At The Firehall Arts Centre until October 2, 2013
Toronto’s Tommy Taylor confirms what we’ve always known: all you need to make good theatre is a really good story and a really good storyteller. And, boy, does Taylor have a doozy.
Tommy Taylor in You Should Have Stayed Home
At The Stanley until October 20, 2013
Shades of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? American playwright Jon Robin Baitz takes a couple, Polly and Lyman Wyeth, throws in their coming-home-for-Christmas kids, Tripp and his sister Brooke, and, for good measure, adds Polly’s recovering-alcoholic sister Silda to this toxic cocktail.
Gabrielle Rose as Polly Wyeth in Other Desert Cities. Credit: David Cooper
At Queen Elizabeth Theatre until September 29, 2013
As spectacles go, War Horse wins by several lengths. The lighting is dynamic, the WWI battle scenes are hair-raising and the special effects – including explosions, mortar fire and a huge, thundering, armoured tank that comes lumbering out of the wings straight toward the audience – are terrifyingly re-created.
Michael Wyatt Cox as Albert (far left) with his horse, Joey
At Telus Studio Theatre until October 5, 2013
What do you do with Bertolt Brecht and The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the Western world in the 21st century? It’s a tough sell. Director Stephen Heatley and the BFA graduating acting class attempt to wrestle this beast to the ground with mixed results.
Sarah Roa as Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Credit: Tim Matheson
At Pacific Theatre until October 12, 2013
604-731-5518/www.pacifictheatre.org
If the grey skies are making you feel blue, Pacific Theatre has a show for you. It’s such a sure-fire winner that this is the third time the company’s artistic director Ron Reed has included it in Pacific Theatre’s season.
John Voth in The Foreigner. Credit: Emily Cooper
At Jericho Arts Centre until September 29
What happens when artists who were once considered avant-garde grow old and begin to look passé? Amongst a plethora of themes, that’s a big one at the heart of Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art.
John Prowse and Murray Price in The Habit of Art. Credit: Nancy Caldwell
At various locations until September 15, 2013
www.vancouverfringe.com
Catch the buzz. Tickets still available for most shows.
Summer Shapiro in In The Boudoir
Various locations until September 15, 2013
Let the madness begin. 90 shows. 11 nights. www.vancouverfringe.com
Deanna Fleysher in Butt Kapinski
At the Stanley Park Works Yard August 25, 29, 31 and September 1
The parking is easy; Stanley Park is, of course, beautiful; the tickets are free; and the kids will love Fall Away Home.
Ming Hudson in Fall Away Home. Credit: Ryan McDonald
At Studio 1398 until August 25, 2013
I don’t usually review musical revues but how could I resist a show with five young women under the direction of one young-ish guy? All the songs are about women in various stages of life and I do have experience: daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, mother-in-law, ex-wife, ex-mother-in-law, friend and grandmother.
Hannah Unterschultz, Michelle T. Baynton and Rebecca Friesen in A…My Name is Alice