Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times, the world’s largest and longest-running queer theatre, has released its 2025/26 season lineup, and there are many performances you won’t want to miss!
“In curating the season, I was really in conversation with a lot of artists trying to think towards like, ‘How are these artists meeting our values of audacity, liberation and rigor,’” Buddies’ Artistic Director ted witzel told Now Toronto.
He explained that he also considered what it is that makes people love the theatre, which was founded in 1979.
“I think we’re one of the more daring theatres in the city and always have been, and we like to make the audiences that come here partners in adventure. So, we try to honour their appetite for excitement by offering up some work from artists who are experimenting and taking risks in really exciting ways.”
The director explained that the upcoming season of shows and performances really meets the current political moment.
This includes The Green Line, a play that follows a raw, deeply human story about survival through the most divisive landscapes. Written and directed by Makram Ayache, he told Now Toronto that it’s a story about repairing the psychic divisions that are set against us, against our will, and dissolving the borders where borders should never have existed.
“It’s a story of war, and a story of peace, and people should expect to laugh along the way,” Ayache explained, adding that audiences should expect a story as intimate as it is epic, and as messy as it is tender.
Running from September 19 – October 4, 2025, the production is led by queer Arab characters, who Ayache said rarely get to take centre stage.
“I’m looking forward to being in the room with a team of Arab actors. In all the iterations of this production, we’ve only ever culturally estimated it, bringing on performers from adjacent cultures,” he explained. “I think we’ll discover something sublime and honest within this production.”
On Oct. 6, enjoy a special edition of the xLq WISHING WELL party just in time for Nuit Blanche. In partnership with the City of Toronto, Nuit Blanche: Alphabet Soup will see pop art performance duo xLq return for another Nuit Blanche at Buddies. The presentation will take over Tallulah’s Cabaret for an eccentric, chaos-forward, playful dance party featuring techno and house DJs, live performers, and actual soup being served.
ArtAttack!, described as one of the city’s most loved and outrageous art auctions, will return to the theatre for a fundraiser like no other on November 6, 2025. The auction will feature works from over 60 artists, and attendees will be able to take in, and maybe take home, some of the best contemporary Canadian art.
From November 13 – 16, 2025, the Toronto Burlesque Festival will take over the theatre for a four-day affair that organizers say will get hot, sticky, and a little scary. Attendees can look forward to everything from fantasy creatures to fantastic femme features in a showcase of daring, enticingly edgy burlesque, blending dance, drag, cabaret, and circus arts. The headliners include Tre Da Marc, The Foxy Lexxi, Bettie Bombshell, and Judith Stein.
The Rhubarb! 47 festival is returning to Buddies from February 4 –14, 2026, bringing with it a collective of unruly creatives querying what it means to be both an artist and to experience art. Festival Director Ludmylla Reis describes Rhubarb! as Canada’s longest-running festival of experiments.
“Every February, we gather to party, meet people, and catch up with the transgressive and genre-bending art that folks are creating in Toronto, alongside national and international artists, all in one juicy buffet,” Reis told Now Toronto, adding that the showcase has been around for an impressive 47 years.
Reis says that people can expect multiple pieces each night of the festival, complemented by curated music and parties at Tallulah’s Cabaret.
“This year, we are seeking works that are smashing seemingly unfit things together, investigating hybridity and exploring the possibilities that emerge from this mix,” Reis explained.
Another highlight in the lineup includes Kainchee Lagaa + Jhooti: The Begging Brown Bitch Plays, which will take over the theatre as a double bill from April 1 – 18, 2026. Directed by Toronto superstar Bilal Baig, the two shows explore themes like lying, sex and rebirthing oneself.
Described as performance poetry, take rimbaud follows four poets who torture themselves in the process of creating work that matters at the end of the world. The play was written by Susanna Fournier and will be directed by ted witzel, running from May 6-23, 2026.
Meanwhile, Buddie’s in-house bar, Tallulah’s Cabaret, is open year-round with various parties set to take over the space throughout the 2025/26 season, and New Ho Queen, the 2024-25 inaugural party-in-residence, will return for this new season.
WHAT MAKES BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES SPECIAL?
In addition to being a hotbed for fun, flirty queer events and entertainment, Buddies also holds a special place in the hearts of many queer artists. witzel calls the theatre an amazing cultural asset for the city.
“We create contemporary work through a queer lens here, but really it’s a theatre for everyone in the city who is interested in a bit of an adventure,” witzel explained.
“So, this is the place that centers the queer lens and centers a queer experience as a pathway into art making, but, you don’t have to be queer to come here. If you’re just a little bit curious and feeling a little bit sexy, there is definitely something for you here.”
Ayache explained that part of what makes the space so special is the collision of radical values and collective liberation.
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“I looked to this theatre when I was beginning my journey as a theatre maker, and I aspired to be here one day,” Ayache explained, sharing that his play The Green Line was developed as part of the Rhubarb! festival in 2019.
“So, even as Buddies transforms it’s politics, it’s art making, it’s aesthetic – one thing remains the same through all the years of shifting artistic leadership – the company is committed to queer and trans theatre artists, like no other!” Ayache continued.
Reis shared that the people are what make Buddies special.
“Rhubarb! is a total gift, and the more I meet people whose careers at an early stage intersected with the festival, the more hopeful I am about occupying spaces in the world at large,” Reis shared.
“I once told ted that I felt very free once I spent my first week as an audience member at Buddies, and he said – this building does that to you, to which, after a year at Buddies, I fully agree,” they continued.
“Rhubarb! has the best audiences in the city for risky art, just ask around! Queer spaces can reveal you to yourself. Sometimes that’s painful, sometimes that’s magic, sometimes the magic is painful, but in the end, everything is a gift.”
Find the full 2025-26 season lineup and tickets to Buddies’ various events here.
