For thousands of Torontonians, summer just isn’t summer without a blanket, some cushions, a picnic dinner or glass of something special to go along with Shakespeare performed beneath the trees in High Park. Now in its 43rd season, Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park is one of the city’s best cultural traditions, introducing generations of audiences to the Bard in one of Toronto’s most beautiful outdoor settings.
This summer’s production of Twelfth Night marks a milestone for a rising stage star.
Caroline Toal, fresh off her performance as Anne Shirley in the Stratford Festival’s hit production of Anne of Green Gables, makes her Dream in High Park debut as Viola.
“It’s definitely a dream role,” Toal says. “Hilariously, I played Viola when I was 14 in a summer Shakespeare camp. I fell in love with her then, so when I had the opportunity to play her now, I absolutely jumped at it.”
For Toal, appearing in Dream in High Park 2026 feels like coming full circle. She’s lived in Toronto since 2008 and has spent many summers in the audience watching productions unfold beneath the stars.
“I’ve been going with my friends to Dream in High Park for years,” she says. “It’s surreal. It’s kind of a rite of passage for a lot of Toronto actors, so I feel really honoured.”
The production is also her first experience performing outdoors — an adventure that will most assuredly include serious heat and summer thunderstorms and now, wildfire smoke.
“We’ve had extreme heat warnings, so we’ve been taking lots of breaks, and Canadian Stage has been fantastic making sure everyone stays safe,” she says. “Then yesterday it poured rain and thunderstormed all day. That’s kind of the fun of doing Shakespeare outdoors. You’re really dealing with the elements, which is very Shakespearean in a way.”
Directed by Gregory Prest, Twelfth Night tells the story of Viola, who survives a shipwreck, believes her twin brother has drowned and disguises herself as a man to survive in an unfamiliar land. What follows is one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies.
Toal stars alongside a cast that includes Ghazal Azarbad, Farhang Ghajar, Steven Sutcliffe and Rick Roberts.
While audiences often remember the play for its humour, Toal says this production digs deeper into the emotional reality behind the comedy.
“Viola is so driven by love,” she says. “She’s such a survivor. She loses who she thinks is her brother at the beginning of the play, she’s alone in a place she doesn’t know, and she disguises herself to stay safe. She’s incredibly resilient.”
Prest’s direction, she says, leans into those emotional stakes rather than chasing laughs.
“A lot of productions play this entirely for comedy, and that’s wonderful, but Gregory really wanted to focus on the truth of what these characters are experiencing,” she says. “For Viola, falling in love while pretending to be someone else isn’t funny — it’s kind of torture.”
That emotional honesty, Toal believes, helps explain why Shakespeare continues to resonate more than four centuries after Twelfth Night was first performed.
“He writes about the most universal human experiences,” she says. “This play is really about love in all its forms — romantic love, friendship, family, infatuation, the ways love can make you a little bit crazy. Those things never get old.”
For newcomers who may find Shakespeare intimidating, Toal calls Twelfth Night one of the playwright’s most accessible works.
“It has something for everyone,” she says. “It’s funny, it’s romantic, it’s got drama without becoming incredibly dark. It’s also a family show.”
Toal’s own path to the stage began with community theatre. Watching the father of a childhood friend perform sparked something that never disappeared.
“I remember thinking, ‘I want to do that,’” she recalls. “Then my mom put me in a Shakespeare summer program, thank goodness, and everything kind of grew from there.”
After studying at George Brown Theatre School, she has built a career largely on stage work, something she says remains her passion.
“You don’t do theatre for the money,” she says. “You do it for the love.”
Those challenges have only grown as she’s taken on iconic characters with devoted fan bases, from Anne Shirley to Chekhov’s Masha. Viola presents another kind of challenge: mastering Shakespeare’s language.
“I’ve only done one other Shakespeare production before this,” she says. “Coming back to it means relearning how to work with the language. It’s very technical if you want audiences to truly understand what’s being said.”
Working outdoors in the city’s beautiful High Park has allowed the cast to discover another perk of spending the summer at the natural amphitheatre.
“There’s a swimming pool right there,” Toal says. “I think a lot of us will be spending time there before or after performances.”
Beyond the production itself, Canadian Stage is expanding the experience this year with themed evenings including Zoo Night, Queer Night, the return of the popular Dog Night and a Date Night complete with picnic offerings beneath the stars.
Twelfth Night runs at the High Park Amphitheatre through Sept. 6, with performances Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. Audiences are encouraged to bring blankets and picnics to enjoy one of Toronto’s most enduring summer rituals.