Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
The Rhubarb Festival

Established in 1979, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is Toronto’s leading destination for artistically rigorous alternative theatre and a world leader in developing queer voices and stories for the stage. Buddies offers a year-round program that includes a full season of queer theatre, new works festivals, artist residencies, and intergenerational training and education initiatives. In its 45-year history Buddies has welcomed over one million people into its home in the heart of Toronto’s queer village and has premiered over 1,000 new works for the stage, making it the largest and longest-running queer theatre company in the world.

The Rhubarb Festival is Canada’s longest-running new works festival; a hotbed of experimentation, where artists explore new possibilities in theatre, dance, music, and performance art.

In 2021, in the throes of a pandemic, Rhubarb proposed an alternative: the creation of a physical performative publication that attempts to capture the energy of Rhubarb and, perhaps, recreate the live performance experience itself.

Over 20 artists responded to the prompt to bring performances to the page, with some projects published in the festival publication itself, and other interventions performed on the book after printing. Contributions ranged from colouring pages to a fever-dream drag performance; from a meal to music inspired by the turning of a page; and from choreographic scores to unearthed histories, real or imagined.

Festival director Clayton Lee
Design by Monnet Design