English theatre shines in Montréal

Musicals, comedy and drama!

Montréal’s two big English-language theatres – the venerable Centaur Theatre Company in Old Montréal, and the Sylvan Adams Theatre at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in the west end – offer varied programming.

Segal Centre for Performing Arts

Canadian screen legend Saul Rubinek stars in Playing Shylock, a gripping new play that challenges art, identity, and accountability. When a production of The Merchant of Venice is cancelled mid-performance following public outcry, the actor playing Shylock refuses to exit quietly. Instead, he steps forward, breaking character to deliver a bold, impassioned monologue blending razor-sharp humour with urgent questions about culture, history and who gets to tell the story. Runs January 18 to February 8.

Looking ahead, the Segal Theatre season continues with Detroit: Music of the Motor City from Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre, a high-energy celebration of the music that defined a city, from Motown to Hip Hop. Runs April 12 to May 3.

Centaur Theatre

The Centaur season continues with their WinterWorks Festival which showcases bold, independent voices and cutting-edge theatre from Montréal and beyond. Runs February 3 to 21. Click here for TBA line-up.

Centaur’s Brave New Looks Series presents The Impossible Light by Jon Lachlan Stewart, presented in collaboration with Festival international des Casteliers. Directed by Eric Rose and Shoshanna Bass, this is a haunting and hilarious journey of a tech-savvy influencer fleeing impending fatherhood and who confronts his deepest fears and forgotten dreams. Runs March 5 to 9.

A Spontaneous Theatre creation by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak, Goblin: Macbeth is about three goblins – Kragva, Moog and Wug – who stumble across Shakespeare, take over a theatre and stage their own wild, hilarious and chaotic version of Macbeth. A one-of-a-kind blend of comedy, tragedy and improvisation. Runs March 4 to 22. 

Montréal, arts interculturels

Located in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, the innovative Montréal, arts interculturels cultural organization – better known as “The MAI” – presents an eclectic slate of multi-disciplinary productions (visual arts, dance and theatre) each season. 

The MAI’s current 27th season includes the contemporary dance-theatre production Xilopango (February 11 to 14); the humorous and heartfelt As I Must Live It by award-winning spoken-word artist Luke Reece (February 25 to 28); and street dance-theatre of Beat Matched by the cross-disciplinary artist group Catch Step (March 11 to 14). 

Other theatre

The Hudson Village Theatre presents their Annual Holiday Pantomime, Peter Pan by Tom Whalley, co-directed by Steve Walters and Jean-Frédéric Samson. Filled with singing, dancing, silly jokes, goodies, baddies, and loads of fun for the whole family. Runs December 12 to January 4 (matinee and evening performances).

Then Hudson Village Theatre presents God of Carnage, the Tony-winning dark comedy that strips away the veneer of civilization (February 4 to 15); and the musical comedy Head Over Heels –  from the visionaries that rocked Broadway with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Avenue Q and Spring Awakening – set to the music of iconic 1980s all-female rock band The Go-Go’s (March 5 to 15). 

Geordie Theatre’s Playground Festival for young people and their families presents live English theatre, pre-show activities, and community fun at La Maison Théâtre in the Quartier des Spectacles, from January 21 to 25. Three productions this year: Beyond Belief (January 24 and 25); 1984 2061 (January 23 and 24); and Celestial Bodies (January 21 to 24).

Geordie Theatre then presents an all-ages production of Snow White at the Centaur Theatre in April. Click here for TBA production dates.

An original Infinithéâtre world premiere, Whalefall will be mounted at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines from February 23 to March 7, as part of La Chapelle’s bilingual 36th interdisciplinary season.

Imago Theatre presents the Montréal premiere of playwright Pamela Mala Sinha’s award-winning CRASH, a tour de force narrative about family, faith and love set in Montreal a story of “The Girl” who undergoes haunting memories of a past assault as she navigates the loss of a loved one. Runs February 11 to 22 at The Segal Centre for Performing Arts.

Teesri Duniya Theatre presents Behind the Moon, a story of love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and what it means to search for a better life. From the award-winning playwright and novelist Anosh Irani, and directed by Chelsea Dab Hilke. Runs April 3 to 19.

Dawson College’s Professional Theatre Department presents the bold and experimental play Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. by Alice Birch that challenges traditional narratives around gender, language and power (January 26 to February 7); Concord Floral by playwright Jordan Tannahill (March 4 to 7); and the dark comedy and tense drama Friends by playwright Kobo Abe (March 11 to 14). All shows presented at Dawson’s gorgeous New Dome Theatre.

John Abbott College Theatre Department presents a musical adaptation of the classic Lewis Carroll tale Alice in Wonderland, at the Casgrain Theatre. Runs March 24 to 28.

Concordia University Department of Theatre presents Don’t Cry When Constellations Beg to Burn about a group of students tasked with selecting which books are to be taken out of their school library, based on the governing party’s new guidelines. This is not some imaginary dystopian scenario. Playwright Ho Ka Kei included in his playtext an image of two women burning books outside a county library in China in December 2019. Runs April 8 to 11 at the gorgeous state-of-the-art downtown Concordia Theatre (formerly called the D.B. Clarke Theatre), a 387-seat proscenium theatre worthy of Broadway.

Also, click here for info on all upcoming National Theatre School productions at the Monument-National, including The Neverending Story from February 24 to 28. 

From Broadway to Montréal

evenko and Broadway Across Canada present smash hit touring productions at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Their new 2026 Broadway season includes Montréal’s first-ever presentation of & Juliet (March 17 to 22), as well as Moulin Rouge! The Musical (June 9 to 14), and the triumphant return of Disney’s THE LION KING for a whopping 24 performances (August 19 to September 6).

French theatre

There are many French-language plays and theatres in Montréal.

One upcoming production of note is Exterior/Night by the Théâtre Indépendant queer collective, presented at Théâtre Prospero. The play focuses on the fates of three troubled characters at the end of a tragic evening: a drug-addled cam boy, a young girl who usurps a classmate’s identity online, and a young woman tormented by the violent acts she has committed. Runs March 17 to 28.