[Image description: Season banner with text reading "25-26 Season Great Canadian Theatre Company." Against an off-white background is a parallelogram comprised of 5 images, separated by 6 coloured lines. In the first photo, A man dressed as Abraham Lincoln holds a picture frame with his image repeated within the frame four times. In the next, a man an a woman are seated in the back of a U-Haul, looking surprised as their belongings fall out. Photo three is of two women sitting at a piano, on plays wile the other (we only see her hands) watches. In photo four, a person plays with dolls in a multi-level dollhouse. Photo five is a green tinted photo of a woman dancing, her head tilted and arms outstretched.]
Our 25-26 Season crackles with stories that are delightful, funny and mysterious; provocative, sweet and tender – from across the globe, across time, and down the street.
Read on for the full season details.
[Image description: A photo of a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln wearing a black top hat, tailcoat, vest, pants, and black bow-tie. He holds a picture frame to the right covering half of his face. Inside the frame is the same image of him holding a frame covering the right half of his face. This is repeated four times within the frame he holds. The man’s image gets gradually smaller as it is repeated. There is a light grey backdrop behind him.] Photo by Curtis Perry.
Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre
October 28 to November 9, 2025
written by Larry Tremblay
translated by Chantal Bilodeau
If America is a show, then John Wilkes Booth was its first star.
A well-known stage actor, Booth shot Abraham Lincoln during a performance on April 14, 1865. In that moment, he kidnapped reality and transformed it into theatre.
Generations later, Mark Killman – a feared but much-admired director – hires two actors to stage Lincoln's assassination. The actors play comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, while Killman plays Lincoln as a wax figure.
Absurd, hilarious and haunting, Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre is an unforgettable mystery.
A darkly funny puzzle box of a show about celebrity, theatre, reality, impossible love and the true face of America.
[Image description: A photo of a man and woman seated on a small purple couch in the back of a U-Haul cube truck. The back door is open and a cardboard box and rug are tumbling out. The truck is packed with cardboard moving boxes, plants, a record player and lamp.] Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Big Stuff
November 25 to December 7, 2025
written and created by Matt Baram & Naomi Snieckus
co-created and directed by Kat Sandler
starring Matt Baram & Naomi Snieckus
a Baram and Snieckus production
Married comedy duo Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus invite you to join them as they explore some Big Stuff. Using their unique style of humour, shaped by their time at The Second City and in comedy clubs around the world, Baram and Snieckus debate the sentimental power of objects.
She wants to keep everything. He wants to throw it all away! Is she a pack rat? Is he a monster? This hilarious and highly addictive couple wants you to decide.
“Baram and Snieckus are as much fun as you can have without taking your clothes off”. - Toronto Star.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll never look at your stuff the same way.
[Image description: A photo of two women sitting at an upright wooden piano. There are mismatched table lamps on each side of the piano and a brick wall behind them. One woman wears glasses and has light hair. She plays the piano while the woman beside her, with dark brown hair, watches.] Photo by Curtis Perry
The Piano Teacher
February 3 - 15, 2026
written by Dorothy Dittrich
directed by Evalyn Parry
a Thousand Islands Playhouse production
What would you do if you lost the life you knew?
Erin, a renowned classical pianist, experiences a devastating family tragedy. Because of this she finds herself unable to play music or even touch a piano. As she navigates the loss of the life she knew, she begins taking in-home piano lessons from Elaine. Elaine reacquaints Erin with the instrument, giving her new hope for the future. In Erin's own home, a reconstruction project brings new light and life to the space, and a new relationship.
The Piano Teacher is a beautiful story of loss, love, friendship and the healing power of music. Winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2022.
[Image Description: A photo of a person behind a doll house, in front of a light grey backdrop. The doll house has four levels. The person plays with the figures on the third level, where one doll stands next to a chair, another sits. The person holds a third doll beside the seated doll. They hold the house with their left hand as they gaze at the dolls.] Photo by Curtis Perry.
BL_NK
March 17 - 29, 2026
by Nassim Soleimanpour
For years, Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour was unable to leave his country. So he developed a stagecraft that allowed his plays to travel without him.
Each night a new performer will take on his play full of blanks, opening a script they’ve never seen before. Their performance transforms the script into a story machine to share the life of the playwright, the performer, and an audience member. Soleimanpour’s show invites us to experience how we shape our ideas about people through the stories we tell. Shout, laugh, gasp and collaborate with fellow audience members to write a story that is unique to the people assembled and will never be repeated.
A heart-warming tour de force. A community experiment in tenderness.
[Image Description: a green tinted photo of a woman with her eyes closed, her head tilted to the right with her arms extending behind her. Her arms and face are slightly blurred to indicate motion.] Photo by Pedro Augusto Meza.
Jade Circle 玉環
April 28 - May 10, 2026
written and performed by Jasmine Chen
directed by Derek Chan | translation by Johnny Wu
a rice & beans theatre production
in association with Neworld Theatre
a part of The Mother Tongue Project
Using Mandarin and English, Jade Circle follows Jasmine, a second-generation Canadian who has lost her mother tongue. Through intimate interviews with her mother and using music, movement, and storytelling, Jasmine finds her place within the legacy of her matriarchs. As she learns Mandarin, she unearths the lost stories of her grandmother’s past.
Jade Circle is a love letter to matrilineal relationships. It’s a profound longing for and acknowledgement of where we’ve come from. Jasmine invites memory, ancestry, and culture into the room in a ceremony of the things we’ve lost that we might still name and regain.
A solo show that is a feast for the senses.
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Photos for show 1, 3, and 4 by Curtis Perry. Photo for show 2 by Dahlia Katz. Photo for show 5 by Pedro Augusto Meza.