My Own Private Shakespeare at Soulpepper Theatre's Kevin and Roger Garland Cabaret

My Own Private Shakespeare is a solo play written and performed by Justin Hay and directed by Mona Zaidi, presented by Modern Classic Theatre as part of the 2026 Toronto Fringe Festival. From a single fateful phone call taken reluctantly from the toilet, a Shakespearean actor finds his world collapsing around him, as the unforgiving realities of his shattered life intertwine with Shakespeare's text while the man teeters close to the brink. The production previously had a critically acclaimed run at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a sold-out three-week run in Toronto, and a U.S. engagement at New York's Little Shakespeare Festival. Hay and Zaidi previously collaborated on the 2017 filmed adaptations Julius Caesar: In Shallows and in Miseries and Richard III: Unto the Kingdom of Perpetual Night.