Our 22.23 season has concluded with great success! Please sign up for our newsletter or check out our box office page for updates and upcoming TPM programs.
From left to right: Naomi Jaye, Christine Quintana, Molly MacKinnon, Shakeil Rollock, Tristan R Whiston, Moynan King, Suvendrini Lena, Marjorie Chan, Njo Kong Kie, Kanika Ambrose
“Over the past few years, we re-examined our relationship with the world and each other. Even as we return to in-person performances, the landscape has changed. One thing remains to be true: Theatre and art continue to fill our hearts and answer our need to connect, be seen and collectively witness. Sharing the stories of our communities, we continue to affirm the humanity of those not often represented on our stages and do so in the most innovative and accessible ways possible. By doing so, we create space for dialogue, bridges for connection and hope for a kinder, inclusive society.” — Marjorie Chan
Now available digitally as an audio experience
The Cultch’s RE/PLAY: Digital Playground and Theatre Passe Muraille Present The Year of the Cello by Marjorie Chan and Njo Kong Kie
A Music Picnic and Theatre Passe Muraille co-production world premiere
In-person run has concluded: October 15 to 29, 2022
“The Cello, relentless, eternal, infinite in its beauty. I want to drown in its sound”
Adapted from the world premiere stage production, this audio work has been created with binaural sound to give a surround listening experience of the play. Wen and her friend Li-An are forever changed by their encounter with the Cellist, whose music unlocks all that was left unspoken. Co-created by Marjorie Chan and Njo Kong Kie, The Year of the Cello is told poetically, alongside cello music culminating in a lament for loves lost, and a Hong Kong that once was.
Tickets are pay-what-you-can-afford between $0-$20
Concluded programs
Trace by Tristan R. Whiston and Moynan King
A Theatre Passe Muraille and ReDefine Arts co-production
Played through April 21 to 30, 2023
Created by Tristan R. Whiston and Moynan King, Trace focuses on the ongoing nature of queer being and becoming. By transforming a private story into a public performance, audiences will be taken on a journey across time and identity.
Beginning with archival audio recordings of Tristan’s singing voice across different stages of his gender transition, Trace integrates sound art, music, and video in an immersive and interactive live performance. Archival footage of the 1990’s cabaret act The Boychoir of Lesbos, created by Tristan and co-realized by Moynan, is woven in as a tangible example of the ways that performance can extend and realize gender identification using the voice as a key method of doing so.
In the current iteration of the show, Trace gestures toward a queer future with the live performance of a newly realized trans/non-binary/gender-queer choir that reflects the changing nature of queer community and identity.
Never the Last by Molly Mackinnon and Christine Quintana
A Theatre Passe Muraille presentation of a Delinquent Theatre production Toronto premiere
Playing April 8 to 16, 2023
This is a story of the fascinating woman composer from the last century, Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Grammatté, whose work was almost lost in the male-dominated classical music field, until she immigrated to Canada.
Never The Last follows Sophie and her passionate relationship with the expressionist painter Walter Grammatté. The couple’s 10 years of marriage is marked by adventure, poverty, artistic strife and tragedy. Woven with violin solo and original text, we are invited to witness the two artists in love, and the increasing space between them.
Rubble by Suvendrini Lena
A Theatre Passe Muraille and Aluna Theatre co-production world premiere
Playing February 25 to March 18, 2023
Gaza. A mother and her family receive a courtesy call: “You have 58 seconds to leave your home before an explosion. Run.” From this point on, we travel backwards through time, through a siege spanning 2000 years.
In a theatre, broken but not abandoned, hear the voice of late Palestinian National Poet Mahmoud Darwish, and examine the urgent question: what is the meaning of poetry in the midst of war? What is our responsibility as we read, write, hear, and witness the survival of the human spirit in poetry?
Presented in Arabic and English, with captions in English. Rubble is made with the poetry of Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Fady Joudah and Mahmoud Darwish, used with permission.
Okay, you can stop now by Shakeil Rollock
A Theatre Passe Muraille production World Premiere
Playing February 4 to 11, 2023
Okay, you can stop now is a physical theatre experience that explores how we deal with, manipulate, and come to terms with information. Four performers are invited into a landscape full of newspapers: a tangible form of history. Over time, knowing that history is continual, the weight of the news gets the better of each individual.
Through personal accounts and collective experience, each performer navigates their relationship to privilege and power: how do we move forward once history has indelibly been changed?
*In-person and Digital Formats available
our place by Kanika Ambrose
A Cahoots Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille Co-production world premiere
Playing November 16 to December 3, 2022
our place takes us to Jerk Pork Castle in Scarborough— “if you don’t know about it, you better be about it and ask about it!”— where newcomers Andrea and Niesha work in exchange for cash under the table. As the two scrape out a life in Canada, they must also navigate their status as undocumented workers.
This funny, keenly observant script unveils the lives of these undocumented Caribbean workers who go to desperate lengths to get Canadian citizenship — a moving, timely story of those rendered invisible in a ‘welcoming’ Canada.
*Black Out Night November 25!
*Captioned run, AD available on select shows.
Miriam’s World by Naomi Jaye
A Theatre Passe Muraille production world premiere
Playing December 9 to 18, 2022
Through stacks of books, Theatre Passe Muraille becomes an immersive multimedia experience, Miriam’s World. Based on Martha Baillie’s Giller long-listed novel, The Incident Report, patrons are invited to move from screen to screen inside the library room. This voyage into librarian Miriam Gordon’s life exposes the dark, and often humorous side of urban life and issues.
RUTAS Festival by Aluna Theatre
A Theatre Passe Muraille partnership
September 22 to October 9, 2022
RUTAS 2022: An International Festival of Performances. RUTAS festival comes back after four years with its 5th edition festival. Artists from across the Americas will be invited to re-think the routes to a world that includes all of us.
Produced by Aluna Theatre in partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, York University, and Hemispheric Encounters.
...and more
We’ve expanded on our Buzz in-development program, introducing a new creation unit called VUKA, led by Tsholo Khalema, an initiative aimed at further supporting Black artists. Other current artists in residence include Jenn Forgie (Seven Pieces, 2nd year); Coleen Shirin MacPherson (Erased, 3+ years); Silk Bath Collective (Woking Phoenix, 3+ years); Charlie Petch (No one’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart, 2+ years); Nancy Kenny and Edwige Jean-Pierre (2 Francophone works with Dramaturgy by Merlin Simard). Working with digital technologies are Nautanki Bazaar (Kanishka); Luke Reece (Building Relationships with the World, 2+ years); Merlin Simard and Gabe Maharjan (Gender Euphoria, 2nd year).
TPM continues our commitment to accessibility by offering features such as Audio Description, Translations, Captions, ASL Interpretation and Relaxed Performances. Additionally, we will be offering our accessible transportation fund, for the duration of our 22.23 season patrons who may require accessible transportation to and from the theatre (available until fund is depleted).
Community engagement is at the heart of how TPM sees its impact beyond the walls. Community programming this year will include both in-person and virtual events, most of which are available for free. As well, TPM will be programming ancillary community art projects, with details to come.
Social media
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Media Inquiries
To schedule an interview with the artist, or staff members at Theatre Passe Muraille regarding this production, please email Red Eye Media at Suzanne@redeyemedia.ca
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