At the Arts Club Granville Island Stage until August 29, 2021
A fate worse than death is how all of us would describe being buried 4,000-4,300 meters underground. That’s where creator Beau Dixon sets the scene for Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story.
Jeremiah Sparks as Maurice Ruddick in Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story. Credit: Moonrider Productions
At Presentation House, Tuesdays through Sundays, until August 22, 2021
It was only a matter of time until we began seeing theatrical expressions of what it’s like to live through a global pandemic. Conceived and directed by Kim Collier and written by Kendra Fanconi, the Electric Company Theatre has boldly gone where no one – or few – have yet gone.
Credit: Kim Collier
Newmont Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre until August 15, 2021
Just when I began to wonder if I, Claudia – delightful as it is – was going to go anywhere, it started to go somewhere. And that somewhere is funny and sad and, best of all, true to life.
Lili Beaudoin as Claudia in I, Claudia. Credit: Moonrider Productions
At the Vancouver Convention Centre until September 7, 2021
Sometimes the only response to so much beauty is tears and within moments of entering the huge hall with floor-to-ceiling projections of Van Gogh’s paintings, I wept.
Credit: Laurence Labat
At various Lower Mainland locations.
If you saw filmmaker Nettie Wild’s Uninterrupted – a spectacular light and sound celebration of the life cycle of the sockeye salmon – back in 2017, you will want to see Uninterrupted-VR. If you missed it in 2017, you will want to see this virtual reality version of the original show. Bottom line: everyone should see it. It’s mind-blowingly gorgeous.
Taped and available online Thursday-Sunday until June 27, 2021
Written and programmed into United Players’ 61st season prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Glenn Waldron’s The Here and This and Now is timely. Act 1 is set in a pre-pandemic period; Act 2 is post-pandemic; and Act 3 is post post-pandemic.
Matt Loop as Niall Barnett in The Here and This and Now. Credit: Doug Williams
Firehall Arts Centre until May 29, 2021
Almost as disturbing as the exhibit is this note in the press release: “Although this exhibition is taking place and was created in Canada, there are at least a dozen artists living in our country who are self-censoring their work and themselves because of what is going on in China. For this reason, the artists in this project have chosen to use pseudonyms or remain anonymous.”
Streaming online until April 18, 2021
Silent Sky, written by Lauren Gunderson, falls into the category of ‘Who knew?’
Jenna Hill as Henrietta Leavitt in Silent Sky. Credit: Doug Williams
Streaming online from The Cultch until March 21, 2021
At times dark and somber, at others exuberant and joyful, Out Of Order offers you a seat you’ve never had before, at a circus the likes of which you’ve never seen before. It’s an intoxicating marriage of circus, theatre and film.
Anna Kichtchenko in Out Of Order. Credit: Sébastien Lozé
Streaming online from Studio 58 until March 7, 2021. (Extended until March 31, 2021)
Written by Canadian playwright Rosamund Small, TomorrowLove is made up of thirteen playlets ranging in length from fifteen minutes to an hour. Bound together by the theme of relationships, each short work introduces a not-yet-invented technology that will alter the relationship of the characters.
Ray Koh and Mary-Rose Cohen in Perfect. Set and costume design: Melicia Zaini. Lighting and projections: Sophie Tang
Credit: Emily Cooper