An Open Heart Surgery Theatre Production in Partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille

Theatre Passe Muraille, 2024; Photos: Henry Chan

Erased by Coleen Shirin MacPherson 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.

Erased was part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s 24.25 season and opened on November 22, 2024 earning 3 DORA AWARD NOMINATIONS for Outstanding Scenic Design (Nick Blais); Outstanding Lighting Design (Nick Blais); Outstanding Costume Design (Jung A Im).

We most recently toured to the Heidelberger Stückemarkt in Heidelberg, Germany as part of their international focus on Canada. You can read more about this tour here! Thank you so much to our donors and to York University for supporting our tour.

We welcomed three new actors to the production: Annika Tupper, Ericka Leobrera and Miranda Calderon.

The Erased Creative Team

History of Erased

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.

On July 13th, we presented a film-play experiment via La Mama’s facebook page as part of Experiments 20.

From September 15th to 20th 2020, Erased was screened at Angell Gallery in Toronto for socially-distanced viewing.

This work has been developed by the generous contributions of the following artists and organizations: Canadian Rep Theatre, 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.

Erased premised in Toronto at Theatre Passe Muraille on November 22nd, 2024 and ran until November 30th, 2024.

★★★★ (4/4)

"As dark as it is hopeful ... the year's most gutsy and original new play."
— Joshua Chong, Toronto Star

"Erased carries in its very form a sense of urgency, one I'll amplify here: See it before it's too late."
— Aisling Murphy, The Globe and Mail

"Genuinely funny, astonishingly so."
— Istvan Dugalin, Theatre Reviewer

"It's in the moments of poignant ambiguity that it really succeeds in firing up the audience's imaginations, inviting us to try envisioning a better future."
— Ryan Borochovitz, Intermission Magazine

Our Development work with University of York Devised Theatre Interns in 2023

We would like to thank our York University Devised Theatre Interns for their artistic contributions to the Chorus of the Disappeared. Thank you to: Dylan Carter, Zoe Magirias, Priscila Gonzalez, Makenah Welsh, Eden Ulnik, Madeline Sadai, Julie Yiptong, Payton Oswald, Mackenzie Mamone and Julia Usher

Thank you so much to the following donors who have helped us fill in the gap so far! We are so grateful for your support!

Lara Arabian, Miranda Calderon, Dina Constantinou, Roda Contractor, Vanessa Corlazzoli, Natalie Dalton, Michael Faubert, Tom Graham & Jeanne Lambert, Bryn Kennedy, Francois Kerret, Lorraine Kirby, Diana Leblanc, Amy Lister, Maurice & Cecelia Lovelock, Frances Lowe, Paul MacPherson, Ronald J MacPherson, Martha McInnis, Martha Ross, Shari Stein, Kaitlin Stelmanis, Monica Szustawkowski, Lilia Leon Tovar, Diana Tso, Rose Tuong, Mark de Venecia, K Worrall, Norman Yeung, Kelly Van der Berg, Nancy McAlear, Martha Hannan.