Nobody stuffs the world in at your eyes./The optic heart must venture: a jail-break/And re-creation.(Margaret Avison, Snow)… We produce theatre that engages both audiences and artists in a “re-creation” of the world that surrounds us.Inspired by Margaret Avison’s poemSnow, Optic Heart Theatre strives for new ways of seeing, of expressing new visions of ourselves and our world. Optic Heart wishes audiences to “venture” with their eyes and hearts in an active encounter with what they see on stage. We encourage audiences not to close their eyes and succumb to the sleep of certainty of what they know about life, but rather to engage with the unknown, the new, the disturbing. Like Avison’s poem, our productions are a catalyst for a “jail-break” from the status quo in which audiences leave the theatre questioning old perceptions and deeply engaged critically with the world in which we live. Our shows tackle themes that resonate with audiences on many levels and are at the heart of our experience such as love, death and mourning, family secrets and identity, as well as more disturbing themes of homophobia, alcoholism, and physical and emotional violence.