The Vancouver International Film Festival has begun with films from around the world, talks and events. There’s also an adults-only zombie apocalypse survival skills night, BC Culture Days, hockey, football, and a metal show.
Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing
Friday September 27
Vancouver International Film Festival
Where: Various Venues
What: VIFF presents the world’s best cinema fused with related talks and events in a unique Films+ model. Annually, VIFF presents over 320 films and events, plays host to approximately 400 industry professionals from around the globe and boasts the largest Canadian film program in the world.
Runs Until: Friday October 11, 2019
Where: Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre
What: Ambassadors, the first exhibition of its kind at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, celebrates the staff family and faces of the Cultural Centre while highlighting their strong sense of connection to their land, their cultures, and each other. Visitors to the exhibit will learn about our Ambassadors’ deeply-rooted connections to our immersive Cultural Centre, and the passion they share in belonging to Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Lil’wat7ul.
Runs Until: Sunday March 1, 2019
Artists for Conservation Festival 2019
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Join us this September for the 9th annual Artists for Conservation Festival presented by RE/MAX – a multi-day art and environmental education event, featuring AFC’s annual show – the world’s top conservation-themed art exhibit and artist expo, benefiting wildlife. Meet leading artists from various countries, buy art, enjoy live music, art demos, birds of prey, films, presentations, music and cultural performances.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Arts Club presents The Birds & the Bees
Where: Stanley Alliance Industrial Stage
What: Sarah, a turkey farmer, has split up with her husband and moved in with her mom, Gail, a beekeeper. Add in Earl, the flirty neighbour, and Ben, an eager young graduate student, and you have the perfect breeding ground for unlikely attractions. Set in adjoining bedrooms, The Birds & the Bees is a Canadian comedy about love, lust, beekeeping, and the artificial insemination of turkeys.
Runs Until: Saturday October 26, 2019
BC Culture Days 2019 Opening Ceremonies
Where: CBC Plaza
What: Celebrate the 10th anniversary of BC Culture Days at the Opening Ceremony of Culture Days at CBC Vancouver. Hosted by Anita Bathe, co-host of CBC Vancouver News, the program will include a welcome and acknowledgements by Suzanne Baker from the Squamish First Nation, a municipal proclamation from Deputy Mayor Melissa De Genova, and a welcome address from Brenda Leadlay, Executive Director of the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture. Guests will be treated to performances and a live painting activity will also be presented.
Bike Arch Installation at Luna Festival in Revelstoke by Rob Buchanan
Where: Various locations
What: Culture Days is a national celebration of arts and culture. At the end of each September, millions of people attend thousands of participatory arts and culture events across the country. During this all-ages weekend of free performances, workshops, and demos, visitors will explore the intersection of creativity, the arts, and well-being. Featuring painting, theatre, experimental performance art, literature, design, cinema, and beyond, BC Culture Days is a thrilling family-friendly weekend that builds community, encourages exploration and discovery, and celebrates creativity in all its forms.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Firehall Arts Centre presents: The Shipment
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Written by Korean-American playwright Young Jean Lee, The Shipment is a subversive modern minstrel show about Black identity meant to wake the world to the ridiculous narratives in dominant media. The brazen mash-up of these stereotypes with clichés, distortions, and brilliant sleights of hand all force us to go beyond the lampoon and shift the lens through which we perceive race in order to confront our own bias.
Runs Until: Saturday October 5, 2019
Where: Anvil Centre
What: Darkly comic and highly theatrical, Herringbone is an off-Broadway hit set in 1929 in the heart of the Great Depression. It tells the tale of eight-year-old George who is taken under the wing of a vaudeville veteran, becomes possessed by the spirit of his mentor’s vengeful partner, and suddenly shows a remarkable talent for tap dancing! As the play progresses, an epic battle arises over George’s mind, body and soul.
