UNCIVILIZED Brings Ahmad Meree’s Citizenship Story to Toronto
A live camera, a citizenship interview and one loaded word shape Ahmad Meree’s new 60-minute play at Theatre Passe Muraille.
A citizenship interview becomes theatre in UNCIVILIZED, a new work written and performed by Syrian-Canadian artist Ahmad Meree. Theatre Passe Muraille and 7Spices Theatre will present the play in Toronto from Oct 13, 2026 to Oct 24, 2026, with the company billing the run as the production’s world premiere.
The setup is intentionally spare: Mohammad sits in front of a camera and answers questions. What begins like a routine bureaucratic interview soon turns into a close examination of citizenship, identity and the pressure to prove that you belong.
Theatre Passe Muraille’s official UNCIVILIZED listing says the show uses live camera work and mixed media alongside Meree’s humour. The production runs for 60 minutes.
The interview becomes the stage
Rather than explain the immigration process from a distance, UNCIVILIZED places its language and rituals in front of an audience. Mohammad is watched, recorded and assessed while the questions move beyond paperwork. Meree asks, “Who is civilized, and according to whom?”
That question gives the title its edge. The play looks at the rules people are expected to follow before they are accepted as refugees and citizens, then asks who wrote those rules and who benefits from them. The humour comes from the contradictions inside the process, not from treating the experience as simple.
Ahmad Meree writes from the refugee-to-citizen journey
Meree came to Canada as a refugee from Aleppo, Syria, in 2016. Before moving to Toronto, he trained at the Higher Institute of Theatre Arts in Cairo and worked as an actor, playwright and director in Syria and Egypt. His earlier plays include I Don’t Know, Suitcase and Adrenaline.
Adrenaline received a 2020 Dora nomination for Outstanding Touring Production and toured in Canada through the National Arts Centre, SummerWorks and UNO Fest. It was also presented at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2020. With UNCIVILIZED, Meree shifts attention from the danger of leaving home to the administrative work of being accepted afterward.
Radwan Taleb directs the production. Shannon Pitre performs alongside Meree, with set design by Michelle Bohn, lighting by Chris Malkowski, projection design by Nicole Eun-Ju Bell and sound design and composition by Majd Sukar. Ric Knowles serves as dramaturg.
Dates, tickets and accessible performances
- Previews: Oct 13, 2026, Oct 14, 2026 and Oct 15, 2026
- Opening night: Oct 16, 2026
- Final performance: Oct 24, 2026
- Venue: Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave., Toronto
- Running time: 60 minutes, with no intermission
- Tickets: $20, $45 or $70, plus the $2.50 fee shown on the official event page
English- and Arabic-captioned performances are scheduled for Oct 18, 2026 at 2 p.m. and Oct 24, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. A mask-mandatory performance is set for Oct 21, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. The production carries content warnings for mentions of war, swearing and racism.
Tickets and current access information are available through Theatre Passe Muraille’s event page. If you are planning a wider October arts schedule, Over Here Toronto also has details on Opera Atelier’s The Descent of Orpheus at Koerner Hall. For Toronto audiences, the draw is the collision between a familiar administrative setting and a deeply personal question: how much of yourself are you expected to perform before a country accepts you as one of its own?
You Might Also Like…
