THEATRE

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW Theatre companies ready stages for live shows

by Martin Dunphy

Alexandra Lainfiesta (left) and Genevieve Fleming perform in Neworld Theatre’s production of Clean/Espejos, which is at the Cultch as part of its Femme Festival. Photo by Sewari Campillo.

The seasonal sense of renewal that comes with spring seems to be tied this year to an anticipation of a return to “normal”. Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring—plays from March 3 to 13 a er a February run at Victoria’s Belfry eatre. And Edmonton’s Catalyst eatre brings e

Whatever the course of the pandemic in the near future, some of Vancouver’s theatre companies are banking on live audiences returning in front of stages. (Please be aware that some theatre companies are still o ering digital performances of select productions and that COVID-19 protection protocols can vary between venues. Check before you attend or purchase tickets.)

Here are some of the local in-person theatrical events in the o ng for the next few months. e Cultch’s ongoing h annual Femme Festival showcases works by and about “female-identifying voices and experiences” from Vancouver companies and others. According to the Cultch, its use of the word femme is inclusive of “all selfidentifying female, trans, and non-binary folxs”.

Still on tap for February and March are Pi eatre’s Beautiful Man (February 24 to March 5 at the Historic eatre), Little ief eatre’s In Response to Alabama (March 3 to 12, Vancity Culture Lab), Neworld eatre’s Clean/Espejos (March 10 to 19, Historic eatre), the Search Party’s Bunny (March 17 to 27, Vancity Culture Lab), and, from Montreal, RD Creations’ Bow’t Trail Retrospek (March 23 to 29, Historic eatre). e Cultch is presenting two shows at the nearby York eatre on Commercial Drive as well. e Savage Society’s Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer—by company artistic director and Governor General’s Invisible: Agents of Ungentlemanly Warfare to the York from April 29 to May 7. East Vancouver’s only cultural centre housed in a renovated 1909 church is also hosting two world premieres at its Historic eatre in April and May. e rst, Vancouver Asian Canadian eatre’s Bad Parent—by playwright Ins Choi (Kim’s Convenience)—runs April 21 to May 1. en eatre Conspiracy’s Himmat, by Gavan Cheema, is scheduled from May 6 to 15. Not to be outdone in historical signi cance, Strathcona’s Firehall Arts Centre boasts possibly the oldest venue for a performing-arts organization in the city: Vancouver’s rst rehall, constructed in 1906. ose venerable walls will house audiences for its production of the multiple-awardwinning Mary’s Wedding from February 25 to March 13, followed by Zee Zee eatre’s culture-and-hockey comedy, Men Express eir Feelings, from March 18 to April 3. (Men will feature one performance with ASL interpretation and three paywhat-you-can dates, as well as a relaxed performance.) e Firehall follows those two events with a Savage Society coproduction about internalized racism, White Noise, from April 16 to May 1, and its own production of Yellow Fever—a detective story set in Vancouver’s Firehall-adjacent postwar Japantown—from May 14 to 28. Meanwhile, Vancouver’s almost halfcentury-old producer and presenter of Canadian works, Touchstone eatre, is o ering the world premiere of playwright Jason Sherman’s latest, Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play at Granville Island’s Performance Works from March 6 to 13. e company describes the play—directed by its acclaimed two-time artistic director, Roy Surette—as “Pirandello meets Brecht meets the Twilight Zone”.

Touchstone is presenting another world premiere at spring’s end, June 10 to 19, at the Russian Hall. From writers Claire Love Wilson and Peter Lorenz, Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid is the result of a ve-year “transnational collaboration” and is produced in association with Touchstone and with support from the frank theatre. e production, about a granddaughter who inherits both her grandmother’s piano and her mysterious history, is described as an experimental musical that “warps, disrupts, and recon gures traditional Scottish storytelling, ballad singing, and participatory community dance”—and all from a queer perspective.

And Vancouver’s largest theatre company, the Arts Club, is putting on its version of Paci c eatre’s 2018 production of Kim’s Convenience, the Ins Choi play that became a popular Canadian TV show with the same name. e classic play about a Korean shopkeeper in Canada dealing with his children and their changing neighbourhood will run at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage from February 24 to March 27. g

TOUCHSTONE THEATRE PRESENTS

OMINOUS SOUNDS AT THE RIVER CROSSING

BY JASON SHERMAN

MARCH 6-13

PERFORMANCE WORKS

WWW.TOUCHSTONETHEATRE.COM #OMINOUSSOUNDS