Runs Until: Sunday October 6, 2019
Interior Design Show Vancouver 2019
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre West
What: Fostering design thinking, the Interior Design Show (IDS) Vancouver believes great design is considerate, responsible and worth it. Connecting talent, story and substance, we create space to ignite innovation and celebrate design tradition.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Where: River Rock Casino
What: For over 40 years Penn & Teller have defied labels—and at times physics and good taste– by redefining the genre of magic and inventing their own very distinct niche in comedy.With sold out runs on Broadway, world tours, Emmy-winning TV specials, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and hundreds of outrageous appearances.
Studio 58 presents Antony & Cleopatra
Where: Studio 58/Langara College
What: As the Queen of East Van, Isolde N. Barron, Cleopatra was one of my biggest influences in the creation of my alter ego. She is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters and one of history’s most fascinating figures. An incredibly accomplished states-person and intellectual, she co-ruled with her father from 14, was crowned at 18, commanded armies at 21, spoke nine languages including the common Egyptian Arabic and was the only ruler in her family’s 300 years that did so. Using this historical perspective, Cameron Mackenzie delves into this love story.
Runs Until: Sunday October 13, 2019
Trifonov Plays Rachmaninoff No. 3
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: Oft mentioned in the same breath as composer/performer geniuses Liszt and Scriabin, the astonishing young virtuoso Daniil Trifonov, Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year, will transport us to another dimension with his interpretation of perhaps the most famous composer/pianist of all: Rachmaninoff. Maestro Tausk and the VSO set the scene with Russian mystical madman Alexander Scriabin’s ethereal Poème de l’extase (Poem of Ecstasy).
Runs Until: Saturday September 28, 2019
Vancouver International Improv Festival 2019
Where: The Cultch
What: The Vancouver International Improv Festival (VIIF) is one of North America’s longest running improv festivals. The festival aims to celebrate spontaneity and collaboration through the art form of improvisation. Since 1999, VIIF has showcased hundreds of international and local performers for thousands of Vancouver theatre and comedy fans. The annual festival features over 40 unique performances, inspiring public workshops and an opening night gala to celebrate Vancouver’s booming improv scene.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Where: Library Square
What: Since 1995 The Vancouver Book and Magazine Fair Society has produced The Word On The Street Vancouver, the primary literary festival for Western Canadian book lovers and literacy enthusiasts. In 2013 the festival rebranded as Word Vancouver. The goal of the festival is to goal is to attract people of all ages and backgrounds to a festival in which each event is at once educational and entertaining.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Richard Clayderman Piano Concert
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: Richard Clayderman is a French pianist who has released numerous albums including the compositions of Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint, instrumental renditions of popular music, rearrangements of movie soundtracks, ethnic music, and easy-listening arrangements of popular works of classical music.
UBC Thunderbirds vs. University of Alberta Golden Bears Ice Hockey Game
Where: Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre – UBC
What: The UBC Thunderbirds are the athletic teams that represent the University of British Columbia in the University Endowment Lands just outside the city limits of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In Canadian intercollegiate competition, the Thunderbirds are the most successful athletic program both regionally in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, and nationally in U Sports.
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Brett was born in 92′ but we’re pretty sure he grew up in the 80’s. He’s upset with his generation and thinks you should be too. For Brett, frustration leads to comedy. If something rubs him the wrong way, you’re sure to get a laugh out of it. After winning ‘Yuk Yuks Top New Comic’ of 2016 and ‘Edmonton’s Funniest Person’ in 2017, Brett was asked to work with Chris D’Elia, Bobby Lee, Brendan Schaub and Josh Wolf.
Runs Until: Saturday September 28, 2019
Yuk Yuks presents Dirty Jokes with Sam Tonning
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Tired of hearing jokes that won’t get you fired for telling them to your coworkers? Dirty Jokes returns to Yuk Yuk’s for another killer show! Hosted by Sam Tonning and showcasing some of Vancouver’s finest smutty and silly joke tellers, Dirty Jokes will make you laugh despite yourself. Don’t bring your mom (unless you’re into that sort of thing). This show will feature dirty jokes. If that’s a problem for you, don’t come. We still will.
