Brief History
One of Canada's most influential alternative theatres, Theatre Passe Muraille (theatre "goes through walls") was founded in 1968 by director and playwright Jim Garrard, who started the company out of Rochdale College.
Its radical intention was create a distinctly Canadian voice in theatre. It was conceived in the notion that theatre should transcend real estate; that plays can be made and staged anywhere—in barns, in auction rings, in churches, bars, basements, lofts, even in streetcars; and it was interested in the idea that theatre need not be a vehicle of social change, but rather it should endeavour always to be a mirror to social change.
The company gained local notoriety when it was bafflingly charged with obscenity for the only mildly provocative play by American playwright Rochelle Owens, Futz (about a farmer who falls in love with his pig, but suffers the persecution of his intolerant neighbours).
Jim Garrard was succeeded by Martin Kinch who had the job of Artistic Director for a year with Paul Thompson as technical director before he went on to found Toronto Free Theatre with John Palmer and Tom Hendry.
It was under the Artistic Directorship of Paul Thompson in the 1970s that the theatre gained its national reputation. Thompson guided the company towards a distinctive style of collective creation with plays such as The Farm Show, 1837: The Farmer's Revolt and I Love You, Baby Blue.
Other notable productions produced at Passe Muraille include O.D. on Paradise and Maggie and Pierre by Linda Griffiths; Fire by David Young and Paul Ledoux; The Stone Angel, James Nichol's adaptation of the novel by Margaret Laurence; Judith Thompson's The Crackwalker; and Lilies by Quebec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard. The company also had a major hit in 2001 with Michael Healey's play The Drawer Boy, which was based on actor Miles Potter's experiences years before while living on a farm to research and develop Theatre Passe Muraille's collective creation The Farm Show.
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