A first for SAWITRI Theatre Group, this festival is a part of the North American fringe family. Inspired by the great fringe festival of Edinburgh, and the Toronto Fringe Festival closer to home, this first multilingual fringe festival in Canada brings theatre in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi and English. Six plays in-person and six online, with artists from Mississauga, Brampton, Toronto, Milton, London, New Jersey and New Delhi.

IN-PERSON: Bali (Marathi), Boundaries + Hopscotch (English), Grey Area (Hinglish), Manto (Hindi+Urdu+Punjabi+English), Thadaka (Malayalam), The Draupadi Project (English+Tamil singing).

DIGITAL: Dignify Me (English+Urdu), Memory Lane (English), O (English), Park (Hindi), Sara Zinda Hai (Hindi+Urdu+English), Stories of a Dish (English).

“We are beyond thrilled to have the Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival (MMFF) join the over 30 festivals of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF), said Lucy Eveleigh, Executive Director of Toronto Fringe Festival and President of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals.

“I want to congratulate SAWITRI for creating Canada’s first ever multi-lingual fringe festival in Mississauga. This will be an exciting addition to our 2021 events calendar and another great example of the innovative projects being developed by Mississauga’s arts and culture sector”, said Paul Damaso, the Director of Arts & Culture and CEO, Living Arts Centre, City of Mississauga.

Founder and Artistic Director of Sampradaya Dance Creations, Lata Pada, said, "I'm very excited to have SAWITRI Theatre Group launch the Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival at Sampradaya Theatre.”

Jasmine Sawant, Co-Founder and Artistic Co-Director of SAWITRI Theatre Group, said, “we are very excited to be launch this festival both in-person and online, even while we are still figuring out the new “normal” in a post-pandemic recovery phase. In time, we would like MMFF to become a destination of choice for artists and audiences from across Canada, the USA and the globe, including countries comprising South Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh and Sri Lanka and many more. Shruti Shah, the Artistic Co-Director added, “The MMFF has been a dream of ours. It’s wonderful to see our dream coming true in August 2021. We are grateful for the support of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) and especially of Michele Gallant, Calgary Fringe.”

SAWITRI Theatre Group – Founded in January 2003, SAWITRI Theatre Group is an award-winning, incorporated not-for-profit organization under the artistic leadership of Jasmine Sawant and Shruti Shah, presenting original, challenging and exciting works featuring established professionals as well as emerging artists. With a mandate to educate, entertain and heal through theatre arts that are South Asian in character, origin or topic and foreground women as well as issues of social or political importance, SAWITRI Theatre brings unique theatre experiences to its audiences in some of India’s many languages, including English. Operationally, SAWITRI Theatre Group is supported by The Open Space, Nitin Sawant, and the unstinting support of family, friends and volunteers and is partly supported by the City of Mississauga through an annual operating grant. The Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival would not have been possible without the support of Canadian Heritage.