Rainbow on Mars is a unique production that will see its world premiere August 9 to 20 in Toronto. It’s the result of a collaboration between The National Ballet of Canada, Outside the March, and Peripheral Theatre, brought together through the NBC’s Sharing the Stage partnership program.
Rainbow on Mars is a work created by Devon Healey. The multidisciplinary piece was written as a reclamation of Blindness via the senses.
“We are delighted to partner with Outside the March for our next Sharing the Stage project. Rainbow on Mars promises to be an exciting and unique experience for the audience and performers alike,” said Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director Hope Muir in a statement. “With this project, we are thrilled to be collaborating with a new community, offering innovative ways to access dance and theatre that are immersive and captivating.”
Award-winning actor and playwright Healey is the author of Dramatizing Blindness: Disability Studies as Critical Creative Narrative (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). She is an Assistant Professor of Disability Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Devon is one of Canada’s leading figures in the movement towards recognizing the creativity inherent to Blindness in the performing arts.
Healey created and developed Immersive Descriptive Audio or IDA, which builds accessibility into creative and theatrical practices. The production will be the theatrical debut of IDA.
“IDA engages the stories of the eyes and shows how a blind perspective is an integral part of the human sensorium and of perception,” says Devon Healey. “It breaks with conventions of narrating only what is there to be seen and weaves together the internal thoughts and felt movements of the performers; their breath; the imaginary of the lighting, set, costume and sound designers; as well as me, the Blind artist. IDA is not merely a description of a performance; it is a performance!”
Rainbow on Mars: The Production
The cast is a mix of Blind, visually impaired, and sighted performers, along with dancers of The National Ballet’s RBC Apprentice Program, who appear as a chorus.
The story, based on Healey’s own experiences, and sees a Blind young woman thrust into what is being called “an upside-down world of fabulists, fabricators and fatalists”. In the end, she finds that not everything is as it seems.
The creative team includes choreographer Robert Binet, and the production is co-directed by Outside the March Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman and award-winning visually impaired stage combat director Nate Bitton, with script development support by Cushman, Bitton and Vanessa Smythe. Sets were designed by Nick Blais, with lighting by Melissa Joakim, and costumes by Anahita Dehbonehie.
Sound design and compositions by Heidi Chan are designed to support the Immersive Descriptive Audio, and create a surround-sound experience for the audience.
The performance will take place in-the-round, which puts the audience inside the performance.
“Since meeting through this project in 2021, I have had the extraordinary pleasure of diving with Devon into the profound relationship between Blindness and dance,” says Binet. “Both put us deeply in touch with our bodies, making every movement high-stakes and high-impact. Supporting Devon and Outside the March in telling this story is an immense privilege, and I look forward to building this world with the brilliant dancers of the National Ballet’s Apprentice Program.”
Sharing the Stage is a program that connects the NBC with the Toronto dance and theatre community, with a focus on accessible programming. It was launched in 2019, and has seen the NBC partner with Toronto dance companies Compañía Carmen Romero, Esie Mensah Creations, Little Pear Garden Dance Company, Lua Shayenne Dance Company, Rock Bottom Movement, Samantha Sutherland and Tanveer Alam, among others.
Outside the March
Rainbow on Mars is also the culmination of Outside the March’s 15th Anniversary Season in 2024/25.
In April 2026, OtM will co-produce the professional Toronto premiere of Clare Barron’s Pulitzer-nominated Dance Nation in partnership with Coal Mine Theatre and in association with Rock Bottom Movement. The production will feature a full immersive takeover of Coal Mine’s entire venue.
“OtM has always been multi-disciplinary in our bones, unabashedly taking immersive influence from a wide range of media, be they video games, escape rooms, rave DJ sets or detective fiction,” says OtM Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman. “I couldn’t be more excited for Toronto to experience these two powerhouse dance-infused productions over the next year, beginning with Rainbow on Mars this August — Devon’s transformational and form-breaking wonderland of sensorial adventure.”
Outside the March created Outfit the March, a capital project that has raised $1.2 million so far in order to acquire portable production equipment that can create immersive theatre productions in virtually any size or type of space. The goal is to raise an additional $500K, and the project is planned to include a low or no-cost rental program for other independent artists and organizations in the community.
The Show
Performers include: Healey’s real-life husband and RoM co-director Nate Bitton, Devon Healey in the lead role, Dora Award-winner and OtM founding artist Amy Keating (Trojan Girls, The Flick — OtM); Dora-nominated Sofía Rodríguez (The Solitudes— Aluna/Nightwood Theatre; Beautiful Man — Factory Theatre); theatre and film veterans Vanessa Smythe (TV: The Expanse; Film: Trap) and Jeff Yung (TV: Avatar: The Last Airbender; Film: The Shrouds); and Elliot Gibson in their professional debut, with the dancers of The National Ballet of Canada RBC Apprentice Program.
Previews run from August 9 to 12, with opening night on August 14. The production runs until August 20 at the Ada Slaight Hall, Daniels Spectrum.
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