For over four decades, Nightwood has offered a respite from the status quo – and it is our mission to live up to the demands of our brave and discerning audiences that come back year after year. It is our belief that we are affirmed and strengthened by seeing ourselves – and the futures we want to build – on stage. Despite this world that has shaped many of us to be demure, this season’s creators are demanding a place, and finding soft and bold ways to stake their claim, to matter and be heard.

Our 2023/24 season uplifts stories that are looking back to look forward. Join us for the vividly epic A Poem for Rabia which spans centuries, the lush choral protest in Universal Child Care and the hilarious yet moving contemporary-period mash up in Mad Madge.

Artists have the immense job of painting the futures they know we can inhabit, and the uncanny ability of willing those realities to materialize. We’re so proud of the prophetic artists of this season who have harnessed their joy, distemper, love and immense talent exploring what it means to be alive in this moment.

A POEM FOR RABIA

A Tarragon Theatre production in association with Nightwood Theatre and Undercurrent Creations

Written by Nikki Shaffeeullah

Co-Directed by Clare Preuss and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

October 17 – November 12, 2023

Tarragon Theatre – Extra Space (30 Bridgman Avenue)

An epic journey across time, oceans, and tectonic shifts in political history. A Poem for Rabia weaves the stories of three queer women from the same bloodline: Zahra, a disillusioned activist in 2053, navigating a Canada that has just abolished prisons; Betty, in 1953 British Guiana, caught between her new secretarial job at the Governor’s office and the growing national independence movement; and Rabia, an Indian domestic worker in 1853, abducted by colonial ‘recruiters’ and sent sailing from Calcutta to the Caribbean on an indentured labour ship.

UNIVERSAL CHILD CARE

Created by Quote Unquote Collective commissioned by BroadStage, Santa Monica, in association with Nightwood Theatre, Why Not Theatre and The National Art Centre’s National Creation Fund, presented by Canadian Stage.

February 13 – 25, 2024

Canadian Stage – Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street)

Witness the sheer power and force of the unaccompanied human voice in the newest work from Quote Unquote Collective. Part concert, part theatre play (and self-consciously neither of those things), the ensemble screams about the lack of affordable child care and growing inequalities while comparing different approaches to child care around the globe.

MAD MADGE

A Nightwood Theatre Production

Written by Rose Napoli

Directed by Andrea Donaldson

April 9 – 21, 2024

The Theatre Centre – Franco Boni Theatre (1115 Queen Street W)

If you draw a line from Kim Kardashian way, way back, you’ll land on Margaret Cavendish, fiction writer, philosopher, designer, scientist, the OG Jack-of-all-Trades and master of none. And though she doesn’t know how to spell, with the help of a bastard brother, an unruly Queen, and a weepy musketeer, Margaret learns that it is possible to have it all. Paying homage to Jane Austen and Tina Fey in the same breath, this laugh out loud contemporary / period mashup suggests that perhaps our hunger for unbridled attention is not so shallow, after all.

We're Bringing Back Season Passes!

After the last few unpredictable years, we are re-launching our Season Pass, the best deal to see all of our 2023-2024 shows!

In addition to tickets for A Poem for Rabia, Universal Child Care and Mad Madge, season passes also secure flexible and convenient booking, and major savings on our entire season. A VERY LIMITED number of passes are available. Head to our website for more information!

General Pass: $135.60 (includes HST)

Arts Worker, Senior, or Under 30 Pass: $84.75 (includes HST)