Read with Theatre Passe Muraille
The Theatre Passe Muraille Book Club is an opportunity for our community to gather and connect through reading. The books have been carefully selected by our staff to spark deeper discussions on some of the themes inspired by our upcoming productions. We can’t wait to have these conversations with you.
Sign up is FREE, and you can join at any time.
The meetings will be held online and moderated by TPM staff. All participants who attend our book club will be entered into a draw to win a pair of tickets to the production that inspired the book selection for that session.
The registration form is available after the book descriptions below. We look forward to reading with you!
Extended sessions
I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom | Virtual Discussion Date: May 5, 2021
In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today.
The Zoom link will open around 7:00pm and the discussion will run from 7:30-8:30pm.
This book was selected to accompany #TPMBUZZ production, Fear of Men by Merlin Simard
Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Virtual Discussion Date: June 9, 2021
Renowned writer and activist Leanne Simpson’s collection of short stories, Islands of Decolonial Love, vividly explores the lives of contemporary Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially those of her own Nishnaabeg nation.
The Zoom link will open around 7:00pm and the discussion will run from 7:30-8:30pm.
This book was recommended by Yolanda Bonnell, the creator of bug from TPM’s 19/20 season.
Sign up
If Google forms are not accessible to you and you’d like to sign-up for our Book Club please email us by clicking here.
The meetings will be held online and moderated by TPM staff.
Past Book Club Reading List
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton | Virtual Discussion Date: November 11, 2020
A winner of both the LAMDA and ALA Stonewall Book awards, C. Riley Snorton’s groundbreaking Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identitydraws on a deep archive of materials to uncover the overlapping histories of blackness and trans identity from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Our virtual doors will open around 7:00pm and the discussion will run from 7:30-8:30pm.
This book was selected to accompany the upcoming production, 11:11.
Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton | Virtual Discussion Date: December 16, 2020
Cockeyedby Vancouver-based author Ryan Knighton is a tragicomic memoir about his journey of going blind and growing up. Knighton’s irreverent coming-of-age story provides a rich look into our bodies, our senses, our language, our culture, and our fantasies and fears.
Swing Time by Zadie Smith | Virtual Discussion Date: January 13, 2021
From best-selling author Zadie Smith comes a story about the connected lives of two brown girls who dream of being dancers. Moving from North West London to West Africa, Swing Timeexplore complicated friendships and music and stubborn roots, how we are shaped by these things, and how we can survive them.
The Zoom link will open around 7:00pm and the discussion will run from 7:30-8:30pm.
This book was selected to accompany the upcoming production, Ephemeral Artifacts.
Broken April by Ismail Kadare | Virtual Discussion Date: February 17, 2021
Two destinies intersect in Ismail Kadare’s Broken Aprilset in early twentieth century Albania against the age-old customs of the blood feud. The shock of this unending cycle of murder will provoke a terrible act of remorse that will mark the characters’ lives forever.
The Zoom link will open around 7:00pm and the discussion will run from 7:30-8:30pm.
This book was selected to accompany the upcoming production, Toka.
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century edited by Alice Wong | Virtual Discussion Date: March 24, 2021
An exciting collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers, this anthology edited by disabled activist Alice Wong gives us a glimpse into the passions, talents, and everyday lives of disabled communities. Disability Visibilityinvites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings and celebrates disability culture in the now.
The Zoom link will open around 7:00pm and the discussion will run from 7:30-8:30pm.
This book was selected to accompany the upcoming production, May I Take Your Arm.