In downtown Toronto sits a gorgeous theatre that has been open for almost 60 years. Theatre Passe Muraille has been leading an anti-oppression and inclusive movement since it’s inception and have recently announced shows for 2026.
The Theatre Passe Muraille company started in 1968, and it started at this college called Rochdale College. Rochdale College was notorious for being this counter-culture place of experimentation. Jim Gerard, started the theatre while attending this college. He built Theatre Passe Muraille with the ethos of breaking down walls, trying to question the status quo, and creating a theatre that’s trying to experiment and traverse boundaries that society puts on.
Marjorie Chan, the Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille tells us that during its foundation the Canadian “kind” identity was formed and was even palpable in theatre. “Former artistic director named Paul Thompson, created a show called The Farm Show. The Farm Show was almost exactly what it sounds. They were wanting to create a show about the rural life in Canada, and the truth was there were a bunch of actors who took jobs on farms, and would work their farm jobs six days a week, and on the seventh day, they would come together in a barn and start to create a show based based on their lives and what had happened. Eventually they started to bring some of the farmers to consult and talk about what it is they were sharing or what they were putting on stage. Some of those individuals ended up being in the Farm Show. Some of those individuals ended up creating their own theatre company, which is actually the Blythe Theatre down near Stratford.” She adds that this is the kind of legacy work from boundary pushing that was born from Theatre Passe Muraille.
This inclusivity has continued with the current teams constantly asking how they can remain inclusive, how to invite more people ‘to the table’ and increase access for disabled folks. When Chan became Artistic Director in 2019 she continued conversations to support those visually impaired, how to include everyone as much as possible but also continue that work behind the scenes while considering staff, artist disabilities and supporting artist creation as well. Theatre Passe Muraille has also created Vuka, a space for Black Theatre Creation which came after the murder of George Floyd created space for reflection. Chan shares, “We thought that there needed to be an intentionality of creating black work or creating space for it because of the historical inequity and because of the continuing systemic challenges in the industry. We created Vuka, along with the facilitator, Sulu Halema,to be a smaller incubation type of program that could be private and black lead.”
Pictured: Tiziano Cruz
For the remaining 2025-2026 season, Theatre Passe Muraille has announced new shows. Wayqeycuna by Tiziano Cruz will be showing January 24th and 25th and uses archival research and personal history to reflect on how racial hierarchies and systems of domination persist in a world reshaped by neoliberalism’s erasure of cultural and collective identities. Mark of a Woman by Chaste Minamimura will have three performances on May 22nd and 23rd. In Mark of a Woman, Deaf performance artist Chisato Minamimura celebrates and reimagines the hidden histories of women and tattooing cultures. Using Visual Vernacular, digital animation, kinetic projection, and Woojer™ technology, Minamimura creates a visually dynamic and inclusive performance exploring how women’s bodies become sites of art, identity, and resistance.
For further details on Theatre Passe Muraille or to acquire tickets click here.
Hillary LeBlanc
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