What to know<\/p>\n
Sweet Ephemera explores Queer intimacy, identity and belonging through two experimental performances rooted in diasporic experiences.<\/p>\n
Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar transforms a hotel lobby into an intimate cabaret packed with music, storytelling and sharp-witted satire.<\/p>\n
Two-Spirit Cabaret returns for its 10th year, celebrating Indigenous Queer and Two-Spirit artists through a one-night-only showcase.<\/p>\n
Queer Youth Cabaret spotlights the next generation of 2SLGBTQ+ performers debuting original works spanning drag, music, comedy and more.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for Pride plans beyond the usual parties and street festivals, Toronto\u2019s theatres have you covered. <\/p>\n
Toronto is a global hub for cultural production, with theatre shows, concerts and other events happening almost every day. This month, a range of Queer productions are taking over stages across the city, offering everything from intimate cabaret and drag performance to experimental works exploring diaspora, identity and self-discovery.<\/p>\n
Here are a handful of 2SLGBTQ+ productions to check out this June.<\/p>\n
Sweet Ephemera<\/p>\n
Where: The Theatre Centre<\/p>\n
When: June 18-20<\/p>\n
Sweet Ephemera<\/a> is a double-bill show coming to Theatre Passe Muraille. The show explores Queer intimacies through a diasporic lens in two shows: Eilish \ubbf8\uc815 Shin-Culhane\u2019s Peel Me and Jose Miguel \u201cMiggy\u201d Esteban\u2019s pahinga ka muna.<\/p>\n pahinga ka muna<\/p>\n Influenced through disability arts practices, pahinga ka muna invites audiences to return to rest as a \u201ccrip space of memory, dreaming, and worldmaking,\u201d welcoming them to participate in a ritual of mourning that traces the \u201cmad and Queer\u201d routes of Esteban\u2019s diasporic inspirations.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways, pahing ka muna challenges rest as something to be looked at, instead exploring it as a deeply reflective and embodied practice of navigating difficult stories of experiencing belonging and unbelonging,\u201d Esteban told Queer & Now<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n He explained that throughout the piece, he explores movement with objects connected to his Filipino roots and moments of practicing rest, including rosary beads, which connect them to their Catholic faith and Filipino-Catholic community.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI remember practices of praying the rosary with community and family offering such important places of rest for me as a child,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, as I return to the gestures of rolling the rosary\u2019s beads in between my fingers, I also navigate the experiences of struggle, of depression, and of anxiety that come from recognizing the ways in which my Queerness marked my unbelonging within heteropatriarchal manifestations of Filipino community.\u201d<\/p>\n Peel Me<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Shin-Culhane\u2019s Peel Me explores Queer intimacy through mess, consumption, and transformation. The artist explained that throughout the show, performers navigate a space filled with grapefruits and fortune cookies, offering an incredibly sensory experience. They shared that when beginning this work, they were fascinated by the concept of using food in performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFood is both universal and individual, holding the potential to indicate cultural nuances, enhance sensuality and easily embody catharsis through its destructibility,\u201d they told Queer & Now<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCitrus especially has the added layer that we must peel them open to get to the fruit inside. This imagery is what then inspired the thematic journey that Peel Me takes, diving layer by layer deeper into our own experiences, all in an effort to build care and access catharsis.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on the theme of \u201cpeeling back layers,\u201d Shin-Culhane says that the show addresses the idea of self-making, aka the lifelong process of shaping your own identity.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard someone say recently that Queerness is constantly arriving. This resonates with me so deeply,\u201d the artist explained. \u201cI see it as always sitting on the horizon, continually offering newness, excitement and deeper understanding. It is the ongoing journey of knowing and understanding yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar<\/p>\n Where: Luminato Festival, The Fairmont Royal York Hotel<\/p>\n When: June 3-28<\/p>\n Described as hilarious, heartfelt, and a little unhinged, Pearle Harbour Walks into a Bar<\/a> sees Canadian drag icon Pearle Harbour perform an intimate cabaret that combines music, wild storytelling, and razor-sharp satire into an electrifying show you won\u2019t want to miss.\u00a0<\/p>\n Set in a small hotel lobby bar seating just 25 audience members, the show explores the ways that bars bring us together in a show that is impossibly intimate, overly rowdy, and hysterical, complete with the queen\u2019s signature dark humour.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBars are the last place that strangers can still gather together. Every other third space\u2026 has been abandoned or demolished; this show is a celebration and indictment of that,\u201d Pearle shared in an interview.<\/p>\n The show sees the sweet and sharp queen turn the bar into a space of revelry and debauchery, confession and communion, with iconic drinking songs and new arrangements created by Tony Award-winner Greg Morrison.<\/p>\n 2-Spirit Cabaret<\/p>\n Where: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre<\/p>\n When: June 17\u00a0<\/p>\n Back for its 10th edition, the 2-Spirit Cabaret<\/a> is taking over Buddies in Bad Times Theatre this Pride Month for one night only.\u00a0<\/p>\n From Native Earth Performing Arts, a company that has championed Indigenous artistic expression since 1989, and Buddies in Bad Times, the show celebrates the strength, beauty, and talent of QQueer and 2-Spirit Indigenous people.<\/p>\n The show features Filipino, Two-Spirit actor, burlesque and drag performer Haley Robinson,<\/a> known for their heart and authenticity to every role and performance they take on, while the rest of the line-up has yet to be announced.<\/p>\n Tickets range from $10-$75, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the show kicking off at 7:30.\u00a0<\/p>\n Queer Youth Cabaret<\/p>\n Where: Soulpepper Theatre, Young Centre for the Performing Arts<\/p>\n When: June 20-21 @ 8 p.m.<\/p>\n