Theatre Therapy

Live performance offers Canadians an unparalleled antidote to our polarized, distracted culture. We should all put down our phones and take in a show.

- Chris Abraham

THE ABILITY TO SIT STILL and pay attention to one thing for an extended period of time is a vanishingly rare achievement in the age of algorithmic distractions. The screen-centric isolation of COVID—and its rocky aftermath—did nothing to help matters. But theatre offers an antidote, a place to heal our brains and connect with ourselves and others. For a growing number of Canadians, the ancient art has become one of the last, best ways to slow down and give our unbroken attention to a story well told. Despite doomy headlines and generative-AI boogeymen, my art form is undergoing a quiet resurgence all across the country. As the artistic director of Crow’s Theatre in Toronto, I’ve seen it firsthand.

There’s no denying that many theatre organizations are scrambling to rebuild momentum lost to the pandemic, grappling with rising costs and audience hesitancy. But for every struggling company, there are stories of record-breaking seasons and sold-out runs. At Crow’s Theatre, we more than quadrupled our audience over the past three years, and we broke box-office records last fall. Elsewhere in Toronto, Soulpepper Theatre Company and Canadian Stage both reported that half of their single-ticket buyers were new patrons in 2023 and 2024. Smaller companies, like Coal Mine Theatre, are experiencing one sellout show after another, while Mirvish Productions, the country’s largest commercial theatre producer, has had two consecutive years of record-breaking attendance.