At Performance Works May 5-17 (in repertory with J. Caesar) and May 21-29 at the Kay Meek Centre
Don’t you always wonder, when you’re watching a Shakespeare play in which there are young women who dress like men in order to go adventuring, just what Elizabethan audiences must have thought?
Pippa Mackie, Tracey Power, Amanda Lisman, Medina Hahn and Erin Moon in Miss Shakespeare. Credit: Bold Rezolution Studio
At the Russian Hall May 7-10, 14-17 and 21-24, 2015
They say it takes a village to raise a child. The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret program for The Scarlet Queen of Mercy takes three pages – a small village – to list the cast, crew, production, marketing, creative, art department, music and musicians (eleven, under the direction of Jack Garton).
At the Jericho Arts Centre until May 16, 2015
Into the Woods is a very clever mash up of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and The Beanstalk and Little Red Ridinghood.
Jennifer Suratos as the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods. Credit: Nicol Spinola
At Pacific Theatre until May 30, 2015
This Pacific Theatre production, under the direction of Morris Ertman, is intelligent, thought provoking and splendid in every respect – one of the best I’ve seen on this stage.
Ron Reed as Sigmund Freud and Evan Frayne as C.S. Lewis in Freud’s Last Session. Credit: Emily Cooper
Sweeney Todd at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre until May 3, 2015
There are small Sweeney Todds and there are big Sweeney Todds. This one’s big and rivals any production on a London or New York stage. It puts another well-deserved feather in the cap of the visionary director Kim Collier.
Greer Grimsley and Luretta Bybee as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Credit: Tim Matheson
At Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch until April 25, 2015
If you like your theatre political, provocative and participatory, get yourself to the Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch before April 25 when Theatre Conspiracy’s Foreign Radical closes.
Aryo Khakpour as Hesam in Foreign Radical
At Performance Works until April 25, 2015
Prepare to be verbally assaulted, shocked and disgusted by the late Sarah Kane’s Blasted, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs (London) in January 1995 and is now running at Performance Works on Granville Island.
Raresh DiMofte in Blasted. Credit: Tim Matheson
At Studio 16 until April 18, 2015
Written by Hiro Kanagawa, Indian Arm is the first script to come out of Rumble Theatre’s new commissioning program.
Richard Russ as Wolfie in Indian Arm. Credit: Tim Matheson
At the Arts Club Granville Island Stage until May 2, 2015
It seems to me there’s a trade-off to be made with film noir and/or ‘stage noir’: audiences will forgive the fact that the characters are really just caricatures if – and only if – the presentation is sufficiently ‘noirish’.
Graham Percy as Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely. Credit: Benjamin Laird Arts & Photo
At The Cultch until April 18, 2015
How did Wallis Simpson, a poor Pennsylvania-born divorcee with a self-described “face like a plank”, ever work her way into the heart of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor? Chutzpah!
Diane Brown as The Duchess with Melissa Oei as the Moghul Emerald. Credit: Tim Matheson