Where: 1100 West Georgia Street
What: Vienna-based artist Erwin Wurm alters and re-envisions recognizable forms in order to challenge our psychological perceptions of what is well known, including our bodies and familiar architectural forms. This 19th installation in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Offsite series will incorporate three sculptural works from Wurm’s oeuvre that highlight his wry sense of humour and his ongoing interest in the body. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, local artist Mike Bourscheid will develop a series of performative interventions.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
Shipyards Night Market
Where: The Shipyards, North Vancouver
What: Fresh food, locally made products, musicians, art and entertainment. The festivities in the Square kick off at 5pm on Friday nights where you will find 100+ vendors selling fresh food and locally made products. The Friday Night Market also includes a beer garden serving local craft beer and cider as well as Betty’s Vodka Iced Tea. You must me 19+ to enter the beer garden. On the Shipbuilders’ Stage there is live music until 10pm, showcasing talent from all over BC.
Runs until: Friday September 27, 2019
Saturday September 28
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre East
What: Following a spectacular event in 2017, the Night of the Grizzly gala fundraiser returns this September 28th to support conservation of the cherished and ecologically important grizzly bear. Join us for an immersive, fun-filled evening with awe-inspiring art, West Coast culinary favourites, entertainment, auctions, plus a surprise guest!
The 8th Annual Mushtari Begum Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance
Where: Massey Theatre
What: Canada’s Premiere Indian Classical Music and Dance event, the 8th Annual Mushtari Begum Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance returns to the Massey Theatre! Included in this magical evening is a scintillating Carnatic music duet by internationally touring artists, the Indian Gold Medal award winning Violinist Kaushik Sivaramakrishnan and the dynamic Abhishek Iyer on Mridangam.
Vancouver Art gallery presents Transit and Returns
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Transits and Returns presents the work of 21 Indigenous artists whose practices are both rooted in the specificities of their cultures and routed via their travels. These forces of situatedness and mobility work in synergy and in tension with one another, shaping the multiple ways of understanding and being Indigenous today. Within the exhibition, these dual realities are explored through themes of movement, territory, kinship and representation, with many artworks inhabiting multiple categories.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
A Survivalist’s Guide to a Zombie Apocalypse
Where: Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada
What: Here’s the scene: Fort Langley is in the midst of a zombie apocalypse! In this after-hours adult-only event, learn four key survival skills with our knowledgeable guest presenters: wilderness first aid, musket-firing, fire-starting, and blacksmithing. See if you have what it takes to help the group survive this new landscape.
Where: PNE Forum
What: This September heavy metal overlords Amon Amarth will descend from the land of ice and snow to headline a history-making charge across North America with fellow Swedish warlords Arch Enemy, At The Gates and Grand Magus, and carnage is on the menu.
BC Lions vs Montreal Alouettes
Where: BC Place
What: Join the roaring crowd this Canadian Football League (CFL) game as the BC Lions take on the Montreal Alouettes.
Of Monsters And Men: Fever Dream Tour
Where: Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre – UBC
What: You think you know the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men, but you have no idea. Within the first minute of their new single ‘Alligator’ you’ll be wondering if this huge anthem is the brainchild of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fronting Arcade Fire – all thumping drums, brimming guitars and a call-to- arms chorus about taking control.
Victoria Baroque Players, Watermusic – Photo by Jan Gates
Early Music Vancouver: Le Concert Spirituel: Baroque Orchestral Suites featuring Jeanne Lamon
Where: Christ Church Cathedral
What: Legendary violinist and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Musical Director Emerita Jeanne Lamon leads sixteen members of the Victoria Baroque Players in a performance of grand overture suites and ravishing concerti grossi by Telemann, Rebel, Geminiani, and Delalande, celebrating the first-ever European public concert series. Le Concert Spiritual – launched in Paris in 1725, brought music previously exclusive to the royal courts to the public realm and introduced audience members to an incredible roster of talented musicians from France and beyond; thereby, transforming the way music is shared to this very day.
