Mahabharata and A Strange Loop lead the way in the 2025 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards
Toronto, ON – The Canadian premiere of the groundbreaking musical A Strange Loop and a bold new retelling of Mahabharata are the big winners in the 2025 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards (TTCA), each scooping up three prizes.
The Soulpepper Theatre, Musical Stage Company, Crow’s Theatre, and TO Live production of Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop won awards for best production of a musical, best lead performance in a musical (Malachi McCaskill), and best ensemble in a musical. Why Not Theatre’s production of Mahabharata, presented in 2025 at Canadian Stage, was named best production of a play, best new Canadian work (shared with Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Luján’s Monks), and best sound design and music (John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran).
The Coal Mine Theatre was the most honoured theatre organization this year, with four awards for its productions and artists. Infinite Life by Annie Baker was named best international work (shared with What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, co-produced by Soulpepper and Nightwood Theatre in association with Necessary Angel and Talk is Free Theatre), and Nancy Palk won the best supporting performance in a play award for Infinite Life (shared with Dan Mousseau in Buddies and Bad Times/Native Earth Performing Arts’ There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow). Noah Reid won the best leading performance in a play award for his work in in A Case for the Existence of God (shared with Ins Choi in Soulpepper’s production of Kim’s Convenience); and Bonnie Beecher and Jeff Pybus won the best lighting design award for People, Places and Things (shared with Chris Malkowski for HOUSE + BODY’s Measure for Measure).
Beating out directors of much larger and more lavishly resourced work, Ilana Khanin took home the best director of a musical prize for I Was Unbecoming Then, an intimate chamber musical about 12 girls in a Vancouver school choir by Lyndsey Bourne and Sam Kaseta, produced by Olivia Daniels in the Toronto Fringe’s Next Stage Festival.
It was a particularly rich year for new Canadian work, and the two winners in that category reflect the breadth and variety of the field. While Mahabharata is a two-part epic spectacle retelling a 4,000-year-old Sanskrit sacred text, Monks is a knowingly silly clown show in which Hortigüela and Luján play friars who pass the time counting lentils and interacting with the audience.
In addition to Mousseau’s award, Caleigh Crow’s …The Born-Again Crow takes home a special citation for the Buddies in Bad Times and Native Earth Performing Arts’ co-production of the play, which fulfilled the mandate of both theatres in innovative and outstanding ways.
“If you’ve submitted a cover letter in the past year, this show probably hit close to home. The Born-Again Crow was a spectacle in a slow cooker that uniquely captured the disenchantment of a younger working class,” writes jury member Stephanie Fung.
“Jessica Carmichael’s direction was both inventive and indulgent, fleshing out the emotional reality before exploding it across the stage. And the electric cast (Tara Sky, Cheri Maracle, Dan Mousseau, Madison Walsh) embodied that dynamism with ease. Caleigh Crow’s script was as sharp as it was playful, with no shortage of rich offerings for the incredible design team (Shannon Lea Doyle, Asa Benally, Hailey Verbonac, Chris-Ross Ewart) to run with. The Born-Again Crow was not just a standout co-production between Buddies and Native Earth, but a perfect fusion of their respective styles and ethos.”
Voters also awarded outgoing Soulpepper Theatre artistic director Weyni Mengesha (Soulpepper’s A Streetcar Named Desire) a special citation for her outstanding tenure as artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre.
“As Weyni Mengesha’s tenure at Soulpepper Theatre Company comes to an end, the jury wishes to recognize her myriad contributions to theatre in Toronto since her appointment in 2018. Mengesha shored up Soulpepper during a period of intense change — and a global pandemic not long after that — and today leaves behind a company in stellar artistic shape,” writes jury member Aisling Murphy.
“In recent years, Soulpepper has proven time and again that the institution can weather big changes, take thrilling artistic risks, and foster a nurturing environment for artists and audiences alike. That resilience, thanks in no small part to Mengesha — she will be missed.”
In a strong year for innovative and interactive clown work, Spontaneous Theatre’s semi-improvised Goblin: Macbeth won the award for best ensemble in a play, whose artists credit themselves solely as Kragva, Moog, and Wug.
