PLAY DEAD

By People Watching Collective
Presented by TO Live & Luminato Festival

June 25, 2026 - June 28, 2026
Meridian Arts Centre, Lyric Theatre

Starting at $68

“Masterful fluidity, breathtaking…the circus of tomorrow" - La Presse

"People Watching has created with barbaric finesse, with the subtlety of watchmaking precision, a piece of such power that forces the eye not to want to miss a single detail." - La Verdad; San Javier, Spain

The Show

Play Dead invites you into a distorted world where the familiar twists into something wonderful and strange. Everyday rituals warp into surreal scenes, exposing the desperation that underpins our search for connection. In this gravity-defying universe, bodies collide and tangle, caught between beauty and menace — both intimate and unsettling.

Montreal’s People Watching crafts a vivid blend of acrobatics, movement, and high octane circus that magnifies the absurdity of the everyday. These moments, strange yet achingly familiar, mirror our own desire to hold on — like couples not wanting the last dance to end.

Haunting and exhilarating, Play Dead captures the fragility, absurdity, and fleeting wonder of life lived on the edge of connection.

Run time:  70 Minutes - No Intermission
Content Warning: Partial nudity, stylized violence, and themes such as dying and death

Location: Meridian Arts Centre, Lyric Theatre