Where: Canada Place
What: Join the celebrations on September 28th at the first annual World Maritime Day event at the Port of Vancouver! Revel in the delightful assortment of family-friendly events including musical performances, exhibitor booths and displays, community activations, speaker presentations, and on-water demonstrations.
Where: The Shipyards District, Lower Lonsdale
What: Come to the Shipyards Festival for a day of family fun! Kids will be well entertained in the Seaspan Family Zone with Rockin’ Robin and the Magical Tree, Ginalina and Mike Battie along with face-painting, balloon arts and crafts. This year’s event features an expanded beer garden, artisans and vendors in the newly minted Shipyard Commons, as well as DJ’s, buskers, food trucks, acoustic entertainers and more. The festival features live music on three stages from local favourites Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer, The Boom Booms, Mike Edel, and more.
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Brett was born in 92′ but we’re pretty sure he grew up in the 80’s. He’s upset with his generation and thinks you should be too. For Brett, frustration leads to comedy. If something rubs him the wrong way, you’re sure to get a laugh out of it. After winning ‘Yuk Yuks Top New Comic’ of 2016 and ‘Edmonton’s Funniest Person’ in 2017, Brett was asked to work with Chris D’Elia, Bobby Lee, Brendan Schaub and Josh Wolf.
Runs Until: Saturday September 28, 2019
Where: Gateway Theatre
What: Experience Chinese cultures through art, music and interactive activities in celebration of Gateway Theatre’s upcoming production, China Doll. During the two-day festivities, our Main Stage will feature dance and music performances by Star Band, Vancouver Chinese Choir, Vancouver Cantonese Opera, Canada YC Chinese Orchestra, and Vancouver Chinese Lion Dance. In the theatre lobbies, explore your artistic talents with Chinese calligraphy and ink painting, taught by Lucy Feng, Ming Yeung, and the Chinese Calligraphy Group from the Minoru Centre for Active Living. Get ready for an immersive and family-friendly cultural extravaganza!
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Where: Jim Deva Plaza
What: We are a group of West End artists, artisans and neighbours working towards a more vibrant community. We are creating opportunities for connection and creative expression. We hope to be more than just a market, we want to be a gathering space for West Enders to support local artists, enjoy local music, participate in community art projects and workshops and meet neighbours!
Runs Until: Saturday September 28, 2019
Where: Oakridge Centre
What: Summer isn’t over yet! From now until the end of September, drop by the Oakridge Canada Line Plaza for some jazzy blues to balloon animals or steel drums to salsa. Eat your lunch and mingle on our outdoor tables and chairs. Available on a first-come first-served basis.
Runs Until: Saturday September 28, 2019
Where: The Roundhouse
What: Kokoro Dance presents the world premiere of the provocative and primal Reading the Bones, a work distilled from the 33-year history of Kokoro Dance’s butoh-inspired creations. Choreographed by Kokoro Dance co-founders, Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi on five dancers with a 50-year spread in ages, Reading the Bones exploits this generational diversity to offer rich and deep nuances to the performances.
Runs Until: Saturday September 28, 2019
Sunday September 29
Photo courtesy of Vancouver Public Library
BC Culture Days – Storytelling with Joseph A. Dandurand
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: Joseph A. Dandurand brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his role as a storyteller. He is a member of Kwantlen First Nation located on the Fraser River, Dandurand has been a storyteller since he was a young man. His talent and passion for words and sharing stories have followed him through the many journeys of his life.
