The Toronto Fringe Festival is successfully underway. This is Ontario’s largest performance festival with 77 shows on stages around the city.
As the festival continues its long stretch, I am sharing part two of my curated personal picks for shows… including family / kid-friendly shows as well.
Hye’s TO Fringe Picks Part 2
The Ensemble
By Perchance Productions
July 3 -13, 2025
The Ensemble is a play adapted from José Sanchis Sinisterra’s work Los Figurantes, exploring free will, identity, and just how many people you can fit on a stage. There are no small parts–only cowards.
Me and You and the Highland Coo
Happy as a Clam Productions
July 3-13, 2025
While waiting for bad news from family back in Canada, Jackie and Charlie set off on an epic road trip through Scotland. The mission: to find the perfect Highland cow plushie. With carpool karaoke, trivia, and too many snacks, what could go wrong?
My Pet Lizard, Liz: The Shakespearean Existential Crisis that Led to His Ultimate Demise
By The Lost Scribe Collective
July 2 -12, 2025
The show is a silly, surreal, and surprisingly tender exploration of grief — how we process it, avoid it, and sometimes dance around it with puppets.
Oh! I Miss the War
By djp productions
July 2–13, 2025
This show is a love letter to queer elders, a challenge to intergenerational silence, and a sensual, soulful meditation on what it means to live and love across time.
Paper Chase
By Strangebird
July 2 -12, 2025
The show is based on the playwright Hugo van Essen’s own 1,978-day journey to obtain his Permanent Residency (minus the drug dealing). I think this is a story that many of us can relate to.
Pornstar(i)
By 7Studios & Events Inc.
July 4-13, 2025
This dramedy explores the tensions of living a double life as a porn star while navigating family expectations in a South Asian household. Blending humour and drama, the play dives into themes of identity, acceptance, and the complexities of breaking free from societal norms.
Plus One
By Tamar Broadbent
July 4–12, 2025
This hilariously honest and uncensored musical comedy about pregnancy, new motherhood, and all the absurd expectations placed on modern moms. From fertility tests and birth plans to the glorious return of wine.
The Singing Psychic Game Show
By Glint Of Light Ltd.
July 2-13, 2025
Audiences can expect a whirlwind of entertainment with a line-up of fabulous team games including psychic Jenga, psychic bingo, audience readings, freeze dance, for‘tunes’ and more. Each show is a unique experience fuelled by audience interaction and improvised, heart-warming hilarity.
Temple of Desire
Karma Dance
July 4-11, 2025
This new work features 18 dancers trained in the classical Indian form of Bharatanātyam. Dangerously, they reclaim a pre-colonial world where the divine and the sensual unite with splendour and power.
Terrible Fish
By Rational Tantrums
July 3-12, 2025
Going beyond cute quips about hot flashes or HRT, Murphy has bigger fish to fry. With her trademark curiosity and wit, she’s tackling topics like female rage, ambivalent motherhood, domestic ennui patriarchy, beauty standards, evolution, and, of course, the dreaded dating apps. As a separate mother who just turned 49, Murphy’s got a lot to mine for this feisty and unflinching look at midlife.
Zeitgeist
By Off The Nose Productions
July 2–13, 2025
This funny, poignant, and deeply relevant story about love, art, and late capitalism, unfolding over one night in Toronto. Think Before Sunrise live on stage — but with more talk about global warming.
KidsFest Picks
Goosefeather Kamishibai
July 3-6 & 9-12, 2025
In this show, the Vancouver based storyteller recounts her extraordinary global adventure, traveling by land and sea in 2015 through kamishibai, a popular street performance from Japan that blends voice, movement and imagery.
At the End of Kaliyuga
By Cold Open Productions
July 2-13, 2025
This multidisciplinary children’s show blends Bharatanatyam, Indian mythology, and clowning to explore what it means to be good in the age of darkness — all through a playful, movement-driven lens created especially for young audiences and their families.
Playground: A New Family Musical
By Catchy Tune Productions
July 2-13, 2025
The show follows Eliot as he navigates a move to a new city; a new school; and new friendships. Yearning for acceptance from his new classmates, Eliot invents a schoolyard game which he hopes will win them over. A rocky road lies ahead as obstacles, both physical and emotional, threaten to upend Eliot’s plan. Suitable for children 4-12, their parents and grandparents.
Full Toronto Fringe show listings, schedule and tickets are available at fringetoronto.com.
