Stage/Theatre

Crow’s Theatre has announced its 2024-25 season, including several new works by Canadian playwrights.

“Our 40th anniversary has left us feeling hugely optimistic about the future of theatre in Toronto,” writes artistic director Chris Abraham in a press release. “Next season is an expression of that optimism, with a slate rich in new work … and partnerships that will bring hit shows to larger audiences across the city and beyond.”

The first world premiere, Zorana Sadiq’s Comfort Food, about a cooking show host whose “young-mom persona is about to expire,” is set to play the Crow’s studio in a production directed by Mitchell Cushman.

Perhaps inspired by the success of The Master Plan, associate artistic director Paolo Santalucia will direct Michael Ross Albert’s new comedy The Bidding War, about a battle for Toronto’s last affordable house. The mainstage production (in the Guloien Theatre) features a mammoth cast including Aurora Browne, Sergio Di Zio, Izad Etemadi, Peter Fernandes, Veronica Hortiguela, George Krissa, Amy Matysio, Fiona Reid, Gregory Prest and Steven Sutcliffe.

Back in the studio, Second City alumni Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus’s improvisatory comedy Big Stuff, directed by Kat Sandler, slyly promises to unpack its titular concern.

In the Guloien, Abraham will direct Liz Appel’s new play Wights, exploring the race-related tensions sweeping North American college campuses.

And Studio 180 Theatre will present a personal new solo show from Jonathan Wilson, directed by Mark McGrinder in the studio.

Joining the five world premieres are four newly announced Toronto premieres.

First up is Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, adapted by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Abraham in the Guloien. The cast of this under-produced classic includes Virgilia Griffith, Jonathon Young, Ben Carlson and Diego Matamoros.

After premiering in Stratford this summer, Here For Now Theatre’s Kelli Fox-directed production of Dinner with the Duchess, from Casey and Diana playwright Nick Green, will play the studio.

Previously seen in the U.K., Anusree Roy’s long-awaited Trident Moon will appear in the Guloien, a co-production with the National Arts Centre directed by Nina Lee Aquino.

And Flex, Candrice Jones’s American play about a female high-school basketball team in rural Arkansas, will play the Guloien in an Obsidian Theatre Company co-production directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu.

These nine shows join the previously announced A Strange Loop, playing at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in a co-production with Soulpepper Theatre and the Musical Stage Company. One of 10 musicals to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the uber-meta show by Michael R. Jackson follows Usher, “a Black gay man who’s writing a musical about a Black gay man … who’s also writing a musical about a Black gay man.”

More information about the 2024-25 Crow’s Theatre season is available on the company’s website.