Artists for Conservation Festival 2019
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Join us this September for the 9th annual Artists for Conservation Festival presented by RE/MAX – a multi-day art and environmental education event, featuring AFC’s annual show – the world’s top conservation-themed art exhibit and artist expo, benefiting wildlife. Meet leading artists from various countries, buy art, enjoy live music, art demos, birds of prey, films, presentations, music and cultural performances.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Where: Various locations
What: Culture Days is a national celebration of arts and culture. At the end of each September, millions of people attend thousands of participatory arts and culture events across the country. During this all-ages weekend of free performances, workshops, and demos, visitors will explore the intersection of creativity, the arts, and well-being. Featuring painting, theatre, experimental performance art, literature, design, cinema, and beyond, BC Culture Days is a thrilling family-friendly weekend that builds community, encourages exploration and discovery, and celebrates creativity in all its forms.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Interior Design Show Vancouver 2019
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre West
What: Fostering design thinking, the Interior Design Show (IDS) Vancouver believes great design is considerate, responsible and worth it. Connecting talent, story and substance, we create space to ignite innovation and celebrate design tradition.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Vancouver International Improv Festival 2019
Where: The Cultch
What: The Vancouver International Improv Festival (VIIF) is one of North America’s longest running improv festivals. The festival aims to celebrate spontaneity and collaboration through the art form of improvisation. Since 1999, VIIF has showcased hundreds of international and local performers for thousands of Vancouver theatre and comedy fans. The annual festival features over 40 unique performances, inspiring public workshops and an opening night gala to celebrate Vancouver’s booming improv scene.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Where: Library Square
What: Since 1995 The Vancouver Book and Magazine Fair Society has produced The Word On The Street Vancouver, the primary literary festival for Western Canadian book lovers and literacy enthusiasts. In 2013 the festival rebranded as Word Vancouver. The goal of the festival is to goal is to attract people of all ages and backgrounds to a festival in which each event is at once educational and entertaining.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Where: Gateway Theatre
What: Experience Chinese cultures through art, music and interactive activities in celebration of Gateway Theatre’s upcoming production, China Doll. During the two-day festivities, our Main Stage will feature dance and music performances by Star Band, Vancouver Chinese Choir, Vancouver Cantonese Opera, Canada YC Chinese Orchestra, and Vancouver Chinese Lion Dance. In the theatre lobbies, explore your artistic talents with Chinese calligraphy and ink painting, taught by Lucy Feng, Ming Yeung, and the Chinese Calligraphy Group from the Minoru Centre for Active Living. Get ready for an immersive and family-friendly cultural extravaganza!
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Vancouver International Flamenco Festival 2019
Where: Various locations
What: As one of the few celebrated festivals devoted to Flamenco Art outside of Spain, the festival has since its beginnings in 1990 grown to a mature understanding of Vancouver’s multicultural audiences by nurturing the form’s hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures and by striving to reflect and connect its diverse sociocultural identity through work narratives underlining flamenco’s universal message of humanistic tolerance.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: With more than 130 artworks on view, this exhibition will present the work of Alberto Giacometti, one of the twentieth century’s most renowned and influential artists. Including masterful works in sculpture, painting, drawing and design, it will examine the breadth of Giacometti’s practice while highlighting his place among his contemporaries in Paris and London
Runs until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Ongoing
Image courtesy of the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: Vancouver Aquarium
What: What better way to celebrate Sea Otter Awareness Week than with the arrival of a brand new sea otter pup? Tazlina was rescued in Alaska and will be joining the Vancouver Aquarium family. Join us in welcoming Taz and help celebrate the most adorable week of the year, with otter-themed programs, shows and activities daily, all week long.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Vancouver International Flamenco Festival 2019
Where: Various locations
What: As one of the few celebrated festivals devoted to Flamenco Art outside of Spain, the festival has since its beginnings in 1990 grown to a mature understanding of Vancouver’s multicultural audiences by nurturing the form’s hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures and by striving to reflect and connect its diverse sociocultural identity through work narratives underlining flamenco’s universal message of humanistic tolerance.
Runs Until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: With more than 130 artworks on view, this exhibition will present the work of Alberto Giacometti, one of the twentieth century’s most renowned and influential artists. Including masterful works in sculpture, painting, drawing and design, it will examine the breadth of Giacometti’s practice while highlighting his place among his contemporaries in Paris and London
Runs until: Sunday September 29, 2019
Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: This exhibition delves into the life stories of local animals and plants—how they relate to each other and how they connect people to nature in the city. Scenic design, videos, taxidermy, crowd-sourcing technologies, and the display of natural specimens breathe life into these tales of co-habitation. The immersive nature of the exhibition, including hands-on activities, encourages visitors to examine their relationship with nature, think about momentarily disconnecting from their devices, and find equilibrium with the natural world around them.
