The Cultch says visa delays threaten The Horse of Jenin’s Canadian premiere
One-man show by Amsterdam-based Palestinian artist Alaa Shehada had already been postponed from last spring due to processing holdups
The Horse of Jenin
WITH THE HELP of MP Jenny Kwan, The Cultch is seeking answers around a visa delay that threatens to cancel an Amsterdam-based Palestinian artist’s theatre work for a second time.
Alaa Mohammed Said Shehada’s The Horse of Jenin, copresented with Rumble Theatre, was originally scheduled for March 2026, but had to be postponed when the artist’s temporary visa was not processed in time. Now, with the show rescheduled for October 8 at The Cultch’s York Theatre, it looks like the application’s security verification—which the groups say they have been waiting for since September 2025—still hasn’t materialized.
Today The Cultch said it and Kwan had made numerous requests to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Canada’s security partners for information around the Temporary Resident Visa application.
The Cultch said Shehada submitted his visa application on August 17, 2025, completing biometrics in The Hague on September 5, 2025, and has successfully passed criminality and eligibility assessments.
“Our request is straightforward,” said Kwan in today’s statement. “Mr. Shehada and The Cultch cannot keep rescheduling this performance indefinitely. I must note that my office has assisted in flagging the urgency of many TRV applications for performing artists and in most cases, especially when biometrics were complete, the applications were successfully processed in time to make the scheduled performances. They need answers as to the timeline of his application so that they may plan accordingly.”
The Horse of Jenin uses storytelling, mask, and standup comedy to explore the life of a boy growing up in the city of Jenin, in the West Bank. It takes its name from a public sculpture created with scrap metal from vehicles destroyed in 2002’s Second Intifada. The one-man show has been performed at spots like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where The Guardian’s five-star review called it “bouncy, droll and warm. Underneath it buzzes with suppressed suffering and fear, but also resilience” and the New York Times called it “poignant”. The show here would have marked its Canadian premiere.
“This prolonged delay is having significant consequences not only for the artist but also for our audiences and our organization,” The Cultch executive director Heather Redfern said in the release today. “We have already been forced to postpone this internationally acclaimed production once. Continuing uncertainty makes it impossible to plan our season responsibly and places a financial and administrative burden on our theatre.” 
Related Articles
