A fringe festival is built for discovery. But there’s a particular pleasure in watching artists you’ve followed for a while bring new work to a festival, knowing enough about what they do to feel genuinely curious about where they’ve gone next. These seven shows represent that anticipation. We’ve reviewed, profiled, or interviewed the artists behind each of them. We’re not necessarily predicting anything. We’re paying close attention!
OOGA CHAKA Soulpepper’s Michael Young Theatre | Pucker’s & Parlous Theatre
The premise: Bungu and Kiki, two prehistoric cave painters, accidentally invent theatre, and discover that art, ego, and creative collaboration have been messy since the dawn of time. OOGA CHAKA is a wildly ridiculous and inventive comedy from Pucker’s (the company behind the acclaimed Concord Floral) and Parlous Theatre (creators of INSERT CLOWN HERE).
Why we’re intrigued: These are two companies that have earned our trust. Both know how to build authentic experiences and absurdist comedy from the inside out — nothing cheap, nothing easy, all of it landing. Watching them join forces for a show about the very origins of theatre feels like the kind of Fringe event we’ll be talking about afterward.
GREY SPACES Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace | Bowtie Productions
The premise: Rowan Grey is a Torontonian stuck in the daily grind who meets the girl of his dreams — and promptly dies. From a holding zone between life and death, he faces a choice: move on, or return to Earth and do it all differently. Grey Spaces is Bowtie Productions’ first original musical, a contemporary pop show about perfectionism, beauty in the ordinary, and the cost of chasing a life we think we’re supposed to want. Runner-up for the 2026 Adams Prize for Musical Theatre.
Why we’re intrigued: We sat down with Anthony Goncharov, the director Bowtie’s production of Next to Normal and came away impressed by their seriousness of purpose and their instinct for emotional precision. The company’s production of Tick, Tick…Boom! last year was terrific. That they’ve turned those instincts toward an original work — and one this conceptually ambitious — is genuinely exciting, and TPM Mainspace seems the right space for it.
YOU CHOOSE: AN IMPROVISED MURDER MYSTERY Tarragon Theatre Mainspace | The Howland Company
The premise: The audience secretly selects the murderer. The cast doesn’t know who it is. What follows is a fully improvised murder mystery in which Toronto’s finest comic performers must navigate clues, accusations, and shifting alliances — while unknowingly sharing the stage with a hidden killer. Co-created by Ruth Goodwin and Liz Johnston, with a cast that includes Conor Bradbury, Paloma Nuñez, Sharjil Rasool, Brandon Hackett, and Christian Smith.
Why we’re intrigued: Entrances and Exits announced The Howland Company as an inventive comedy ensemble in Toronto right now and a natural extension of their acclaimed dramatic presentations. You Choose sounds like the logical next step: a show that makes the audience complicit and the cast genuinely vulnerable. Every performance will be different. Every audience will make it something new.
LADIES’ DAY VideoCabaret | 1East Productions
The premise: Inspired by the real-life antics of co-creator Jesse McQueen’s grandmother, Ladies’ Day tells the story of a group of women mounting a quiet backyard resistance. Sharp, funny, and firmly grounded in solidarity, the play takes direct aim at the internet trend that romanticises the 1950s housewife — and asks whether the collective consciousness these women fought to build is still under siege.
Why we’re intrigued: We’ve followed Jesse McQueen’s work in the sketch comedy troupe It’s Cheapwine and her play Romeo Pimp, and watched her develop into a writer with a rare gift for finding the political inside the deeply personal. Written with her husband Jack Creaghan — whose comic instincts we know well from Childhood by Cheap Wine — Ladies’ Day sounds like the fullest expression yet of what this creative partnership can do. This show seems like it has got genuine things to say and the comedic chops to say them.
BOOK OF OOKA: THE IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION VideoCabaret | Maryem Tollar & Roula Said
The premise: Juno-nominated Divas of Disruption Maryem Tollar and Roula Said return after their triumphant 2025 Fringe run of Very Shady Arab Ladies. This time, 78-year-old Auntie Ooka miraculously becomes pregnant and speaks only in divine gibberish, catapulting the duo from a Toronto shawarma shop to the River Jordan. Fusing traditional Arabic melodies with slapstick comedy, the show centres on what Tollar and Said call “hag energy” — the visionary power of older women of colour, wielded with radical imagination.
Why we’re intrigued:: Very Shady Arab Ladies was one of our favourite shows of Fringe 2025 — politically pointed, endlessly funny, and shot through with genuine feeling. Tollar and Said have that rarest of things: true comedic chemistry, the kind that makes even the most absurdist premises feel grounded and alive. We cannot wait to see where Auntie Ooka takes them.
1 SANTOSH SANTOSH 2 GO: LIVE AT GRIND-CON! Sweet Action Theatre | chandrakari inc
The premise: Doctor turned clown, writer, and multidisciplinary artist Srutika Sabu returns to the Fringe with the follow-up to her acclaimed debut Santosh Santosh show. Blending clown, drag king performance, satire, physical comedy, and absurdist storytelling, 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go takes on LinkedIn influencers, Silicon Valley futurism, and the relentless pressure to optimise and reinvent ourselves — while unpacking how these forces intersect with South Asian identity, masculinity, and cultural expectations around ambition and achievement.
Why we’re intrigued: We reviewed Sabu’s first Santosh Santosh show at Fringe 2024 and profiled her afterward, and we’ve been watching for what she does next ever since. She is a singular performer — technically accomplished, intellectually sharp, and genuinely funny in a way that keeps surprising and moving you. The sequel sounds bigger and bolder. We’re recommending this one without hesitation.
EX-CHANGE OF WORDS Soulpepper Theatre’s RBC Finance Studio | Vita Bella Entertainment and Goldenberg Productions
The premise: Set in Toronto and rooted in contemporary queer experience, EX-Change of Words asks a deceptively simple question: can exes truly remain friends? Through sharp dialogue, emotional honesty, and moments of both humour and heartbreak, the play examines what remains when a relationship changes form. Written by Danny Sylvan — who also takes the stage as Derrick, with Ryan Kelly opposite him as Curtis.
Why we’re intrigued: Last year, we followed Vita Bella Entertainment’s Confidential Musical Theatre Project with real interest, and this show has all the hallmarks of what they do well: intimate stakes, precise writing, and a deceptively small canvas that turns out to contain a great deal. The RBC Finance Studio feels perfect for a two-hander this emotionally close-quartered, and this seems like a world premiere worth catching at the start.
The Toronto Fringe Festival runs June 30 – July 12, 2026. Tickets are available fringetoronto.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2026
