From a Mahabharata sweep to a Gen Z musical theatre boom, here's how the 2025 Dora Awards played out
Mahabharata, presented in Toronto for the first time this spring by Canadian Stage, walked away with five wins across acting, directing and design categories in the General Theatre division, including outstanding production.
It's a welcome sweep for a deserving piece of theatre. First presented by the Shaw Festival in 2023, the show is fresh off a short run of performances at Lincoln Center in New York.
Mahabharata and A Strange Loop win big at the 2025 Toronto Theatre Critics' Awards
While both halves of the two-part endeavour were nominated in several categories, this year's Dora jurors came together to celebrate the first half of the production, subtitled Karma, The Life We Inherit.
Other winners in the General Theatre division included the ensemble of Flex, co-produced by Crow's Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company, and the scenic designers for seven methods of killing kylie jenner, another collaboration between Obsidian and Crow's.
Wonderful Joe creator Ronnie Burkett and Flex lighting designer Raha Javanfar went home with Dora wins for costume design and lighting design, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Independent Theatre, Musical Theatre and Theatre for Young Audiences divisions saw a much more varied slates of winners.
Makram Ayache's The Tempest: A Witch in Algiers won the award for outstanding new play in the Independent Theatre division – Toronto audiences can look forward to experiencing more of Ayache's work when The Green Line plays at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre this fall.
Coal Mine Theatre's electric production of People, Places and Things won four awards across acting and directing categories, including outstanding production. Last Landscape, a physical work about the relationship between humans and the environment, was singled out for its sound design and for its scenography, which included whimsical puppets and surprisingly large sets constructed entirely from recycled materials.
Snubs and surprises from the Dora Award nominations
CORPUS's production of Mukashi, Mukashi rounded out the division's design categories with wins for outstanding costume and lighting design.
Over in the Musical Theatre division, an emerging company of Gen Z artists beat out far more established companies in a number of competitive categories. Shifting Ground Collective left the 2025 Dora Awards with three awards – including outstanding production and the coveted Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Award – for its production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Unsurprisingly, A Strange Loop, co-produced by the Musical Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre, Crow's Theatre and TO Live, won the Dora for outstanding performance by an ensemble, as well as an individual award for Malachi McCaskill in the leading role of Usher.
Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White won the Dora for outstanding new musical or opera. (The category is split between the Musical Theatre and Opera divisions.) The show also received a nod for its ensemble in the Opera division.
Rounding out the Musical Theatre division was Canadian Stage's holiday pantomime, The Wizard of Oz: The Toto-ly Awesome Family Musical, which was singled out for Ming Wong's costume designs.
While Soulpepper Theatre's production of Alligator Pie dominated the Theatre for Young Audiences division at this year's Doras with four wins, two other shows walked away with trophies: Evan Bawtinheimer's Patty Picker won the Dora for outstanding new play, while Alexandra Laferrière won for outstanding performance by an individual in Roseneath Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop's production of Taking Care of Maman.
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