news | Thursday March 27, 2025

World Theatre Day 2025!

March 27 is World Theatre Day! What a perfect opportunity to appreciate some of the stellar plays and playwrights enlivening stages all across the country. Here are a handful of amazing plays we’ve had the pleasure of publishing in recent years that we recommend checking out.

1. Open House by Drew Hayden Taylor

Hot off the press! Open House, the latest play by Drew Hayden Taylor has arrived! This dark comedy follows an African Canadian man, a Chinese Canadian man, and a Jewish/Indigenous lesbian couple hoping to snag their perfect home when they show up to an open house run by a white settler real estate agent. Open House deftly navigates current conversations about oppression, colonization, and middle-class aspirations. Pick up your copy here.

2. Hummingbird by Elaine Ávila

Forthcoming this spring is Hummingbird, the latest work of eco-theatre by Elaine Ávila! When forced to choose a topic for a mandatory high school project, Alex sarcastically says “hummingbirds” because one is hovering outside the window. Alex has no idea that this offhand choice will lead them to uncover hidden family histories in a mysterious journal from the 1860s, find an essential role in a community nest-finding network, open up to a vibrant ecosystem, and learn how a hummingbird disrupted a major pipeline project. Pre-order your copy here.

3. The In-Between by Marcus Youssef

Lily has always felt in-between. She looks Vietnamese but thinks of herself as white – her parents adopted her from an orphanage in Vietnam. Her parents both have good jobs, but her best friend Brit is always super broke. When Karim – a guy she’s liked for a long time – shows interest in her for the first time, Brit starts to hang out with some grade-twelves who wear T-shirts saying “white pride.” After Karim confronts Brit about her racism, a series of fear-induced misunderstandings lead to a lockdown, and Lily finds herself truly in-between, forced to make seemingly impossible choices about whose side she’s on. The In-Between brings humour, sensitivity, and a deftly authentic ear to the adult-sized questions all young people must begin to confront as they enter their later teens. Get your copy here.

4. Feast by Guillermo Verdecchia

Feast follows a comfortable North American family as they contend with compounding global crises and the end of things as we know them. Each member of the family deals with the coming troubles in their own way. Moving from North America to Beirut to Mombasa, with stops along the way at Starbucks, the Centre for Avant-Garde Geography, and a cave on the island of Lampedusa, Feast spans the globalized world and beyond, offering a wild, magic-realist take on the uncertainties and anxieties of the early twenty-first century. Order your copy here and check out Tarragon Theatre’s upcoming production of Feast here.

5. Redbone Coonhound by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton.

This scorching satire published in 2024 won six METAs (Montréal English Theatre Awards) and was named one of the Toronto Star’s “Ten Best Theatre Shows in 2023.” Out for a walk in their Vancouver neighbourhood, interracial couple Mike and Marissa meet a dog with an unfortunate breed name: Redbone coonhound. This detail unleashes a cascading debate between them about race and their relationship that manifests as a series of micro-plays, each satirizing contemporary perspectives on modern culture. Through hard-hitting comedic elements, Redbone Coonhound explores the intricacies of race, systemic power, and privilege in remarkable and surprising ways. Pick up your copy here.

6. Cottage Radio & Other Plays by Taylor Marie Graham

Cottage Radio & Other Plays animates a wild cast of Southwestern Ontario characters – particularly its strong, hilarious rural women – with complex histories and relationships to the land. The titlular Cottage Radio zeroes in on the sarcastic, charismatic Marley clan as they band together in the aftermath of a storm. White Wedding is a large-cast comedy set at a wedding reception in an old high school, where friends and lovers sneak off to reconnect and swim in nostalgia. Post Alice weaves a true Huron County mystery into an evening of stories, song, and secrets as four women (reminiscent of four Alice Munro protagonists) gather around a fire and begin to wonder what really happened to Mistie Murray, a teenager who disappeared in the mid-nineties. Order your copy here

7. we the same by Sangeeta Wylie

Inspired by a true story, we the same opens in 1979 Việt Nam, where six children and a mother become separated from their father and husband as they flee their homeland by boat. Against all odds, they survive pirate attacks, typhoons, and starvation, ending up shipwrecked on a desert island. Thirty-five years pass, and the mother at last shares heartfelt secrets and an unbelievable story with her daughter … allowing the past to be escorted into the present. Get your copy here.

8. Withrow Park by Morris Panych

Three people gaze out their living room window as the days pass. Across the street in Withrow Park, life goes on – or is it a dream?

Then comes a knock at the door. Time has found them, hiding in plain sight. Or possibly it’s just a man in a wrinkled suit. But Janet, Marion, and Arthur must act now or forever be devoured by their own indifference. They can no longer live on the periphery of their own lives. They must invite the young man to dinner. Pick up your copy here.

9. Behind the Moon by Anosh Irani

In a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, a late-night visit from a mysterious stranger rattles the cage and shatters the peace. Now the restaurant’s employee Ayub must face reality, the family he’s left behind, and the dreams he’s abandoned, all while keeping the restaurant shiningly clean.

From the award-winning playwright and novelist Anosh Irani, Behind the Moon is a story of love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and how we begin a new life. Order your copy here and check out Touchstone Theatre’s production of Behind the Moon here, which runs until April 6.

Happy World Theatre Day, everyone! We hope you enjoy a spate of wonderful plays and performances.