A new Christmas play is premiering in Toronto and re-defining what the city sees as a holiday story.
What do you imagine when you think about a Christmas play? Perhaps an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or a ballet like The Nutcracker. Although those classic tales have become winter favourites across the globe, Dora Award-winning writer Kanika Ambrose believes there is potential for expanding Torontonians’ perspective of what a great Christmas story might look like.
The Christmas Market made its debut at Toronto’s Streetcar Crowsnest Studio Theatre at 345 Carlaw Ave. on Nov. 4, and will remain on stage until Nov. 30, bringing a holiday tale fueled by magic and joy, as well as real stories and challenges faced by real characters who are close to home.
The play tells the story of three Caribbean workers, who are in Ontario as a part of a temporary foreign worker program. As they spend their first Christmas in Canada, they are required to expand their regular farm and greenhouse work into a new Christmas market. Between busy shifts, the workers attempt to survive their first Canadian winter and still enjoy the holiday season, while finding unexpected friendships and loyal bonds.
Ambrose tells Now Toronto that the emotional and joyful story was inspired by her love for Christmas and difficult experiences of her own family members who have worked, and are still working on similar programs.
“During the pandemic, a lot of their issues became more prominent in the media, especially [since] they were the ones getting sick because of the cramped quarters, and even some of them were dying early on,” she said.
“Around that time, I felt the urge to write about it because I’ve been in these places first, and seen the conditions firsthand in many different farms around Ontario—and it’s not that far from Toronto, there are farms in Whitby and Ajax, and Oshawa.”
Ambrose says the play also re-imagines the concept of a mainstream holiday-themed tale, bringing attention to stories that are usually not spoken of, even though they happen close to home.
“My hope is to expand the current canon or the current ideas of what a Christmas play can be because I do think that this is a Christmas play, though it looks nothing like any other Christmas play that you know currently or in the past.”
The story seems to have captured the hearts of those who have already had a chance to watch the play in action. Ambrose says she has been getting positive feedback from spectators, including a group of migrant workers who said they felt “seen and heard” while watching the play.
Although the story shines a light on difficult experiences and emotional stories, it also captures the magic and joy of the holiday spirit, including some of Ambrose’s favourite things about the season.
“I think that it’s important that we have something that’s like, these are the issues that our people are facing, or some of them, but also it’s fun and it’s funny and it still has Christmas spirit in it… [There’s] food, music, joking around, family,” she said.
DORA-AWARDED WRITER
The Christmas Market is Ambrose’s first holiday-inspired work, but the talented writer is not new to the stage.
Besides working as a playwright, Ambrose is also a screenwriter and an opera librettist, and has received two Dora Awards in the last five years alone for her work.
She first received an Outstanding New Play award for her production our place in 2023, and later again in 2024 for Truth. She has also written opera Of the Sea which premiered in 2023, co-created The Big Easy: Music of New Orleans in 2024, and written two pieces for Juno-nominated classic album Known to Dreamers: Black Voices in Canadian Arts Song.
For Ambrose, being awarded for her work was both unexpected and rewarding, but also raised the bar for her next work.
“Anytime I write anything, I don’t expect anything [or] that anyone’s going to care or like it, but it’s always nice when people do and to be recognized for that. It is a lot of hard work, and it is nice to be recognized,” she said.
“There’s also a responsibility to continue to mine for quality stories and for depth, and to continue to have the work that I put out there be of the quality that people expect it to be and that it should be.”
