TIFT Announces 2025/2026 Season!

TALK IS FREE THEATRE ANNOUNCES 25/26 SEASON:

BARRIE, TORONTO AND A WORLD OF LEGACIES

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June 17, 2025

Michael Torontow

Productions include three world premieres, Sondheim musical Company, Toronto remount of Blackbird, and a global tour of three TIFT perennial favourites

June 17, 2025—Today, Talk Is Free Theatre Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak revealed the Barrie-based company’s 23rd and possibly most ambitious season–with full line-ups in Barrie, in Toronto, and activities on all seven continents of the world–examining all the ways we treat legacy. Whether it’s about children carrying on the traditions of their parents, disparate people finding a common thread, or the fear of not having a legacy at all, the season–which includes three world premieres, two of which are by Barrie artists–promises to leave audiences in Barrie, Toronto and literally all around the globe pondering where they’ve been, where they’re going, and the legacies they will leave behind. View the full season at tift.ca.

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BARRIE SEASON

An appetizer to the main season will be a series of Actor Cafés in the fall during which some of TIFT’s most prominent company members offer a theatrical rendez-vous with their work, as well as themselves as artists. The cafés will take place October 16-18 starring Tess Benger, October 30-November 1 starring Nolan Moberly, and November 6-8 starring Jakob Ehman.

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Marking the official opening of the season is a play by Steve Ross, who also directs. In Twelve Dinners (November 20-22, 2025), Noah Beemer stars as Steve who serves as our guide and confidant as he shares with us the story of a year’s worth of monthly trips to the family home for what inevitably become uncomfortable interactions with his mother, played by Jane Spidell. Kevin Bundy rounds out the cast.

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Mike Nadajewski and Taylor Garwood will star in the first of three world premieres, All The Cows Are Dead (January 22-31, 2026). An exciting contemporary musical with book, lyrics and music by Ben Page and directed by Will Dao, All Cows Are Dead follows an artisan butcher who instructs his petulant and misanthropic nephew how to be more like him, leading both to discover how both the butcher and the poet are, in fact, the same.

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In a double bill event entitled One Block Shop (March 5-7, 2026), two plays take place across the street from one another, one in a dry cleaner and the other in a café. First, TIFT will remount White Taffeta Silk by Nathaniel Hanula-James and directed by Sadie Berlin, which appeared last fall as part of the I Do! I Don’t! I Dare! Festival. When two teens dig up a soiled wedding dress from a bygone age, they find themselves trapped in a spin cycle of fear and yearning. White Taffeta Silk will be paired with this season’s second world premiere, Negro, Drowning, written and performed by Shaquille Pottinger, whose theatrical roots are planted in Barrie. Pottinger portrays Rashyd, a worker going about a regular day at a café who shares a secret with his shop patrons.

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The final world premiere of the season is also by a Barrie local. Something Old (June 18-27, 2026), by Keara Voo and directed by Richard Lam, is about Lily and Cameron, who are excitedly preparing for their upcoming nuptials. While Lily’s mother, Stephanie, dreams of her daughter’s big, white wedding, Lily has other plans, opting for a traditional Chinese ceremony instead.

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As with their 24/25 season, TIFT will stage each of their plays in the Barrie season site-specifically.

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TORONTO SEASON

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After a successful run this past season in Barrie, Cyrus Lane and Kirstyn Russelle will return in Blackbird, by David Harrower, when it flies south for a site-specific Toronto engagement, October 1-19, 2025. After years in prison, Ray, fifty-five, has made a new life for himself, thinking that he cannot be found. Upon seeing his photo in a magazine, Una, twenty-seven, arrives unannounced at his office. Guilt, rage, and raw emotions run high as they recollect the passionate relationship they had fifteen years ago, when she was twelve and he was forty. Dean Deffett returns to direct.

