This was a year of transition for Canadian theatre. Behind the scenes, numerous companies saw change-ups in their leadership. Onstage, artists pushed the boundaries of live performance, often using technological elements to supplement more analog storytelling choices.
On a personal note, 2025 marked my first year as The Globe and Mail’s theatre reporter, so it was a year of transition for me, too – and a thrilling one, at that.
For this top 10 list (in alphabetical order), I’ve limited myself to what I saw in Toronto, at the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival, where The Globe’s theatre coverage is most concentrated.
Anne of Green Gables, Stratford Festival
Tim Campbell and Caroline Toal in Kat Sandler's adaption of Anne of Green Gables at the Stratford Festival.David Hou/Stratford Festival
It’s an alphabetical coincidence that Kat Sandler’s Anne of Green Gables is at the top of this list, but it would be here even if the list were ranked. Sandler’s adaptation of Canada’s most famous children’s story was huge-hearted, earnest and funny – there was hardly a dry eye in the house at the end of any of the three times I saw it. Caroline Toal’s take on that titular redhead, too, was close to perfect.
Blues for an Alabama Sky, Shaw Festival
Virgilia Griffith in Blues for an Alabama Sky.David Cooper/Shaw Festival
In an otherwise uneven year for the Shaw Festival, Blues for an Alabama Sky was a lovely – and devastating – end-of-summer surprise. Actor Virgilia Griffith showed tremendous range as bruised blues singer Angel, and director Kimberley Rampersad’s intimate production felt like being inside a pressure cooker on a hot summer day (in all the best ways).
The Christmas Market, b current Performing Arts/Crow’s Theatre/Studio 180
Brenda Robins in The Christmas Market.Kenya Parsa/Crow's theatre
It’s possible that the winter slot in Crow’s Theatre’s teeny studio space is lucky – Globe readers might recall seeing Big Stuff on this list last year – but the venue is ideal for high-impact stories about what it means to exist in today’s world. The Christmas Market, written by Kanika Ambrose and directed by Philip Akin, was exactly that, a gasp of a play that took an exacting look at Canada’s temporary foreign worker program against a backdrop of tinsel and nutcrackers.
Dinner with the Duchess, Here for Now Theatre Company/Crow’s Theatre
Dinner with the Duchess, first produced by Stratford’s Here for Now Theatre Company at the tail end of last year but presented in Crow’s Theatre’s studio space at the beginning of 2025, was a scorching drama about an aging musician and her checkered artistic legacy. Nick Green’s script, his first since Casey and Diana all but broke Canadian theatre in 2023, was painful and taut, and Jan Alexandra Smith’s performance as the Lydia Tàr-esque Margaret was exquisite.
For Both Resting and Breeding; Cock; and Blackbird, Talk Is Free Theatre
Perhaps it’s cheating to feature three shows under one heading. But Talk Is Free Theatre brought a triptych of truly impressive plays to Toronto over the course of 2025: For Both Resting and Breeding, about a futuristic society tasked with re-enacting ancient culture; Cock, about a man forced to grapple with his sexuality in the most claustrophobic of ways; and Blackbird, about a pedophile and a young woman caught in the talons of the past.
All three featured standout performances – Tess Benger in Cock, Richard Lam in For Both Resting and Breeding and Cyrus Lane in Blackbird, though all three had excellent ensemble casts – and as a trio, the works reinforced Talk Is Free’s reputation for creating bold, high-end theatre in unlikely spaces.
Iris (says goodbye), Mixtape Projects/Toronto Fringe
In Iris (says goodbye), Iris is a young woman with the chance to choose what her next life will be.Stefi Kopp/Toronto Fringe
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Ben Kopp and Margot Greve’s Iris (says goodbye) at the Toronto Fringe. The show, a meditation on life, purgatory and the growing up that happens in the middle, hit me like a train – Sydney Gauvin’s performance of What Will Happen Next, a gorgeous ballad about writing and falling in love, has stayed with me for the past six months and shows no signs of going away any time soon.
I so hope we haven’t experienced Iris’s misfortunes for the last time – they’re worth further developing at a larger scale.
Monks, Veronica Hortigüela & Annie Luján/The Theatre Centre
Annie Luján and Veronica Hortigüela in Monks.Audrianna Martin Del Campo/The Theatre Centre
Monks, a punchy two-hander about two friars on a quest to do nothing, might be the most fun I had in a theatre this year. (The friend I brought with me in March had never seen a play before: He still talks about Monks with a reverence he had previously reserved for Spider-Man 2.) Monks has already begun to appear for short runs outside Toronto, but I’m manifesting a longer, larger return run in the city, or, better yet, a Dora Awards hosting gig for Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Luján.
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Mirvish Productions/Crow’s Theatre/Musical Stage Company
George Krissa in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.Dahlia Katz/Mirvish
The Mirvish transfer of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 was everything you might want from musical theatre, full of spectacle and depth. Chris Abraham’s revised production preserved the bottomless energy of the original 2024 run, but expanded and polished it into something truly special at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, with scaled-up – but never overplayed – performances from Hailey Gillis, Evan Buliung and Andrew Penner, to name a few.
People, Places and Things, Coal Mine Theatre
Louise Lambert and Sarah Murphy-Dyson in People, Places and Things.Elana Emer/Supplied
Critics appropriately lauded Louise Lambert’s performance in People, Places and Things, which plunged audiences into how it feels to experience – and recover from – addiction. But the standout performance for me in Diana Bentley’s kinetic production actually came from Fiona Reid, who played the protagonist’s therapist (and later, her mother) with a startlingly authentic blend of pity, love and rage.
Performance Review, Outside the March
Rosamund Small in Performance Review.Dahlia Katz/Outside the March
As a theatre critic, you can’t always predict how shows will linger in your mind after you file your review. Performance Review didn’t wow me at first – I found Rosamund Small’s script to be a little overly indebted to Fleabag – but as 2025 ticked along, something happened. Performance Review, about adjusting to new jobs while maintaining one’s sense of self, became relevant to me in a new way. More than once I found myself marvelling at Small’s ability to capture ambition in all its nuance, and director Mitchell Cushman’s playful staging at Morning Parade Coffee Bar grew on me quite a bit, too.
But that’s live theatre for you: Sometimes it takes a while for a play to click, but when it does, it’s a whole new kind of satisfying.