The 2025 TTCAs are expanded from previous years in terms of both the number of awards and of voters. In a hotly contested field, Haley McGee won the new best solo performance award for her play Age is a Feeling, and there are now design awards for individual categories, as opposed to a single design award as in previous years.
Founded in 2011, the TTCAs are given out by a jury of professional theatre critics, this year made up of Ryan Borochovitz, Joshua Chong, Paula Citron, Liam Donovan, Karen Fricker, Stephanie Fung, Arpita Ghosal, James Karas, Ilana Lucas, Aisling Murphy, Steven Ross, Drew Rowsome, Scott Sneddon, and Glenn Sumi – the largest number of voters in the awards’ history.
Winners will be awarded a certificate and a tribute to their work written and signed by a TTCA voter.
Here is the full list of winners:
Best New Canadian Work: Mahabharata by Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain, produced by Why Not Theatre; and Monks, written and produced by Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Luján.
Best International Work: Infinite Life by Annie Baker, produced by Coal Mine Theatre; and What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, co-produced by Soulpepper and Nightwood Theatre, in association with Necessary Angel and Talk is Free Theatre.
Best Production of a Play: Mahabharata by Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain, directed by Jain with associate director Fernandes, produced by Why Not Theatre.
Best Production of a Musical: A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson, directed by Ray Hogg, co-produced by Soulpepper Theatre, Musical Stage Company, Crow’s Theatre, and TO Live.
Best Lead Performance in a Play: Noah Reid, A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter, produced by Coal Mine Theatre; and Ins Choi, Kim’s Convenience by Choi, produced by Soulpepper Theatre.
Best Lead Performance in a Musical: Malachi McCaskill, A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson, co-produced by Soulpepper Theatre, Musical Stage Company, Crow’s Theatre, and TO Live.
Best Supporting Performance in a Play: Nancy Palk, Infinite Life by Annie Baker, produced by Coal Mine Theatre; and Dan Mousseau, There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death, or, The Born-Again Crow by Caleigh Crow, co-produced by Buddies and Bad Times and Native Earth Performing Arts.
Best Supporting Performance in a Musical: Julia Pulo, Life After by Britta Johnson, produced by Yonge Street Theatricals and presented in the off-Mirvish season.
Best Ensemble Performance in a Play: Kragva, Moog, and Wug in Goblin: Macbeth by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak.
Best Ensemble Performance in a Musical: Charlie Clark, Sierra Holder, Nathanael Judah, David Lopez, Marcus Nance, Matt Nethersole, David Andrew Reid, and Amaka Umeh in A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson, co-produced by Soulpepper Theatre, Musical Stage Company, Crow’s Theatre, and TO Live.
Best Solo Performance in a Play or Musical: Haley McGee in Age is a Feeling by McGee, co-produced by the Soho Theatre and Haley McGee Productions in association with Luminato Festival Toronto, presented by Soulpepper Theatre.
Best Director of a Play: Dylan Trowbridge, Cock by Mike Bartlett, produced by Talk is Free Theatre.
Best Director of a Musical: Ilana Khanin, I Was Unbecoming Then by Lyndsey Bourne and Sam Kaseta, produced by Olivia Daniels in the Toronto Fringe’s Next Stage Festival.
Best Scenic Design of a Play or Musical: Ken Mackenzie, Last Landscape by Adam Paolozza, produced by Bad New Days in association with Common Boots Theatre, presented at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Best Lighting Design for a Play or Musical: Bonnie Beecher and Jeff Pybus, People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan, produced by Coal Mine Theatre; and Chris Malkowski, Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare, adapted by Christopher Manousos, produced by HOUSE + BODY in association with Crow’s Theatre.
Best Costume Design of a Play or Musical: Pythia, Oraculum by Denim and Pythia, co-produced by Buddies in Bad Times and Denim + Pythia.
Best Sound Design and Music of a Play or Musical: John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran, Mahabharata by Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain, produced by Why Not Theatre, presented at Canadian Stage.
Special citations:
There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death, or, The Born-Again Crow by Caleigh Crow, co-produced by Buddies and Bad Times and Native Earth Performing Arts.
Weyni Mengesha, artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre Company.
