by Coleen Shirin MacPherson
WORLD PREMIERE | An Open Heart Surgery Theatre production in partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille
Graphic design by Emily Jung
Written by Coleen Shirin MacPherson and developed by Open Heart Surgery Theatre with a star-cast and creative team, Erased draws us into a greeting card factory in a post-climate collapse world, where workers are forced to meet a quota, making ridiculous greeting cards while trying to survive within the machinery that controls and erases them. This tremendous 11 cast member physical theatre piece speaks to our addiction to production in late-capitalism and is a call to look deeper into the state of our planet and the structures that have entrapped us.
A surreal marriage of absurdism, dark comedy, political theatre and poetry, Erased explores how the kindling of a soft revolution turns to flame, igniting the spirit of resistance that keeps it alive.
Relaxed Environment: The full run of Erased will be a relaxed performance. For more information visit our Relaxed Environment page.
Mask Mandatory:
- Saturday November 23rd at 7:30pm
- Wednesday November 27th at 7:30pm
Coming soon!
Descriptions of violence.
Led by the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance at York University, these post-show events will feature moderated conversations with guest speakers on the play’s central themes, followed by a wider audience discussion. Food will be provided.
- Sunday November 24th – Climate Grief and Embodied Theatre
- Saturday November 30th – Systems, Action and Sustainable Design
Show Dates
Nov. 20th – 30th, 2024
Running Time: 90 min
Location
Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave. | Mainspace
Tickets
Pay-What-You-Can-Afford
$15 | $40 | $65
If you would like information on the topics or themes in our productions, or to determine the suggested age for attending a performance, please reach out to our Box Office staff at 416.504.7529 or by email at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
Credits
Written and Directed by
Coleen Shirin MacPherson
Producer for Open Heart Surgery Theatre
Ulla Laidlaw
Producing Intern
Callan Forrester
Movement Direction by
Alix Sideris
Composition and Musical
Direction by
Amy Nostbakken
Sound Design by
Richard Feren
Set and Lighting Design by
Nick Blais
Wardrobe Assistant
Francheska Libao
Costume Design by
Jung A Im
Stage Management by
Tara Mohan
Assistant Stage Management by
Sarah Kaufmann
Production Management by
Lee Widerick
Performer – Margie
Nancy McAlear
Performer – Grace
Sochi Fried
Performer – Oliver
Rose Tuong
Performer – René
Ericka Leobrera
The Disappeared
Zina Ahmed (she/her)
Dylan Carter (ze/hir, he/him)
jenna geen (she/they)
Melissa Kiley (she/her)
Emma Ly (she/her)
Zoe Magirias
Jobina Sitoh 司徒加恩
Artwork featured in Erased:
Study after Valezquez’s Portrait of Innocent X, 1953, © Estate of Francis Bacon / DACS, London / CARCC Ottawa 2024
Open Heart Surgery Theatre was founded in 2014 and is an international, female-led theatre ensemble based in Toronto and London, UK. We create new devised work that is physical, poetic, relevant and experimental. Led by Parsi-Irish Canadian theatre maker, Coleen Shirin MacPherson, we create work that stretches borders and moves boundaries, dangling across the hyphenated space and engaging with cross-cultural collaboration. Our work has toured to Egypt, U.S.A, UK, France and Poland.
We comprise of a mixture of performers including Lecoq-trained theatre makers whose interests lie in intercultural work that engages audiences in a visceral experience, often experimenting with form and multiple languages on stage. We take a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to theatre making: merging live music, media and dance to create original theatre that opens the heart and speaks to the urgent stories of our time.
To schedule an interview with the artist, or staff members at Theatre Passe Muraille regarding this production, please email B-Rebel Communications at ashley@b-rebelcommunications.com. We will try our best to accommodate your media requests, however they are not guaranteed.
The TPM Book Club meets online monthly to discuss books – selected in collaboration with our artists – that spark a deeper conversation on the themes of our current season.
For Erased, we will be reading the novel A Fine Balance by award-winning author Rohinton Mistry. Sign-up for our virtual book club here.
The “Prelude” is our annual series of community events inspired by the productions in our current season.
Details about the community event for Erased will be announced soon!
If you have any questions about our community programs, please contact our Community Engagement Coordinator Angela by emailing outreach@passemuraille.on.ca or by calling 416-504-8980 (ext. 2140).
Coming soon!
Erased began out of a desire to speak about capitalism, our culture of consumption and to write something funny. And while writing in the forests of France, where snakes were living in the walls of my gite, the work evolved into a strange world of the future. We first shared the play in London, UK with a reading at the Arcola Theatre in 2017 and then at the Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End in 2018. From here, the play grew, and in 2020, a few months after the global pandemic struck us all, the piece was transformed into a film-play that was broadcast live through La MaMa Experiments in New York City. This play is iterative and ever-evolving and many artists have helped shape the work. Erased has been developed at Tarragon Workspace, and took part in two Buzz Development series at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2021 and 2023.
This work has been developed by the generous contributions of the following artists and organizations: Susanna Fournier, Mina James, Denise Stephenson, Angela Bull, Kate Handford, Richard Hansell, Kwaku Okyere, Sturla Alsvåg, Michael Ayres, Yaël Haskell, Kaitlin Hickey, Philippa Domville, Miranda Calderon, Valois Mickens, Yago Mesquita, Rosamund Small, David Jansen, Keira Loughran, Marcello Magni, Georgina Beatty, Jason Trucco, Guy Livneh, The Arcola Theatre (UK), Theatre Gargantua (OAC recommender) and York University.
The Chorus of the Disappeared was developed in April 2023 with York University Devised Theatre students who took part in an internship with Open Heart Surgery Theatre. Our student interns included: Dylan Carter, Zoe Magirias, Priscila Gonzalez, Makenah Welsh, Eden Ulnik, Madeline Sadai, Julie Yiptong, Payton Oswald, Mackenzie Mamone and Julia Usher.
Production Sponsors
This work is made possible by the support of the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Post-Show Talk Circle Partners
The Post-Show Talk Circle events on November 24th and 30th are hosted in partnership with York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and The Centre for the Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
