Leah Beaudry, along with creators Laura Carly Miller and Sydney Doberstein, star in Deep Into Darkness, a new, immersive theatre experience inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. Photo-Phoebe Miu.
A 150-minute original immersive theatre production inspired by Edgar Allan Poe is the only new theatre production we could find for this month. August is truly the dog-days of theatre; most of what’s up are holdovers from earlier in the season, as local companies prepare for their next season.
So the next weeks represent the last chance to see productions of Mamma Mia!, Born Yesterday (the play that was the source for the 1950 movie starring Judy Holliday), and Bard on the Beach’s annual Shakespeare shows. Stay tuned for more excitement from the Vancouver theatre scene as we inch towards the fall.
Ongoing
Silence! The Musical (until Aug 3, BMO Theatre Centre, 162 W. 1st Ave)—An off-off-Broadway musical parody of the 1991 thriller Silence of the Lambs. See favourite fictional serial killers Hannibal Lechter and Buffalo Bill played for laughs, along with raunchy songs with lyrics to make Clarice Starling blush. (Tickets: silencethemusical.ca)
All’s Well That Ends Well (until Aug. 11, Howard Family Stage in the Douglas Campbell Theatre)—Bard on the Beach transposes the Shakespeare play to India during the waning days of British occupation. According to Vancouver Sun theatre critic Jerry Wasserman, “A few of the second act scenes are played largely in untranslated Hindi (we get handouts summarizing them), the dancing women are a knockout, and the sword dance of Bertram’s Gurkhas (Munish Sharma and Nadeem Phillip) is scarily superb… All’s not so well and the end is yet to come in this fascinating staging.”
Mamma Mia! and Disney’s Newsies (until-Aug 17, alternating evenings at Malkin Bowl, 610 Pipeline Road, Stanley Park)—Theatre Under the Stars presents the ABBA musical and the Disney production for this summer’s program. Read reviews by Inside Vancouver’s Tara Lee here. (Tickets from $30-55 at tuts.ca or 604-631-2877)
Cast of TUTS’ productions of Mamma Mia! and Disney’s Newsies. Lindsay Elliott photo.
7th Annual Summer Repertory Festival/Ensemble Theatre Company (until Aug 16, Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery St.)—Plays include Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts, Garson Kanin’s Broadway comedy Born Yesterday, and Michael Healey’s Canadian classic The Drawer Boy. In his review, Vancouver independent theatre critic Colin Thomas found that Born Yesterday improved considerably in its second act. (Tickets: from $25 at ensembletheatrecompany.ca)
Cast members of Ensemble Theatre’s Born Yesterday.
The Winter’s Tale – A Teen Shakespeare Play (until Aug 10, Performance Works Outdoor Stage, Ron Basford Park on Granville Island, 1218 Cartwright St.)—Carousel Theatre for Young People’s Teen Shakespeare Program stages their take on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale outdoors. Actor, director and theatre educator Mike Stack leads a cast of 16 teen actors, ages 13-18, in this all-ages production. Admission is FREE but seating is limited, with premium seating available in advance for $6 per seat (at carouseltheatre.ca or 604-685-6217)
Shakespeare in Love (until Sept 18, BMO Mainstage)—Originally conceived at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Shakespeare in Love is based on the script for the 1998 movie, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard. It’s in contemporary English, with occasional text excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
The Taming of the Shrew (until Sept. 21, BMO Mainstage)—The 2007 ‘spaghetti western’ version of The Taming of the Shrew is the inspiration behind Wild-West love story. This Bard on the Beach production stars Andrew McNee as Petruchio and Jennifer Lines as Kate.
New
Deep Into Darkness (Aug. 13-25 at the Culture Lab, 1895 Venables St.)—A 15-character and 150-minute original immersive theatre production inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Deep Into Darkness has its world premiere in Vancouver at The Cultch Theatre. In keeping with the immersive format, the entire theatre is used for the show, and audience members are encouraged to follow characters of their choosing across more than 20 rooms and all three floors of the Cultch. The theatre “will be transformed into a mysterious and macabre 19th-century Victorian world,” according to the media release. Show Warning: “Deep Into Darkness is an immersive theatre show. Please wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to stand/walk for the duration of the show. This is an 18+ performance with adult themes, nudity and violence.” (Tickets: $75 in advance from DeepIntoDarkness.com or $85 at the door.)