Runs until: Monday September 30, 2019
Butterflies at the Aquarium
Butterflies at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: The Vancouver Aquarium
What: Step out of British Columbia’s temperate rainforest and into the Amazon’s tropical rainforest when you enter the Graham Amazon Gallery. Discover a wide variety of butterflies, including blue morphos, giant owls and heliconians, as you stroll along the boardwalk. Keen eyes will spy them feeding on nectar, fruit and flowers, camouflaging on tree trunks, courting a mate and hitchhiking on lucky visitors.
Runs until: September 2019
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: Explore the unique connection between womxn and water in the matriarchal societies of the Northwest Coast, with special attention to the roles of child-bearers, healers, and doulas. Artists Richelle Bear Hat (Blackfoot/Cree), Krystle Coughlin (Selkirk), Lindsay Katsitsakataste Delaronde (Mohawk), Alison Marks (Tlingit), Dionne Paul (Nuxalk/Sechelt), Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena), Marika Echachis Swan (Nuu-chah-nulth), Carrielynn Victor (Sto:lo), Veronica Rose Waechter (Gitxsan) and Water Keeper, Audrey Siegl (Musqueam) will explore water as a crucial element of creation, its historical uses for survival, and contemporary over-consumption as a threat to sensitive coastal ecosystems.
Runs until: Wednesday October 2, 2019
Shake Up: Preserving What We Value
Shake Up: Preserving What We Value
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: The exhibition will bring to light the convergence of earthquake science and technology with the rich Indigenous knowledge and oral history of the living cultures represented in MOA’s Northwest Coast collection. Beyond scientific discoveries, knowledge of earthquakes and natural disasters has been passed down through generations throughout many cultures, including those of the Northwest Coast First Nations. Also as part of the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to see the majestic poles of the Great Hall undergo conservation, many for the first time in 40 years.
Runs until: Fall 2019
Richmond Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: Stop by for authentically Asian snacks, street food and retailers selling unique accessories and knick-knacks at street-side prices. Some merchants are willing to bargain, so channel your inner negotiator and you’ll leave with a haul. There’s a diverse array of nightly live entertainment ranging from music and dance performances to carnival games and rides.
Runs until: Friday October 4, 2019
Firehall Arts Centre presents: The Shipment
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Written by Korean-American playwright Young Jean Lee, The Shipment is a subversive modern minstrel show about Black identity meant to wake the world to the ridiculous narratives in dominant media. The brazen mash-up of these stereotypes with clichés, distortions, and brilliant sleights of hand all force us to go beyond the lampoon and shift the lens through which we perceive race in order to confront our own bias.
Runs Until: Saturday October 5, 2019
Courtesy of Pacific Theatre
Pacific Theatre presents Mother Of The Maid
Where: Pacific Theatre
What: Isabelle Arc knows what her teenage daughter Joan needs: discipline, a loving husband, and to stop communing with God. As Joan hurtles toward her destiny as the Maid of Orleans, Isabelle must care for the extraordinary child who belongs not just to her, but to all of France.
Runs Until: Saturday October 5, 2019
Steveston Heritage Experience
Where: Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site
What: The Steveston Heritage Experience leads you back in time on an interactive walking tour, stopping at four celebrated historic attractions — Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site, the Steveston Tram, the Steveston Museum, and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Along the way, you’ll hear eye-opening tales of yesteryear village life, as told by a chatty local who seems to have just stepped from the streets of 1914. Carefully chosen food and beverage tastings will be served along the way.
Runs Until: Saturday October 5, 2019
Where: Anvil Centre
What: Darkly comic and highly theatrical, Herringbone is an off-Broadway hit set in 1929 in the heart of the Great Depression. It tells the tale of eight-year-old George who is taken under the wing of a vaudeville veteran, becomes possessed by the spirit of his mentor’s vengeful partner, and suddenly shows a remarkable talent for tap dancing! As the play progresses, an epic battle arises over George’s mind, body and soul.
