Urban Detectives is a site-specific promenade play presented by an ensemble of children in Toronto’s Junction Triangle neighbourhood.

The child-led performance invites its audience to traverse streets and sidewalks, with scenes taking place outside storefronts, under bridges, in alleys, parks and parking lots along the way.

The form and content of the Urban Detectives performance is based on a series of missions that ensemble members carry out in nearby neighborhoods. Likened to a scavenger hunt, these missions are made up of relational prompts generated by the children, inviting public interaction.

The material generated through the missions is married with inspiration gleaned from the performance sites themselves. The play was devised by the ensemble of children working alongside a team of professional artist facilitators.