The Sororum Presents: An Evening at The Great Gatsby in Toronto
There are nights out...and then there are evenings that feel like an experience from beginning to end.
This August, The Sororum gathered for one of those evenings: an afternoon and night of theatre, music, conversation, dinner and a little Gatsby-era glamour in the heart of downtown Toronto.
Our destination was The Great Gatsby, the spectacular stage production at Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. But in true Sororum fashion, we didn’t want to simply meet at the theatre, take our seats and watch the show.
We wanted to make an evening of it.
From a private behind-the-scenes theatre tour to live jazz over dinner and an intimate post-show conversation with members of the cast, the evening was designed around something we believe deeply at The Sororum: some of the best connections happen when women come together to experience something interesting, beautiful and just a little unexpected.
More Than a Night at the Theatre
The idea behind The Sororum has always been to create experiences that give women the opportunity to discover something new and meet other women along the way.
Sometimes that means gathering around a candlelit table to hear from a fascinating historian. Sometimes it means stepping inside a museum after hours, exploring the stories of women who helped shape our city.
And sometimes, it means dressing up and heading to the theatre.
For our Great Gatsby evening, we wanted to take something many of us already love - a night at the theatre. And transform it into a richer cultural and social experience.
Rather than simply attending the performance, we wanted to explore the world surrounding it: the theatre itself, the music, the performers and, most importantly, the opportunity to share all of it with a wonderful group of women.
Our evening began before the curtain ever rose.
Going Behind the Curtain at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre
We met in downtown Toronto in the late afternoon for a very special start to our evening: a private tour of the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.
There is something magical about walking into a theatre when the audience hasn't yet arrived.
The seats are empty. The stage is quiet. The enormous auditorium feels both grand and strangely intimate.
And when you have the opportunity to go beyond the areas normally seen by the public, you begin to appreciate just how much history, architecture, craftsmanship and work exist behind a single evening of theatre.
Originally opened in 1920, the building has lived many lives over the course of more than a century. Today, it remains one of Toronto's great theatrical landmarks, and having the opportunity to explore it privately gave us a completely different perspective on the performance we were about to see.
Instead of simply arriving as audience members later that evening, we had already begun to feel connected to the space.
It is exactly the kind of experience we love creating at The Sororum: the chance to open a door that we might normally walk past and discover the story behind it.
And, of course, it also gave everyone time to meet.
Women arrived knowing friends, coming with someone they knew, or joining us on their own. Very quickly, introductions turned into conversations as we explored the theatre together.
By the time our tour ended, the evening was already well underway.
Dinner, Jazz and Conversation at Jazz Bistro
From the theatre, we made the short walk to Jazz Bistro, where the next part of our Gatsby-inspired evening unfolded.
If you were going to choose a soundtrack for a night dedicated to The Great Gatsby, jazz would have to be it.
The novel is inseparable from the world of the Jazz Age—the music, parties, ambition, glamour and extraordinary cultural transformation of the 1920s.
So before stepping into Gatsby's world onstage, we spent some time enjoying a little of that spirit ourselves.
Over dinner, we were treated to live music from the wonderfully talented Alex Bird and Ewen Farncombe.
It was the perfect bridge between our theatre tour and the performance ahead.
There was music in the room, drinks and dinner on the tables, and conversations happening everywhere.
And this is often one of our favourite parts of a Sororum gathering.
The speaker, exhibition, performance or tour may be what initially brings us together, but the conversations around the table are what make the experience feel personal.
There is something wonderfully easy about meeting someone when you're already sharing an experience.
You don't have to walk into a room and wonder what to talk about.
You've just toured a historic theatre together. You're listening to live jazz. You're about to see a Broadway musical.
The conversation has already begun.
Then It Was Time for Gatsby
After dinner, we returned to the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre and took our seats for The Great Gatsby.
And from the moment the curtain rose, subtle was not on the agenda.
The production transported us into the dazzling, excessive and ultimately tragic world of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel.
Lavish sets. Extraordinary costumes. Big musical numbers. Romance. Champagne-soaked parties. Ambition. Longing. Reinvention.
At the centre of it all, of course, is Jay Gatsby and his impossible dream of recreating the past—and Daisy Buchanan, the woman onto whom so much of that dream has been projected.
Seeing the story onstage also gave us something interesting to consider.
The Great Gatsby is often remembered for its glamour: flapper dresses, champagne towers, enormous parties and the seductive mythology of the Roaring Twenties.
But underneath all of that glitter is a much darker story about class, money, identity, desire and the danger of believing that we can reinvent ourselves completely.
And Daisy is a particularly fascinating character to revisit through a contemporary lens.
