The Next Stage Theatre Festival is the curated, boutique festival produced every winter by the Toronto Fringe.

THEATRE WITH 20/20 VISION

2020 is the perfect year to talk about 20/20 vision – and these artists have it.  Browse all shows below to see the scope of the festival's vision.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

The 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival features everything from interactive drag to sketch comedy, from trans-centred storytelling to a Fringe-fave clown duo.

January 8 - 19, 2020 at Factory Theatre. 

Tickets on sale now!

Learn more about Next Stage.

The 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival Line-up:

Tita Jokes

Tita Power! 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 you’ll forget it’s winter.

TEASE

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.

Morro and Jasp: Save the Date

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 still be Morro and Jasp?

Pearle Harbour's Agit-Pop!

Award-winning drag performer Pearle Harbour presents her cabaret spectacular Agit-Pop! – musical meditations for the pre-post-apocalypse. Pearle serenades audiences with little known gems by David Bowie, Judy Garland, Tom Waits, and more.

Literally Titanium

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. Every performance of this show includes access measures.

Every Silver Lining

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.

Winter of '88

An award-winning meta-theatrical and autobiographical piece based on the playwright’s traumatic experiences of the Iran-Iraq war. Recently translated from Farsi, this play creates a window into the not-so-distant past.

Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain

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 unapologetically puts queer and trans bodies at the centre of the storytelling.

Consumption Patterns

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.

49th Day

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.

U-R-U: A STAGED READING
INSPIRED BY KAREL ČAPEK’S "R.U.R."

First Daughter, Helen Spectacular, arrives at the world’s largest robot-producing start-up with a plan to free the robots and grant them human rights. She quickly becomes embroiled in a love triangle.

Tallboyz - Live!

A one-night only presentation in support of the Toronto Fringe. 

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.

Single Tickets

Book before December 6 at midnight to receive 15% off single tickets. Use promo code "early15."

$18 (All shows, except U-R-U and Tallboyz)

$15 (U-R-U Staged Reading)

Tallboyz - Live! is a presentation in support of the Toronto Fringe.

Tickets: $25, $45, $95.

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