Runs Until: Sunday October 6, 2019
Vancouver International Film Festival
Where: Various Venues
What: VIFF presents the world’s best cinema fused with related talks and events in a unique Films+ model. Annually, VIFF presents over 320 films and events, plays host to approximately 400 industry professionals from around the globe and boasts the largest Canadian film program in the world.
Runs Until: Friday October 11, 2019
TheatreSports: Back to School
Vancouver TheatreSports presents Back to School TheatreSports
Where: The Improv Centre
What: Get the fall off to a laughing start with some school-themed comedy as Vancouver TheatreSports (VTS) honours the beginning of fall with a special improv show dedicated to school days. Back to School TheatreSports takes classic TheatreSports short form improv ‘games’ and adapts them to parody classroom clichés and cliques (some things never change).
Runs Until: Saturday October 12, 2019
Studio 58 presents Antony & Cleopatra
Where: Studio 58/Langara College
What: As the Queen of East Van, Isolde N. Barron, Cleopatra was one of my biggest influences in the creation of my alter ego. She is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters and one of history’s most fascinating figures. An incredibly accomplished states-person and intellectual, she co-ruled with her father from 14, was crowned at 18, commanded armies at 21, spoke nine languages including the common Egyptian Arabic and was the only ruler in her family’s 300 years that did so. Using this historical perspective, Cameron Mackenzie delves into this love story.
Runs Until: Sunday October 13, 2019
Arts Club presents A Thousand Splendid Suns
Where: Stanley Alliance Industrial Stage
What: In this sweeping tale set in war-torn Afghanistan, two women’s lives intersect through fate. The unlikely but extraordinary friendship of Laila and Mariam helps them cope with the tyranny and tumult of life in 1990s Kabul—and leads them to an unforgettable act. A Thousand Splendid Suns, based on the best-selling novel by the author of The Kite Runner, is a haunting yet hopeful story that illuminates the strength of the human spirit.
Runs Until: Sunday October 13, 2019
Shadows, Strings and Other Things: The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: This enchanting exhibition illustrates the role puppets have played around the world in the transmission of cultural knowledge, stories, and values from generation to generation. Shadows, Strings and Other Things features a broad array of puppets, old and new, from 15 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Visitors will have the opportunity to view more than 250 handcrafted puppets from MOA’s collection — the largest in Western Canada — plus, new acquisitions from China, Brazil, Italy, Java, the UK, and France revealed to the public for the first time. Enter into an immersive and theatrical world for visitors of all ages.
Runs until: Monday October 14, 2019
Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty
Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The Vancouver Art Gallery presents Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty, the first retrospective of the renowned Canadian artist. Alexander became known for her investigations of the appropriated image, the artificiality of nature and the seduction of space in the 1980s. Extreme Beauty showcases more than eighty works from this artist’s career whose practice includes photography, sculpture, collage and installation.
Runs Until: Sunday October 20, 2019
Where: Lonsdale Quay
What: Stroll the boardwalk and take in ocean and city skyline views from North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay while you check out fresh, locally grown produce, delicious baked goods and nifty crafts created by local growers, bakers, and crafters.
Runs Until: Saturday October 26, 2019 (Saturdays)
Forbidden Vancouver presents Lost Souls of Gastown
Where: Cathedral Square
What: Step inside a world of murder, revenge, and true grit in a dramatic history of Victorian Gastown. Stories of deadly fire and smallpox emerge from the shadows as you venture through cobblestone streets to the shocking finale in this unique performance-theatre experience.
Runs Until: Saturday November 30, 2019
The Dark Secrets of Stanley Park
Where: Stanley Park
What: There’s more to Stanley Park than incredible scenery. It’s also recently been home to crime, riots, persecution, political intrigue, class warfare, logging, hunting, disease, military installations, remarkable public art, ecological catastrophes, secret construction mega-projects, poetry, scandal, and murder.
