{"id":117271,"date":"2025-09-05T10:10:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=117271"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:00:01","slug":"preview-green-line-opens-2025-26-season-buddies-bad-times-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/09\/05\/preview-green-line-opens-2025-26-season-buddies-bad-times-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | The Green Line Opens The 2025\/26 Season At Buddies In Bad Times Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L: Buddies In Bad Times Theatre Artistic Director ted witzel; Playwright Makram Ayache (Photos: Fran Chudnoff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto\u2019s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre opens their 2025\/26 season \u2014 the company\u2019s 47th \u2014 with Makram Ayache’s award-winning Canadian play The Green Line. The play is presented in partnership with In Arms Theatre, the MENA Collective and Factory Theatre.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Toronto Premiere for the play, which features an entirely Arab cast. All of the actors are making their Buddies in Bad Times and Factory Theatre debuts: Waseem Alzer, Oshen Aoun, Basma Baydoun, and Zaynna Khalife.<\/p>\n

The Green Line<\/h2>\n

The Green Line is a tragic story about intergenerational queer history in Lebanon using a poetic approach.<\/p>\n

Two love stories take place in Beirut, a city that changes drastically with time. In 1978, two women yearn for each other with a backdrop of war. In 2018, a foreigner and a local drink vodka sodas, flirting as they try to sort out their differences.<\/p>\n

The \u201cgreen line\u201d is a line of vegetation that cut the city in half curing the civil war. The Green Line reveals queer history that has always existed, no matter how contentious.<\/p>\n

The civil war in Beirut is mashed up with a modern nightclub in following a family\u2019s quest to recover their past.<\/p>\n

The play was recently named as a finalist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards, and was also a finalist for the 2024 Governor General\u2019s Literary Award, and Winner of the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an honour to offer this story at a time when Arab voices are so acutely being erased and mischaracterized within the superstructures of media and politics. Working with a full Arab team on a bilingual production is the kind of thing I only dreamed I could achieve with this story. We started exploring The Green Line in the 2019 Rhubarb Festival at Buddies, and now, to bring it back as its director, helming my own company, and with the support of Buddies and Factory Theatre, feels like the perfect offering for its Toronto premiere,\u201d says Makram Ayache<\/strong>, Playwright & Director, The Green Line, in a statement.<\/p>\n

On the creative team, set and costume design is by Anahita Dehbonehie<\/strong>, lighting design is by Jareth Li<\/strong> with associate Kit Norma<\/strong>n, and sound design is by Chris Pereira<\/strong> and Heidi Chan<\/strong>, with stage management by Laura Baxter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Green Line will be on stage from September 19 to October 4, 2025<\/strong>, with opening night on September 25<\/strong>. The production is bilingual in English and Arabic, with subtitles at every performance.<\/p>\n