, hope, regroup and wait again, witnessing cruelty and co-dependent cycles of abuse along the way. (Could there be a play that was more 2025?) Fox and her lead actors Ted Dykstra and Alexander Thomas captured the work’s despair but also its vaudeville-esque humour. As I wrote in my review, this production was as powerful an argument for live theatre as you can get.
7. The Christmas Market
b current/Studio 180/Crow’s Theatre, November 4 to December 14
The best plays feature characters whose lives continue long after you leave the theatre. Kanika Ambrose is brilliant at creating such people, as she demonstrated in this absorbing play about three temporary foreign workers from the Caribbean spending their first Christmas working at an Ontario farm. The way she, director Philip Akin and the actors (Matthew G. Brown, Savion Roach, Danté Prince) infused the men — and their white supervisor (Brenda Robins) — with real histories and clear motivation gave you a real sense of what was at stake for them. And with the lives of migrant and foreign workers both here and south of the border so tenuous, this play — which ought to be staged annually or semi-annually — felt even more urgent. See my review here.
8. The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare BASH’d/Theatre Centre, February 13 to 23
Because of its antisemitism, Shakespeare’s play isn’t often performed these days. But as Saul Rubinek and Mark Leiren-Young illustrated last season in Playing Shylock, the Bard’s problematic play can actually show us what antisemitism looks like — an urgent theme, especially now. Director Julia Nish-Lapidus, working with a largely Jewish creative team, staged a nuanced, sensitive production that, thanks to its bookending scenes, seemed to rise out of a lively Shabbat dinner conversation. The ensemble of gifted actors made us see familiar scenes in a different, often harsher light — witness Hallie Seline’s Portia being revolted by her darker-skinned suitors. It was a smart move to have Shylock (a deeply moving Alon Nashman) be the only actor to address the audience; when he leaves abruptly long before the end, Nish-Lapidus found a brilliant way to keep him present in our minds. See my review here.
9. Bug
The King Black Box/Elkabong Theatre, November 28 to December 18
After walking up the three flights of stairs to this Parkdale space, you never know what you’re going to experience. This fall, audiences got thrust into Tracy Letts’ nightmarish, paranoid world of conspiracies and delusions. Things began slowly in Sophie Ann Rooney’s seedy replica of a motel room, as Agnes (L.A. Sweeney) tried to avoid her ex-con ex and escape a tragic event in her past. But soon, buoyed by the eerily convincing arguments of Gulf War veteran Peter (Nicholas Eddie), they ratcheted up to a wildly unpredictable level. Director Andrew Cameron’s haunting production got under your skin — in the best way possible. See my review here.
10. The Veil
Thought for Food/Crow’s Theatre/Guild Festival Theatre, September 17 to October 19
Sure, there were many more cerebral offerings on display this year, but for good old-fashioned, spine-tingling chills, it was hard to beat Keith Barker and Thomas Morgan Jones’ play about a lawyer who accepts a Faustian bargain and inherits a curse that irrevocably alters his life. Directed by Helen Juvonen, the production featured some of the best design elements of the year, including Ashley Naomi’s sinister sound design that had you looking over your shoulder. Byron Abalos was utterly convincing as he guided us through his character’s nightmare, and the fact that he didn’t take a curtain call made the horror even more memorable. Note: if you missed it, Stratford picked it up for an extension next Halloween. See my review here.
10 more great productions
Concord Floral (Pucker’s); Dinner with the Duchess (Here for Now Theatre); For Both Resting and Breeding and Cock (Talk is Free Theatre); Fulfillment Centre (Coal Mine); Measure for Measure (HOUSE + BODY/Crow’s); People, Places and Things (Coal Mine); Rogers v. Rogers (Crow’s Theatre); Tick, tick... BOOM! (Bowtie Theatre Productions); Trident Moon (Crow’s/NAC)
Rivetting remounts
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Crow’s/Musical Stage Co.); MONKS (Theatre Centre); Fifteen Dogs (Crow’s/Segal Centre/Mirvish); & Juliet (Mirvish); Mahabharata: Parts One and Two (Why Not Theatre/Canadian Stage).
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge...”
One more thing. It’s been three years since I launched this newsletter, and I feel like I’ve finally begun hitting my stride. But I have to admit it’s been a challenge. After working for more than 25 years full-time at NOW, I forgot how uncertain the freelance life could be. One month, you can have 10 assignments, the next, one or none.
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Thanks for following along this year. Here’s to more great drama — onstage, where it belongs, and not in life.
Coming up: The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2025, as well as the year’s breakthrough artists
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Selected archived Top 10 lists:
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre productions of 2024
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2024
• The 10 best theatre productions of 2023 (with J. Kelly Nestruck)
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2023
• The breakthrough Toronto theatre artists of 2023
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre productions of 2022
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2022
• The breakthrough Toronto stage artists of 2022
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre shows of 2019
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2019
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre productions of 2018
• The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2018