ARTS

ARTS The 18th PuSh Festival transforms perspectives

by Steve Newton

Big news for the Vancouver arts scene: the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival has just announced the lineup for its 18th annual edition, which takes place from January 20 to February 6 next year.

The event will happen at various venues across the Lower Mainland, featuring 14 works of theatre, dance, music, and multimedia by local, national, and international artists.

Canadian companies and artists taking part in the festival include Crow’s Theatre/ Cliff Cardinal, Tarragon Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop, Theatre Replacement, Joe Jack et John, Lion Lion, Collectif Aalaapi/ La Messe Basse, Vivek Shraya and Canadian Stage, Leah Abramson, Aphotic Theatre, ITSAZOO Productions, the Talking Stick Festival, the frank theatre company, Immigrant Lessons, Music Picnic/Njo Kong Kie, MAYDAY Danse, and Ruby Singh.

“PuSh has always been an accelerator, animating our imaginations and transforming our perspectives,” lead programmer Gabrielle Martin said in a news release. “The 2022 PuSh program is a timely catalyst, facilitating an emergence from our social hibernation with works that incept, evoke, activate, and confront.

“In a time when we are all making sense of where we are after what has come to pass,” she added, “this year’s festival lineup helps us situate ourselves in the complexity of human experience.”

Martin joins Margo Kane and Jason Dubois in the newly formed PuSh Collaborative Leadership Team, which will manage the organization and lead the 2022 festival. Kane will also contribute to programming, Indigenous arts community relations, and decolonization initiatives.

“At this crucial time in history,” Kane said in the release, “we need to embrace ways to truly engage in right relations, both new and old, and affirm a willingness to find ways to work together that honours the contribution of all and that exemplifies ‘good medicine’ for our many communities.”

The festival will feature three world premieres from Canadian artists and companies—Do you mind if I sit here? by Theatre Replacement, The Café by ITSAZOO Productions and Aphotic Theatre, and Leah Abramson’s Songs for a Lost Pod. There will also be two Canadian premieres from international companies: Capitalism Works for Me! True/False by the U.S.’s Steve Lambert and Born to Manifest by Joseph Toonga of the U.K.’s Just Us Dance Theatre. Club PuSh, the festival’s platform for outside-of-the-box work and interactive experiences, features three nights curated by Vancouver collaborators the frank theatre company, Talking Stick Festival, and Immigrant Lessons from February 2 to 4 at 9 p.m. at Performance Works.

“Club PuSh is a spot where you can enjoy drinks, connect with our artists, and party with your fellow PuSh-goers,” the news release said. “It’s also the venue for fantastic performances in a relaxed, casual atmosphere: drag artists, DJs, musicians, and street dancers are all throwing down here.”

Other highlights of the festival include: • Ruby Singh’s Vox.Infold, presented with the Indian Summer Festival. It runs January 20 to 23 and January 25 to 30 at Lobe Studio and features Singh with a powerhouse vocal ensemble that includes Dawn Pemberton, Inuksuk Mackay, Russell Wallace, Tiffany Ayalik, Tiffany Moses, and Shamik Bilgi. • Vivek Shraya’s How to Fail as a Popstar, which runs February 1 and 2 at Performance Works, is a theatrical memoir—mixing anecdote, movement, and music—of singer Shraya’s trip to the edge of fame and back. • Cliff Cardinal’s William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling, which runs February 4 to 6 at the York Theatre. It is described in the release as “a subversive updating of the Bard’s classic that exults in black humour, difficult subject matter, and raw emotion.” g

Theatre Replacement’s Do you mind if I sit here? is just one of the 14 innovative theatre, dance, music, and multimedia works that make up the 2022 PuSh Festival. Photo by James Long.

Tickets for the 2022 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival go on sale November 24 and you can find them at www.pushfestival.ca.

Exhibit brings Sistine Chapel images to Vancouver

by Charlie Smith

The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican is home to one of the greatest artistic accomplishments in history. It was there in the 16th century that Michelangelo created 33 colourful religious frescoes on the ceiling. The Italian artist also painted The Last Judgement on the altar wall, depicting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

These spectacular works of art have attracted millions of viewers over the centuries and been the subject of countless books, movies, essays, and art-history classes. But when Martin Biallas, CEO of See Attractions Special Entertainment Events, paid a visit 10 years ago, he came away a little disappointed. And it wasn’t only due to the long lineups.

“Once you’re inside, you have 2,000 people screaming and yelling,” Biallas told the Straight by phone from Los Angeles. “You’ve got these massive pieces—60 feet high— and you cannot take photos. They’re very militant about that. Then after 15 minutes, you have to leave.”

He emphasized that people should still see Michelangelo’s original frescoes because they’re so magnificent. But he thought that if his company could obtain the licensing rights, it could re-create all 33 masterpieces and The Last Judgement in their original size. This would enable people to see them up close without security guards ordering them to put away their cameras.

On November 19, Biallas’s company opened a show at Vancouver Convention Centre East offering this opportunity. Called Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition, it features high-resolution images of the 34 paintings created by the master nearly five centuries ago.

“We actually had the world premiere six years ago, in 2015, at the Palais des congrès in Montreal,” Biallas said.

Since then, this exhibition has toured the world, from Vienna to New York to Brisbane to Shanghai. It’s also been shown in four Chinese cities with the next stop scheduled in Beijing. According to Biallas, this was the first religious exhibition ever permitted in Communist China.

Biallas is used to putting on large-scale, themed exhibits. His Los Angeles–based production company has already created Star Trek: The Tour, Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures, The Titanic Official Movie Tour, the Complete Frida Kahlo Exhibit, The Art of Banksy: Without Limits, and Museum of Failure.

Biallas said that it took several years to obtain the licensing rights from the Vatican for images of Michelangelo’s frescoes. “You would send an email and you would wait for six weeks,” he related, “and you would get a reply by mail with a big Vatican seal.”

The return address impressed his letter carrier.

“I thought he was going to have a heart attack,” Biallas said. “He thought it was from the Pope.”

Eventually, See Attractions ended up negotiating with Bridgeman Images, which represents the Vatican. “That’s basically how we got this,” Biallas said. “In fact, we just renewed the licence for another five years.” g

Images of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel can be seen in Vancouver. Photo courtesy of See/Bridgeman Images.

See Attractions presents Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition at Exhibit Hall A of Vancouver Convention Centre East from Wednesdays through Sundays.