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Talk is Free Theatre has a strong reputation for producing Sondheim musicals, having earned twenty Dora Award nominations for its productions of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Into the Woods in 2021, with Sweeney… taking home five awards, including Outstanding Production. Providing a fitting start to a new year, TIFT will bring yet another Sondheim musical to Toronto with Company (The Theatre Centre, January 15-February 1, 2026), starring Aidan deSalaiz. Company–with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by George Furth–centers around Bobby, a bachelor on his 35th birthday, as he observes his married friends and their relationships, questioning his own bachelorhood. Company will be directed by Dylan Trowbridge–who is the recipient of a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award for his direction of TIFT’s production of Cock–with music direction by Stephan Ermel, choreography by Rohan Dhupar, costume design by Des’ree Gray, and lighting design by Jeff Pybus. TIFT regulars Noah Beemer, Gabi Epstein, Richard Lam, Tracy Michailidis, Jamie McRoberts, Steve Ross and others round out the ensemble.

After their runs in Barrie, Twelve Dinners will play in Toronto November 27-December 6, 2025, and One Block Shop will take place March 12-21, 2026.

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TOURING

From Estonia to Antarctica, TIFT will embark on one of their most ambitious touring goals yet: seven continents in one season. ALL seven.

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The productions going on the road may be familiar to audiences in Barrie, in Toronto and around the world:

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Tales of an Urban Indian, by Darrell Dennis, starring Nolan Moberly and directed by Herbie Barnes, is about an Indigenous man dealing with having grown up both on the reserve and in the big city, and all of the people who have influenced his life–all played by one actor and staged on a moving bus.

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For Both Resting and Breeding, written by Adam Meisner, is the story of a group of historians in a dystopian future who look back at society at the turn of the 21st century and risk corrupting their current beliefs and values with those they discover of the past. Directed by Maja Ardal, the play is staged in a residential home.

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Cock, by Mike Bartlett, is about a gay man who has been in a relationship with his boyfriend for seven years, but when he meets and falls in love with a woman, he must decide what is best for him. Dylan Trowbridge directs this play, staged site-specifically in found spaces around the world.

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The whole-world tour begins with Tales… heading to the Solomon Islands in February followed by Thailand in March. The baton will then be passed to Cock which arrives in South Africa first, followed by Brazil, England and Finland. Tales and For Both Resting and Breeding will join Cock in Estonia, where they will play a special engagement in the town of Püssi. Tales and Breeding will then travel to the country's capital, Tallinn.

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For the touring stops in Finland and Estonia, the company will establish the TIFT Travel Club, designed to invite audiences and supporters to join the TIFT’s international projects. Tickets will be available beginning August 1.

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As for Antarctica, TIFT is planning a cross-sectoral residency with those stationed at the South Pole, exploring ways a union of art and science can develop and even flourish.

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The company’s touring is part of its mission to bring theatre that wouldn’t normally tour (e.g., immersive, site specific, etc.) to regions where audiences wouldn’t typically experience those forms of theatre and to other destinations where a professional theatre ecology is highly limited or difficult to access.

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TICKET PASSES

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TIFT is again offering ticket passes for admissions to their 25/26 Season.

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The 4-ticket pass, available now, has an Early Bird price of $124 (until August 1–regular price $142), a savings of about 38%, not including HST.

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Artist and student passes have an Early Bird price of $67 (until August 1–regular price of $77), not including HST. ID required on entry.

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“With seven productions in two neighbouring cities, we wanted to offer audiences a flexible way of attending as many of TIFT’s offerings as possible at the best possible value,” says Spivak, emphasizing that the passes are valid for any combination of Barrie and Toronto performances. Passholders may also exchange their tickets for other productions at no charge, provided there are tickets available.

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With single-ticket sales not beginning until August 1, pass-holders will have exclusive early-booking privileges, improving their ability to secure a seat for productions with limited capacity.

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Talk Is Free Theatre acknowledges with gratitude the operating funding from Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council and City of Barrie.

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