Halifax • 2025-08-19
Halifax's Fringe Festival runs August 27 - September 7.
Fringe is an open-access performing arts festival that features a wide variety of shows with a focus on artistic freedom; the Halifax festival has been offering accessible, unjuried, and uncensored plays, drama, performance art, for the past 35 years. This years there's a mix of theatre, music, circus, dance, comedy, and more from local, national, and international artists.
Asking what parts of the Fringe are queer is a little like asking which parts of the Atlantic Ocean are wet, but we asked anyway. Here are the notes from the performers themselves. For each one, the dates link takes you to the big Fringe calendar; from there pick a day and get your tix, get your fix.
Assigned Funny at Birth
A fast-paced queer comedy experience blending stand-up and improv to explore the chaos and contradictions of gender, queerness, transness, and disability. Join a cast of queer and disabled performers as they riff on identity, society, and gestures broadly. No binaries, no apologies — just messy truth-telling and unfiltered queer joy.
60 min run time. Sexual themes. Queer All Week creates comedy beyond the binary in Halifax.
Did you just kill this man?
Aside from being created and performed by queer people, the show, which is set in the 1850s, features two queer relationships happening in the background while the murder mystery happens in the foreground. It’s not subtle, and plays a pivotal role in the narrative. We have a lot of fun with it too.
The Expiration Date
A one-man 'dramedy' about a gay man facing life in his 60s--and navigating everything from a bout with skin cancer to a gummy experience gone very wrong. The autobiographical show has been performed at Fringe Festivals in Calgary and Cleveland, Ohio, along with at many libraries and other community venues. "I'm excited to bring my show to Halifax and to explore Nova Scotia!" writes Judah.
Playing: Aug 29 to 31, Sep 1, 4, 6, 7
The Prick
Once referred to as part of the “queer Barbenheimer of Island Fringe 2023,” THE PRICK is for the hot messes, the plant gays, the girly-pops, the yearners, and the lol-vulnerability?-never-heard-of-her babes.
Starring Emily Meadows, a queer actor and an icon (you may not know her yet, but I promise she’s an icon), and written/directed by Brynn Cutcliffe (a non-binary queer if they must use a label - but really, they’re just a little guy), It’s a love story -- you’ve been warned.
Playing: Aug 28 to 31, Sep 2 3 6 7
Red Corner: A Theatrical Adaptation
Red Corner is a theatrical adaptation of the poetry book by Dawn Web. Through spoken word, musical compositions, visual art, and dance movement, Red Corner underpins the interconnectedness of key themes: identity, sexuality, neurodiversity, queer and political issues, sexism, racism, illness, suicide, perseverance, and navigating intergenerational trauma. The goal is not for audience members to merely relate to or understand the themes but, through sensory manipulation, to have a visceral and transformative experience of what it means to live varying perspectives.
Content/Sensory Warning: hospitalization, childhood trauma, domestic violence, self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, sexuality, police brutality, and mature language, flashing lights, darkness, sudden and loud noises, smoke/haze, visual screen effects.
Multi - Vs
We are Affair of Honor, a queer led, fight and movement based theatre company from Vancouver BC, and we are very excited to be attending the Halifax and Fundy Fringe festivals for the very first time with our newest original show: Multi - Vs.
Our company exclusively produces action for stage shows, that centre queer, underrepresented and badass women characters at the forefront. As women who fight, create and direct action, we are also striving to shatter the binary of what is expected when you think of fight directors. We are so excited to share Multi - Vs with audiences in the maritimes. Hard hitting brawls, clashing steel and a whirlwind journey through different worlds, Multi - Vs is a funny yet heart wrenching ride that explores our relationship with technology and each other.
Playing: Aug 28 to 31; Sep 2 to 7
TILT
In TILT, Chris and Lee’s rocky domestic life takes a sudden turn when a shocking secret comes to light. What secret? You decide! Each performance is different as a prompt from the audience sends the scripted performance – and performers themselves — into an improvised tailspin! What follows is a totally improvised continuation of the story, complete with movement, lights, sound and projections that are created on the spot. TILT is a queer romantic comedy featuring an all queer cast and creative team!
One Thousand Suns
One Thousand Suns is a sapphic love story through time. Nikki Valentine plays Millie Clifton, a modern day New York City mechanic who is building a time machine with her brother Peter, up until he passes away. While exploring through time she ends up in the year 1565 where she meets the elegant Lady Cordelia Appleyard, played by Katherine Currie. The story weaves in and out with the help of the faithful Storyteller, played by Geneviève Richer. It's a wildly funny story about grief, societal responsibility, and of course, time travelling lesbians!"
Written by Gabrielle Therrien, directed by Emma James, stage managed by Jessica Oliver, and intimacy directed by Ella MacDonald produced by Capacity Theatre Company.
Little Miss Perfect: The Musical
Little Miss Perfect: The Musical explores the coming out of 16 year old Juliet Kamil and 17 year old Taylor Laney. Juliet is the perfect teenager, top of her classes, head of the student council, and community volunteer, however, she can't help but feel like her perfect image is tarnished by her feelings towards her best friend Taylor. Taylor is the popular girl in school but has to juggle being a social butterfly while working part time to help her mother with finances and struggling with her feelings toward her best friend Juliet. The two schoolgirls have to learn to understand their feelings towards each other as well as telling their mothers about their sexuality.
A BIPOC Agenda: A Drag & Burlesque Showcase
Our showcase features a cast of highly melanated talent. This electrifying production celebrates the beauty, resilience, representation, and artistry of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) performers. Expect daring drag, seductive burlesque, and soul-stirring storytelling that reclaims space and honours identity. This isn’t just a show—it’s a statement, a celebration, and probably the best agenda you’ll ever want to follow.
Our organizational team understands that identities are not linear and representation goes in all directions beyond being POCs- 90% of our cast identifies as queer; 50% are trans; over 60% are neurodivergent; and there are so many other identities that make up our cast.
Clue: A Murder-Lesque Mystery
Clue: A Murder-Lesque Mystery is a one of a kind Burlesque Experience! Blending classic burlesque acts with improv and mystery, the award-winning CLUE invites the audience to play the game of WHODUNIT with our cast of colourful suspects, as they plead their innocence one by one.
Content/Sensory Warning: Violence, murder themes, nudity, weapons
The Fringe Festival main site, calendar + tickets is here, and there's a table format schedule with the piece names, dates and venues, here.