For all the wealth and privilege surrounding her, she is also a woman living within the narrow expectations placed upon women of her class and era. Her choices, sometimes frustrating, sometimes heartbreaking, exist inside a world in which wealth, marriage, status and gender determine much of what is possible.
It made the story particularly interesting to experience as a group of women in 2026, more than a century after Fitzgerald's novel was first published.
How much has changed?
How much hasn't?
And how differently do we understand a character like Daisy today?
Those questions became even more interesting after the final curtain.
A Very Special Conversation After the Show
When the applause ended and most of the audience began making their way out of the theatre, our Sororum evening wasn't quite finished.
We had one more experience waiting for us.
Members of our group stayed behind for a special post-show conversation with Senzel Ahmady (who played Daisy Buchanan), and Shai Yammanee (Ensemble/George Wilson).
Suddenly, the characters we had just watched onstage became real people sitting in front of us.
We had the opportunity to hear directly from the performers about the production, their experiences and the work that goes into bringing a show of this scale to life night after night.
There is something particularly fascinating about speaking with performers immediately after watching them onstage.
Minutes earlier, they existed inside Fitzgerald's world.
Now they were sitting with us, talking about the reality behind the performance.
It offered a glimpse into something audiences don't often get to see: the human beings behind the spectacle.
For us, it was the perfect way to end the evening.
Because one of the things we hope to do through The Sororum is create opportunities not simply to see interesting things, but to get a little closer to them.
To ask questions.
To meet the people behind the work.
To understand how something was created.
To walk away knowing something we didn't know when we arrived.
Why We Create Experiences Like This
When we founded The Sororum, we knew there were already countless things to do in Toronto.
There are wonderful restaurants. Exhibitions. Museums. Theatre productions. Talks. Concerts. Historic buildings. Fascinating people.
What we felt was missing was a way to bring those things together specifically for women who are curious about the world and who also want meaningful opportunities to meet one another.
The Sororum is a Toronto women's social and cultural community for women, but we don't think of ourselves as simply a networking group or social club.
We want our events to give you something to talk about.
Something to discover.
Something that sparks your curiosity.
And hopefully, someone new to share the experience with.
Our Great Gatsby evening captured that beautifully.
We explored one of Toronto's historic theatres.
We listened to live jazz.
We shared dinner.
We watched a spectacular production.
We met members of the cast.
And throughout it all, women who may never otherwise have crossed paths found themselves walking through the city together, sitting beside one another at dinner and sharing a memorable summer evening.
That is the part we love most.
Coming Alone Is Always Welcome
One of the questions women sometimes have before attending their first Sororum event is:
Can I come on my own?
The answer is absolutely yes.
In fact, we hope you will.
We know it can feel intimidating to walk into a room where you don't know anyone, particularly when it looks from the outside as though everyone else may already know one another.
But The Sororum was created precisely to make those moments easier.
Our events are intentionally designed around shared experiences because they naturally create conversation. You may arrive alone, but before long you're touring a museum with someone, sitting beside another woman at dinner, discussing a speaker's ideas or comparing notes about the performance you've just watched together.
There is no expectation that you need to "work the room."
Just come and experience the event.
We'll take care of the rest.
A Different Kind of Women's Event in Toronto
The Sororum is about curiosity as much as connection.
Our gatherings are for women who still want to discover things.
Women who want to hear fascinating stories, visit beautiful places, encounter new ideas, learn about history, art and culture, and occasionally do something they might never have thought to organize for themselves.
You don't need to be an expert.
You don't need to know anyone.
You simply need to be curious.
Whether we're gathered around a candlelit table listening to a historian, exploring an exhibition about women who transformed Toronto, walking through a historic neighbourhood or heading behind the scenes of a Broadway musical, the idea remains the same:
Inspire. Empower. Belong.
Those three words continue to guide the experiences we create.
Until the Next Adventure…
As we stepped back onto the streets of downtown Toronto after The Great Gatsby, the city was still buzzing around us.
We had started the afternoon as a collection of women arriving from different places and different parts of our lives.
Several hours later, we had shared a theatre tour, dinner, live jazz, a Broadway musical and a conversation with its performers.
There had been laughter, introductions, stories, photographs, new connections and plenty to talk about.
And perhaps that is the best way to describe what we're building with The Sororum.
Not simply events.
Shared experiences.
Experiences that give us an excuse to dress up, get out of the house, discover our city, learn something fascinating and spend time in the company of other women.
Our Great Gatsby evening was certainly one to remember.
And there are many more stories still to come.
We hope you'll join us for the next one.
The Sororum is a Toronto-based social and cultural community creating thoughtfully curated experiences for women. Through intimate talks, private tours, cultural events, creative experiences and unforgettable gatherings, we create opportunities for women to connect, discover and belong.
The Sororum
Inspire. Empower. Belong.
Comments