Set design: Ian Johnston. Lighting design: Sharon Huizinga. Credit: Carlo Alcos
Firehall Arts Centre to October 25, 2025
Tickets from $25 at 604-689-0926 or www.firehallartscentre.ca
Posted October 24, 2025
Based on the Japanese play Sarachi (Vacant Lot), by contemporary Japanese theatre artist Shogo Ota, Vacant Lot is a hybrid dance/theatre piece at the Firehall for only two more performances. It’s a gentle, mesmeric meditation on aging, created by Hiromoto Ida and performed by Ida and Lindsay Clague. Beautifully staged with exquisite lighting by Sharon Huizinga, it has a dreamlike quality that’s brightened with humour. Text appears projected behind the performers who appear as an older couple, married 67 years, so comfortable in their long relationship that they forgive each other’s idiosyncrasies: she rolls her eyes at his frequent urinating, he wishes she wouldn’t complicate things so much. He Googles “How to build up sexual desire in senior citizens” on his phone while she tries to make a new home with what’s left after the roof of their house blows off, leaving them to discover they can now see the stars. Metaphoric. Very Zen. Very Beckett.