Inside Vancouver

New Vancouver theatre in bite-size chunks at the Pull Festival!

by Shawn Conner in Events on March 21, 2018

A scene from one of the plays at this year’s Pull Festival. Didier Brûlé-Champagne photo.

A young woman trying to solve a mystery, an actor examining his own career, and a woman confronting her rapist are among the characters featued in the 7th annual Pull Festival.

This year, the annual event showcases six short works (about ten minutes each) by local playwrights.. Three directors, two guest curators, and a Festival dramaturg selected the plays out of a record number 89 script submissions.

The festival takes place March 21-24 at Little Mountain Gallery (195 E. 26th Ave.). Here’s a closer look at the plays in this year’s festival.

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New Vancouver theatre in bite-size chunks at the Pull Festival!

Stephen King’s Misery comes to the Vancouver stage

by Shawn Conner in Events on March 16, 2018

Andrew McNee and Lucia Frangione in the Arts Club Theatre’s production of Misery. David Cooper photo.

One of Stephen King’s best-known thrillers is coming to the Vancouver stage.

From April 5-May 5, the Arts Club presents its production of Misery. First published in 1987, Misery is a thriller featuring a romance novelist who falls into the hands of one of his biggest, and most demented, fans. No one who saw the 1990 movie can forget the scene where Kathy Bates’ Annie Wilkes shows what lengths she is prepared to go to to keep author Paul Sheldon tapping away on his keyboard (or typewriter, as it were).

Read more about the Arts Club’s production below.

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Stephen King’s Misery comes to the Vancouver stage

Girleen, the Irish teenage bootlegger gives as good as she gets in Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment on October 19, 2017

Cave Canem’s production of The Lonesome West at Pacific Theatre opens tonight.

The production of a new Martin McDonagh play is always cause for a celebration—at least, by fans of the Irish playwright.

McDonagh, whose work has been called “scabrous,” “morbid” and “depraved” by the press, tends to be a polarizing figure. Then again, critics are loving his new movie, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. (In a five-star review, the Guardian called it a “violent carnival of small-town America.”)

The Lonesome West (1997), which opens tonight (Oct 19) and runs until Nov. 11 at Pacific Theatre (1440 12th Ave. W) is the third in McDonagh’s trilogy of plays set in the Western Ireland town of Leenane. (The other two are The Beauty Queen of Leenane and A Skull in Connemara). In The Lonesome West, two brothers express grief over their father by more or less trying to kill each other.

The play is the first production from new local theatre company Cave Canem. We talked to Vancouver actor Paige Louter about her role as Girleen, the teenage bootlegger.

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Girleen, the Irish teenage bootlegger gives as good as she gets in Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West

The reviews are in! Bard on the Beach’s summer Shakespeare productions on now

by Shawn Conner in Uncategorized on June 29, 2017

A scene from Bard on the Beach’s 2017 production of Much Ado About Nothing.

The reviews are in for this year’s Bard on the Beach, and they are much ado about something.

In a local publication, theatre reviewer Kathleen Oliver describes The Winter’s Tale as “exquisite.” And critic Jerry Wasserman enthused over Much Ado About Nothing, this summer’s other Bard production. Writing in the Vancouver Sun, Wasserman singled out Amber Lewis as Beatrice and Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg’s “witty choreography.” Both are performed at Vanier Park on alternating days until September.

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The reviews are in! Bard on the Beach’s summer Shakespeare productions on now

The Nether presents a ‘genuinely disturbing’ vision of the near future

by Shawn Conner in Uncategorized on January 13, 2017

A play dealing with the consequences of virtual reality, The Nether was a hit at last year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival. This month, local company Redcurrant Collective is bringing back the daring, thought-provoking piece for a run at the Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova St.) Jan. 18-28.

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The Nether presents a ‘genuinely disturbing’ vision of the near future

Beware of the Heathers! They’re coming to Vancouver…

by Shawn Conner in Uncategorized on January 5, 2016

heathers cast

Generation X nostalgia alert!

A local theatre company is bringing a live version of the movie Heathers to the stage.

Originally performed in Los Angeles and then Off-Broadway in New York in 2013, Heathers: The Musical delivers the characters, situations and lines we know and love from the 1988 film, then adds musical numbers. The show stars a multi-racial cast of local talent and will run at the York Theatre on Commercial Drive Jan. 6-17.

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Beware of the Heathers! They’re coming to Vancouver…