WinterWorks – experimental, innovative, bold

Centaur Theatre presents

WinterWorks

The Centaur Theatre’s festival dedicated to adventurous, experimental, and cutting-edge performance, returns February 4–22, 2026. Formerly known as the Wildside Festival, WinterWorks has evolved into a dynamic showcase of what’s next in Canadian performance—bringing together fully realized productions by established artists alongside Pay-What-You-Can readings by exciting emerging voices.

With accessible ticket prices, festival passes, and a program that spans dance-theatre, live electronic music, immersive technology, and daring new writing, WinterWorks is a must-see event for audiences eager to experience the future of theatre.

“I think of WinterWorks as a perfect tasting menu of theatrical delicacies, offering Montrealers the very best of ambitious and boundary-pushing performance. From lovers of dance-theatre and live techno music to emerging playwrighting voices and even VR headsets, WinterWorks is sure to excite, amaze, and inspire.” — Rebecca Gibian, WinterWorks Curator

Following last year’s record-breaking attendance, WinterWorks 2026 proudly presents four new works, including two full productions and two Pay-What-You-Can staged readings, which can be enjoyed independently or combined into a festival-style double feature, with readings scheduled immediately before or after mainstage performances.

Frequencies

February 4 – February 8, 2026

A HEIST Production
Written by Aaron Collier with Francesca Ekwuyasi and Stewart Legere
Directed by Ann-Marie Kerr
Starring Aaron Collier with Richie Wilcox
Original Music by Aaron Collier

“I’m telling you I miss someone I’ve never met” proclaims Aaron Collier, co-creator and co-performer of HEIST’s innovative storytelling show Frequencies. Best described as one part techno concert, one part autobiographical confessional, audiences are swept into a waking dream with Collier and his keyboards, who uses live electronic music, virtual reality and storytelling to elucidate a connection between himself and his brother, who died 7 years before he was born.

This critically acclaimed and award-winning production has resonated with audiences from coast to coast, was part of the National Arts Centre’s 2021 digital season and was the subject of an episode of CBC Ideas featuring Collier in conversation with leading Canadian physicists.

Frequencies is a mixed reality performance; the audience watches the action onstage as well as on a projection screen – through the eyes of Richie Wilcox wearing a VR headset with a special camera attached, allowing us to see Collier and his keyboards augmented by digital scenography. Directed by Ann-Marie Kerr and with additional writings by Stewart Legere and Francesca Ekwuyasi, Frequencies is “a dazzling technological creation” (Lynn Slotkin).

The Healing

February 17 – February 22, 2026

Playwright & Producer Marie Barlizo
Voice Actor Josette Jorge
Director Aaron Jan
Choreographer Hanna Kiel
Production Dramaturg Paula Wing

The Healing asks powerful questions about identity, inheritance and what it takes to release our past. Inspired by Filipino-Chinese playwright’s life, this immersive contemporary dance piece is a coming-of-age story. In raw, intimate scenes, the story follows Marie through her life with an alcoholic and mentally ill father. She builds an adult life but must confront her father’s legacy when the same fear, paranoia and addiction she sees in him bloom in her under the pressures of parenthood. In visceral, multi-sensory ways, The Healing deconstructs the traditional IBPOC one-person play, asking, “what do we inherit form others, and what do we need to confront in ourselves so that we can finally heal?”

Holes

February 8, 2026

By Jojo O’Neil
Directed by Christopher Morris

A play about madness, love, and hope (and lack thereof), Holes follows ANDREW the amnesiac, moments before he jumps in front of a speeding subway car. He can’t remember why he’s there though—he’s got holes in his brain. Using what little memory he has, and with help of his not-so-helpful schizophrenic girlfriend PAT, Holes explores how we can protect ourselves, and the ones that we love, in a world that offers us no protection.

Lay Down All Dogs

February 21, 2026

Director Carter Gulseth
Playwright Sarah Danielle Pitman

Lay Down All Dogs follows two sisters, Jenna and Haven, who have returned home to sort out the family estate after the death of their father. While Jenna takes responsibility for the upkeep of their father’s aging windmill, Haven obsesses over building a rain-machine that could salvage the surrounding drought-ravaged landscape. Tensions reach a tipping point when a stranger shows up on their doorstep, bringing with him a secret which could cause Jenna and Haven to lose everything. Lay Down All Dogs is a work about survival, legacy, and whether blood is thicker than water even in the midst of a drought.

Confabulation presents: The Shortest Story

February 14, 2026

Confabulation, Montreal’s original true life storytelling series, is back at the Centaur Theatre with another evening of stories, told by the people who lived them! For WinterWorks, we are presenting our annual Shortest Story extravaganza – a whirlwind of 2 minute stories shared by up to 30 storytellers.

“We’re all in the same city, we’re all in the world together and we recognize in each other similarities and differences. And having that experience, having other people recognize and connect with you, that’s a really powerful thing.” – Matt Goldberg, via CBC

La Chapelle Spotlight

Fragiles Apparitions – variations in 3 songs

February 9th to 13th 2026

By Sarah Wendt + Pascal Dufaux

Fragiles Apparitions – variations in 3 songs is a three-part ritual that explores the soft power of the ephemeral. Between textile carapaces and soft organs, architectures of soap films and mirror reflections, this performance-installation envelops us in an immersive, sensorial environment where forms tremble, dissolve, and reappear. Structured as three songs in dialogue, the work moves through three interconnected movements in which dance, matter, and live music merge. The result of an extended research process, Fragiles Apparitions brings together the collaborative practice of Sarah Wendt and Pascal Dufaux. In this encounter between bodies and materials, movement and image, the performance offers a hypnotic, tactile experience—an homage to fragility, interdependence, and the precariousness of life.

To purchase tickets or a pass, visit: www.centaurtheatre.com