by Coleen Shirin MacPherson
WORLD PREMIERE | An Open Heart Surgery Theatre production in partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille
Graphic design by Emily Jung
Photo by Simone Matheson
Pictured: Ericka Leobrera
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.
Show Dates
Nov. 21st – 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.
Relaxed Environment: The full run of Erased will be a relaxed performance. For more information visit our Relaxed Environment page. Peer Support available on Saturday November 23 at 7:30pm and Sunday November 24 at 2pm.
Mask Mandatory:
- Saturday November 23rd at 7:30pm
- Wednesday November 27th at 7:30pm
- The use of bright, sudden flashing, lights directed toward the audience and flickering lights and blackouts.
- The use of live, sudden and amplified sounds including but not limited to yelling, singing and radio static.
- Surprising and sudden entrances and exits by performers.
- The use of fake blood, charcoal dust and minimal haze.
- Descriptions of death, torture and violence toward workers organizing and animals.
- References to grief, loss, climate change, and climate grief and to women and Trans people as “disappeared.”
- Mention of genocide.
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
In Erased, we are thrust into a future world of total ecological collapse; however, it is clear that the reality the characters are facing reflect the intense challenges facing us today. In keeping with the play’s engagement with absurdism and physical theatre, embodiment has been a key mode of exploration within our work. We invite audiences to discuss the links between climate grief, theatrical expression, and the importance of holding joy.
PRESENTERS:
- Sasha Singer-Wilson (she/her) is a Tkaronto based multidisciplinary artist of Ashkenazi Jewish and European descent who works in performance, theatre-making, research, writing, music, and facilitation. Sasha’s work explores climate justice, land connection, ritual, intergenerational relationships, and the voice.
- Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston is an anthropologist, performance theorist, and theatre director. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre, Dance & Performance at York University. Her research focuses on performance ethnography, arts-based research, storytelling, autofiction, aging, migration, disability, and climate emotions.
- Alix Sideris (she/they) is originally from Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal and presently living in Tkaronto/ Toronto, Alix works across Canada as an artist invested in embodiment, mind/body connection, and creative investigation. They are a movement director, intimacy coordinator/choreographer, actor, writer, director, facilitator in many arts education institutions, a meditation leader, and life-doula.
Saturday November 30th – Systems, Action and Sustainable Design
What does action look like within climate collapse? How, as citizen-artists, do we react with ethical and ecological foresight to the systems that shape the world we’re in? We invite audiences to think about our roles and responsibilities in the current moment. What does it mean to uphold sustainable design practices? How can the theatre serve as a place to imagine and practice possible futures?
PRESENTERS:
- Nick Blais designs across Canada in all manner of discipline and venue: from theatres, parks, abandoned buildings, schools, storefronts, living rooms and concert halls. Nick has received Dora Mavor Moore awards in Toronto for both set and lighting design, nominated for the Virginia Myrtle Cooper award in costume design, and various other awards and nominations across the country.
- Ian Garrett is a designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture. He is the director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts; producer for Toasterlab, a mixed reality performance collective and media production company; and Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University. He has a research and performance design practice focused on ecology and accessible mixed reality technologies.
- Jay Havens is a 2Spirit multi-media artist, educator, and collaborator of Haudenosaunee Kanien’keha:ka and Scottish-Canadian ancestry. They are a scenographer with 20 years experience in site-specific design and scenography for professional stage companies, collaborative murals and gallery installations or public artwork. Several of Jay’s sculptures can be found in the permanent collections at the New York State Museum and they are a professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo.
- Michelle Tracey is a scenographer based in Toronto, Ontario working in the fields of theatre, opera, film and events in between. Michelle earned her BFA in theatre production and design from York University, and completed the Soulpepper Academy specializing in scenography. Michelle is a trained wardrobe technician and has constructed costumes for numerous professional productions.
Digital Program
Credits
Written and Directed by
Coleen Shirin MacPherson
Movement Direction by
Alix Sideris
Composition and Musical
Direction by
Amy Nostbakken
Sound Design by
Richard Feren
Set and Lighting Design by
Nick Blais
Head of Props by
Michelle Kwan
Props Building by
Elisia Evans
Dramaturgy and Movement Contributions by
Ericka Leobrera
Assistant Lighting Design by
Bharat N. Vyas
Costume Design by
Jung A Im
Wardrobe Assistance by
Francheska Libao
Dramaturgical Consultant
Rosamund Small
Stage Management by
*Tara Mohan
Backstage Assistance by
Sarah Kaufmann
Producer for Open Heart Surgery Theatre
Ulla Laidlaw
Production Management by
Lee Widerick
Producing Intern & Production Coordination by
Callan Forrester
Performer – Margie
*Nancy McAlear
Performer – Grace
*Sochi Fried
Performer – Oliver
*Rose Tuong
Performer – René
*Kat Khan
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
* The participation of these Artists are arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance•Opera•Theatre Policy.
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 Red Circle” is our annual series of community events inspired by the productions in our current season. For Erased, we are excited to be hosting an art-making workshop on social change with artist Pardis Pahlavanlu. Sign-up here.
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.