CLOSING WEEKEND at CHRISTIE PITS
SATURDAY AUGUST 23 & SUNDAY AUGUST 24, 2025
Romeo + Juliet & 10 Things I Hate About You
On August 23rd and 24th, the curtain closes on Toronto Outdoor Picture Show’s 15th anniversary season with two beloved modern-day Shakespeare adaptations hitting the big screen at Christie Pits Park. All summer long, TOPS has commemorated its own coming of age with a programme titled When We Were Young, a series of films about the ups and downs of growing up, getting to know ourselves (at any age), and – sometimes – falling in love for the first time.
For TOPS’ 15th anniversary Closing Night, we invited the audience to vote for their favourite coming-of-age film among a list of contenders. Beloved late 90s teen cult classic 10 Things I Hate About You overwhelmingly won our voters’ hearts, and we look forward to bookending the summer season with it!
The two-night bill of Romeo & Juliet and 10 Things I Hate About You are rounded out with short film pairings by Canadian Screen Award-winning Toronto filmmaker Alicia K. Harris. Harris is an accomplished writer-director whose films are rooted in Black girlhood and in preserving the fleeting feelings of youth, and we’re delighted to showcase her work over Closing Weekend.
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”
William Shakespeare, age 32
sATURDAY, aUGUST 23, 2025
Romeo + Juliet
With the short film When Love Came To Kill Us
Everyone loves an encore! By popular demand, TOPS is bringing the season’s opening night programme back to the big screen on Closing Weekend, headlined by William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the tale of star crossed lovers is set in 1990s Venice Beach, with stylized postmodern playfulness and a nostalgic mid-90s soundtrack. The heart of the film remains a timeless coming of age story about the mad rush of young love, tested loyalty and friendship, and the pressure to conform to parental and social expectations.
Nearly 30 years after its release, Romeo + Juliet remains an iconic film for millennials who grew up with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes posters on their walls, The Cardigans and Radiohead CDs in their Discmans, and Harold Perrineau and John Leguizamo’s indelible lines as Mercutio and Tybalt committed to memory. Whether you’re seeing this masterpiece under the open sky for the first time or for your 30th viewing, you won’t have seen true beauty till this night.
Alicia K. Harris’ short film When Love Came To Kill Us, inspired by Canadian musician Jessie Reyez’ album of the same name, could have been tailor-made to pair with Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Poetic and dramatic, it enfolds two young lovers in magic hour light at the moment that they discover they can’t escape their shared fate.
sUNDAY, aUGUST 24, 2025
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
With the short film Love Stinks
A clever, modern reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You is a pre-Y2K coming-of-age romantic comedy and cultural touchstone. Featuring an up-and-coming cast of teen actors then on the edge of stardom (Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Larisa Oleynik) as would-be romantic matches, the film plays out as a high school battle of wit and courtship. As the film translates Shakespeare’s play to a modern-day American suburban setting, it honours the source material’s themes of identity, rebellion, and first love, which continue to resonate with young audiences over 25 years later.
With its affectionate and deliberately awkward depiction of teen angst and burgeoning sexuality, Alicia K. Harris’ short film Love Stinks is a delightful pairing with 10 Things I Hate About You. Set in the late 80s with a John Hughes teen flick aesthetic, this short film finds thirteen year-old Jessica navigating some of the thorniest teenaged challenges – with the help of her best friends and an adult magazine she found in her parents’ bedroom. Using a tone that is both comedic and tender, Harris delicately portrays the complexities of girlhood, offering audiences a poignant coming-of-age capsule.
Venue: Christie Pits Park
Admission: Free/PWYC (no ticket required to attend)
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Closing Weekend Nightly Event details:
Eats & Treats for sale @ 6pm / Showtime @ sundown (~ 8:30pm)
BYOBlanket & Chairs, seating fills up early
Films are screened with open captioning
Please click to read about additional accessibility features
Click to read FAQs here
Christie Station
William shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
Directed by Baz Luhrmann, 1996
With short film When Love Came To Kill Us, directed by Alicia K. Harris, 2020
Saturday August 23, 2025
Programme runtime: 2hr 10min
Content advisory: This programme contains mature themes, moderate violence, mild sex & nudity, and mild alcohol/drug use.
10 things i hate about you
Directed by Gil Junger , 1999
With short film Love Stinks, directed by Alicia K. Harris, 2016
Sunday August 24, 2025
Programme runtime: 1hr 50min
Content advisory: This programme contains mild profanity, mild sex & nudity, mild violence, and mild alcohol/drug use.
