At Studio 1398 until October 12, 2013
High school: the happiest years of your life. Yeah, sure. Directed by Brian Cochrane for Twenty Something Theatre, Speech & Debate is geared more to the fifteen and sixteen-year-old crowd than to the twenty-somethings. But most of us have been there: teenaged, dateless on a Friday night and feeling too geeky for words.
Alex Rose, Claire Hasselgrave and Scott Button in Speech & Debate. Credit: David Cooper
At an undisclosed venue until November 2, 2013. Participants are advised 24 hours prior
My so-called ‘crack team’ of special agents really, really sucked. Our mission: to capture Sgt. William Sullivan, a terrorist on the run. We blew it – bigtime.
Jake Anthony in The Zombie Syndrome: On Death Island. Credit: Andy Thompson
At Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch until October 12, 2013
It’s ironic, isn’t it, that with the huge amount and variety of food available to us, we find ourselves scrutinizing labels as if our very lives depended upon it.
Patrick Sabongui as Foster Bryant in Inside The Seed. Credit: Daniel Martin
At Studio 58 until October 20, 2013
One of Shakespeare’s most often produced plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents a real challenge to a director to come up with a fresh new take. Director Scott Bellis, his finger firmly on the pulse of pop culture, goes with zombies and vampires in this Studio 58 student production and shifts the action from Athens, Greece, to the fictitious town of Athens, Romania, circa 1900.
At The Cultch until October 13, 2013
When everyone else’s cheering, clapping and woo-hooing had died down, I wondered what in god’s name I was going to say about Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s Penelope, produced by Rumble Theatre and The Cultch.
Alex Lazaridis Ferguson (left) and Kyle Jespersen in Penelope. Credit: Tim Matheson
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