Toronto’s indie theatre company, Outliers Theatre Collective is proud to announce their second production, The Plague. A stage play based on the novel La Peste by Albert Camus (Le mythe de Sisyphe, L'Étranger) and adapted by British playwright and director Neil Bartlett (In Extremis, Or You Could Kiss Me, adaptations of Molière’s Don Juan, Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and Woolf’s Orlando). This Canadian premiere of Bartlett’s critically acclaimed play will run from November 17th to November 29th at the Small World Centre located in the Artscape Youngplace building at 180 Shaw Street.

The Plague is Albert Camus's story of living through a time of crisis and fighting back against despair. First published in 1947, the novel was an immediate best-seller, striking a powerful chord with readers who were struggling to understand the fascist “plague" that had just overwhelmed Europe. Seventy years later, author and director Neil Bartlett has adapted Camus’s novel for the stage for our own dangerous times. 

Using just five actors, his frank and gripping new stage version uses Camus's original words to put chaos under the microscope and to find hope in the power of our common humanity.

Co-Directors and Co-Producers Tom McHale (Outliers Theatre Collective, Newmarket National Ten Minute Play Festival, Eastern Front STAGES Festival, Toronto Fringe) and Alessandro Simari (Outliers Theatre Collective, Professor of Theatre at University of Ottawa) have brought together a talented ensemble cast, including Hume Baugh [as Mr. Cottard] (Dora Award Nominee, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, YPT, Praxis Theatre, Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Stage, Shakespeare in the Ruff), Gary Brennan [as Mr. Grand] (Stratford Festival, Regent Theatre, Murdoch Mysteries), Natalia Bushnik [as Tarrou] (Spindle Collective, Eldritch Theatre, Dora Award Nominee), Sean Jacklin [as Raymond Rambert] (Outliers Theatre Collective, El Kabong Theatre, The Lakeside Players, Bygone Theatre), and Asha Vijayasingham [as Dr Rieux] (Stratford Festival, Cahoots Theatre, Toronto Fringe, Next Stage, Imago Theatre, Summerworks, Nightwood Theatre, Starvox Entertainment). 

The production team also includes Stage Manager Jenna Hsu (The Globe Theatre, Theatre On The Ridge, Icarus Theatre) and Lighting Designer Elijah Bell (Dead Horse Theatre, Coal Mine Theatre).

Outliers Theatre Collective’s inaugural production of Life Sucks. by Aaron Posner was critically praised and produced in 2025. “With this layered and darkly funny debut, Outliers Theatre Collective positions itself as a company to watch that is committed to intelligent, emotionally honest theatre.” - Arpital Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine

“Outliers Theatre Collective is ably demonstrating that it’s here to play.” - Ryan Borochovitz, NEXT Magazine

“This is the inaugural production for Outliers Theatre Collective, and they’re certainly making their mark in the Toronto theatre scene.” - A View from the Box

“With all the bleakness and cynicism in the world right now, we look towards optimism; wherever and whenever we can find it. The characters at the heart of The Plague are faced with insurmountable pressure that forces us to ask ourselves how we would respond to an extraordinary crisis. As despair, madness, and suffering grow so does our hope, resistance and our humanity. It is a timeless story that speaks to today as much as when it was first presented almost eighty years ago. A wake up call for us to band together to fight against the evils of our world and search within for our own decency, our shared values and sense of community.” - Tom McHale (Founder, Co-Artistic Director, and The Plague Co-Director)

“Bartlett, with Camus’s voice, speaks to the reoccurring oppressive conditions of fascism. The play does not predict the future or recount past situations, but instead enunciates the reality of our ongoing condition: we are already enmeshed in a cruel politics that kills people, spirits, and culture, even as we are also already armed with the means to overcome it. What shall we do?” - Alessandro Simari (Founder, Co-Artistic Director, and The Plague Co-Director)

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The Plague

After La Peste by Albert Camus

Adapted for the Stage by Neil Bartlett

November 17th - 29th, 2026

Small World Centre, 180 Shaw Street , Toronto, ON

Performance Schedule:

November 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 at 7:30pm

November 22 and 29 at 2:00pm

Tickets available at www.outlierstheatrecollective.ca