Runs until: Saturday November 30, 2019 (Saturdays)
Image sourced from Jazz Vespers | Facebook.com
Where: First Baptist Church
What: St. Andrew’s Wesley’s Jazz Vespers, is celebrating its 26th Anniversary. Every Sunday from 4-5 PM, you’ll be tapping your toes and clapping your hands to the amazing sounds of local and international jazz giants. It’s an hour of jazz interspersed with reflections on love, faith and hope given by Rev. Dan Chambers or Very Rev. Dr. Gary Paterson.
Runs Until: Sunday December 29, 2019
Samuel Roy-Bois
Samuel Roy-Bois: Reward Friends, Punish Enemies
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: Reward Friends, Punish Enemies is a site-responsive installation – imagined as an intervention into the architectural space of The Polygon—that invokes histories of resource extraction and the forest industry on the North Shore. Roy-Bois’ rustic, handcrafted aesthetic rubs against the steel-and-glass design of the gallery and the surrounding waterfront developments, upending distinctions between interior and exterior, private and public.
Runs Until: December 30, 2019
How Far Do You Travel
Where: Select B-Line TransLink busses
What: Five Canadian artists — Diyan Achjadi, Patrick Cruz, Rolande Souliere, Erdem Tasdelen and Anna Torma — are being commissioned to graphically wrap the exterior of a series of articulated buses traveling on major routes in Metro Vancouver.
Runs until: Tuesday December 31, 2019
Emily Carr | Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The Vancouver Art Gallery is home to the finest collection of art by Emily Carr (1871–1945) in the world. Our collection is particularly rich in her forest paintings from the 1930s. This installation in the Gallery’s rotunda reflects Carr’s direct engagement with and great affection for British Columbia’s landscape—for her, a site of artistic and spiritual inquiry. This installation brings together four of Carr’s iconic paintings: Big Raven (1931); Red Cedar (1931); Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky (1935); and Above the Gravel Pit (1937).
Runs Until: Tuesday December 31, 2019
Where: Vancouver International Film Centre
What: Year-round VIFF presents some of the world’s best cinema fused with related talks and events in a unique Films+ model.
Runs Until: Tuesday December 31, 2019
Vancouver Art gallery presents Transit and Returns
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Transits and Returns presents the work of 21 Indigenous artists whose practices are both rooted in the specificities of their cultures and routed via their travels. These forces of situatedness and mobility work in synergy and in tension with one another, shaping the multiple ways of understanding and being Indigenous today. Within the exhibition, these dual realities are explored through themes of movement, territory, kinship and representation, with many artworks inhabiting multiple categories.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
Where: 1100 West Georgia Street
What: Vienna-based artist Erwin Wurm alters and re-envisions recognizable forms in order to challenge our psychological perceptions of what is well known, including our bodies and familiar architectural forms. This 19th installation in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Offsite series will incorporate three sculptural works from Wurm’s oeuvre that highlight his wry sense of humour and his ongoing interest in the body. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, local artist Mike Bourscheid will develop a series of performative interventions.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
Where: Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre
What: Ambassadors, the first exhibition of its kind at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, celebrates the staff family and faces of the Cultural Centre while highlighting their strong sense of connection to their land, their cultures, and each other. Visitors to the exhibit will learn about our Ambassadors’ deeply-rooted connections to our immersive Cultural Centre, and the passion they share in belonging to Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Lil’wat7ul.
Runs Until: Sunday March 1, 2019
Teatro Intimo Del Flamenco
Where: The Improv Centre, Granville Island
What: Karen Flamenco brings the glamour and extravagance of a large flamenco dance production onto a small theatrical stage. The one-hour production welcomes audiences of all ages with live traditional flamenco music, dance, storylines, puppetry and magic. With theatre style seating and bistro-style table seats, every audience member will get a close-up and personal experience that is very typical of a traditional Spanish Tablao.
Runs until: Saturday May 1, 2020
What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments.
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