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“World Peace”: The 2026 Miss Canada Pageant
5 stars (out of 5)
Stage 13, La Cite Francophone, 8627 91 St.
The premise of “World Peace” is inventive: the 2026 Miss Canada pageant decides to change its rules and allow women of any age, background, or marital status to enter the contest. Still, I won’t deny I came into the show expecting a comical teardown of pageants and the negative messages they send to women and young girls.
What I got instead was a deftly written and expertly performed tale that effectively portrayed different slices of life as a modern woman.
Playwright and performer Samantha Fraughton seamlessly weaves between four different women, each with their own specific struggles, fears, and fragile egos, as they navigate the contest and each other. T he technical direction was also on point, with outfit and lighting changes to cue changes in character and time frame.
While some story elements are well-trodden fare, that’s because they’re eternally relatable — everyone struggles with feelings of inadequacy, and the social media age encourages us to measure our flaws against others who seem to move effortlessly through life.
The plot never felt forced or melodramatic, and it handles progressive themes about gender norms without feeling heavy-handed. Instead, it leaves you thinking long and hard about what it truly means to feel personally empowered.