The 38th Annual Toronto Fringe Festival is currently underway. This year’s festival includes 123 shows in 27 venues across the city.

The Toronto Fringe is Ontario’s largest performance festival with an eclectic mix of topics and themes. As it’s become my custom, I am sharing Part 1 of My Picks of shows at this year’s Toronto Fringe.

Chosen by lottery, Toronto Fringe is the home for first-time performers, celebrated collectives, TikTok stars taking to the stage, and award-winning theatre pros presenting their new works.

Hye’s Picks Part 1

This year’s list includes shows that piqued my interest as well as shows whose teams reached out to invite me to their performances. I may not make it to all, however, I can help support the artists by suggesting their shows to you.

The Astros 
Metamorphosis Theatre Company & Sheep’s Clothing Theatre
Until July 12, 2026
Soulpepper Theatre’s Michael Young Theatre 

Tensions rise in Dressing Room Four of the Bay Arena, as the Ascension Astros prepare to face off against their rivals, the Carbonear Cardinals, in the final championship game of their high school careers. Following a group of young men with everything to lose. The show is a cautionary tale of small-town cycles of abuse, Canadian hockey culture, and the violence of masculinity.

SHOWSTOPPER
Aristotle Zhang
Until July 10, 2026
Soulpepper Theatre’s RBC Finance Studio

At The Aristotle Zhang Studios on Tigersgate Canada’s Vancouver film & television lot, self-obsessed Aster (Anjun Jia) has one month before their overall deal expires, but they haven’t yet gotten the greenlight to create their absurd and personal original show. Enraged by an exec calling their solo passion project thirty years in the making a ‘snoozefest’, Aster loses control and accidentally gets the world’s full attention before they’re ready to deal with all that.

DADS
Found Objects Theatre
Until July 10, 2026
VideoCabaret Theatre

This production makes space for the sometimes hilarious, and always impactful relationships we have with the men who made us. With each show different from the next, this playful piece wrestles with whether honour and honesty can truly go hand in hand.

BRAVA: A Cabaret of Devotions
My Fair Divas
July 2 – 12, 2026
Soulpepper Theatre’s Kevin & Roger Garland Cabaret

Performer, writer, and professional opera singer Yanik Gosselin blends personal storytelling with songs made famous by legendary divas. With wit, vulnerability, and commanding vocals, this Fringe debut explores the memory of formidable women, both famous and unsung, who inspired him to sing and dream.

You Choose: An Improvised Murder Mystery
The Howland Company
July 11, 2026
Tarragon Theatre

At the start of each performance, the audience secretly selects the murderer—and unlike a classic whodunit, they know exactly who the killer is. The cast, however, remains completely in the dark. As the investigation unfolds, a group of improvisers must navigate clues, accusations, and shifting alliances while unknowingly sharing the stage with a hidden traitor in their midst

Artificially Intelligent 2.0
Anesti Danelis
July 2 – 12, 2026
Alumnae Theatre Mainspace

Award-winning Greek/Canadian comedian and viral sensation Anesti Danelis returns to the Toronto Fringe with an update of his hit musical comedy special. Part experiment and part re-telling of the actual time he asked AI to write him a show, Anesti uses songs, jokes, and video to debate the merits of “AI creativity” and our reliance on algorithms constantly telling us who we should be.

Many Happy Returns (SOLD OUT)
BEARS! In The City! & IntrigueX
Until July 12, 2026
Society Clubhouse

This interactive show encourages audiences to work together while mingling with The People from the Past at a swinging New Year’s Eve party, December 31, 1926. The audience must learn the characters’ desires, help them achieve their goals, and manipulate the events of the party to retrieve the 10 artifacts.

God Save the Sodomites
Old Soles Theatre Collective
Until July 12, 2026
Native Earth’s Minogitoon Workspace Giizis Studio

The show was originally written for this year’s Toronto Fringe 24 Hour Playwriting Contest. The entire play was conceptualized and written in one weekend. When we decided to perform the show for this year’s festival, playwrights Aliyah Bourgeault and Emmet Logue expanded the script into a 50 minute show full of laughs and pure biblical insanity. 

My Own Private Shakespeare
Modern Classic Theatre
Until July 12, 2026
Soulpepper Theatre’s Kevin and Roger Garland Cabaret

From a single fateful phone call taken reluctantly from the toilet, a Shakespearean actor finds his world collapsing around him. As the story unfolds, the unforgiving realities of his shattered life intertwine with Shakespeare’s radiant, immortal text, while the man teeters dangerously close to the brink.

FIRST KISS 
Shark ‘n Bake Productions
July 3 – 11, 2026
Native Earth’s Aki Studio

A coming-of-age musical about a Filipinx teen in 1980s suburbia who desperately wants to get her first kiss before she turns 16. She imagines it will be like Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club or any of the popular rom coms of the day. But reality hits as she realizes no one looks like her in the movies, unless being the butt of the joke.

Book of Ooka: The Immaculate Misconception 
FAOC
July 5 – 12, 2026
VideoCabaret – Deanne Taylor Theatre

This 60-minute show mixes physical comedy, live musicianship, and traditional Arabic melodies. The story catapults best friends Maryem and Roula from a Toronto shawarma shop all the way to the River Jordan. The show centers “Hag Energy”; the visionary and spiritually alive power of older women of color.

Questing Through Life
Dodo Tree Productions
Until July 12, 2026
Soulpepper’s Weyni Mengesha Theatre

This show brings Dungeons & Dragons chaos, queer love and friendship, and a ten-foot dragon puppet to the stage. This original fantasy-drama follows a group of friends, each struggling with life in their own way, whose mysterious tabletop campaign starts controlling the real world, forcing them to confront what happens when fiction and reality are no longer separate.

1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go: Live at Grind-Con!
chandrakari inc
July 3 – 12, 2026
Sweet Action Theatre

Blending clown, drag king performance, satire, physical comedy and absurdist storytelling, this production follows self-proclaimed tech visionary and podcast bro Santosh Santosh, also known as TOSH, as he publicly unravels during a live appearance at his favourite LinkedIn influencer conference.

Lifeguard
Art Craven Productions
July 2 – 11, 2026
Native Earth’s Aki Studio

Kathryn Haggis, lifeguard, turned actor, turned lifeguard, turned actor once more. This seasoned storyteller offers a poignant reflection on the importance of water in her and our everyday lives.

Springtime
Odradek Theatre Collective
July 3 – 10, 2026
CineCycle

Are you afraid of the dark? Violent playground games, feverish dialogue, claustrophobic intimacy, and wicked desires? This is a nightmarish love story about two women running from the law and the man hiding them in a box under his pig farm.

What to do if a show is ‘sold out’?

If a show is sold out, there is a small possibility that there might be extra tickets available at the door right before the show starts. If you would like to line up for a show to rush it, arrive at the venue 1 hour before the performance starts and ask the Front of House staff to add your name to the rush list.

If there are any rush tickets available for the show, at 10 minutes to the start time the Front of House team will start processing tickets. Please be aware that patrons who hold a multi-ticket pass will be offered rush tickets first, then volunteers, or rush pass holders.

Other Festival Details

Plan ahead and make a day of it. I like to pick a venue for the day, when possible, and choose shows that way. You might find something that surprises you and becomes your new fave.

Also sign up for the Daily Discount shows, which are announced by 10am each day of the festival.

For Toronto Fringe Festival details, tickets and passes, please go to fringetoronto.com.