The East Van Panto is a long time Vancouver tradition. It is a community event. If you know you know. Having said that, I have somehow never been to one. I have never been to a traditional British panto either

  “Lossy” by Company 605   “Lossy” by Company 605 allowed the audience to dive into an electric dreamscape, seamlessly blending slow techno beats, rave aesthetics, and video game-inspired choreography. The result left the audience entranced into a pseudo-dystopian underground

  The Stand   “The Stand” recreates a historic confrontation between Indigenous elders and land defenders of the Haida Nation and colonial entities namely, the State of Canada and a logging company. The events originally unfolded in November 1985, on

The 4th Annual Stand Festival platformed a unique program titled Katha-Keertana Chronicles on November 5th, 2024 at The Annex in Downtown Vancouver. This event shone a spotlight on a musical storytelling tradition practiced by Hindu bards in the Kannada speaking

The first night of Ballet BC’s 2024/25 season opener, DAWN, was a sold out affair, and rightly so. On the bill are three unique works by choreographers, Crystal Pite, Pierre Pontvianne, and Imre and Marne van Opstal, that bend the boundaries

“Strauss’ Die Fledermaus” is a playful opera that navigates comedic misunderstandings with twists and turns, including dance numbers. Its Halloween night production was a real crowd pleaser! The audience “ooh”-ed and “aww”-ed and chuckled out loud at ‘inside’ jokes throughout the performance.

“Prism” is a magnificent, mind-bending dance experience that needs more exposure on the West Coast. Contemporary dance company, Tentacle Tribe from Montreal, showcased the Vancouver premier of Prism at the Cultch on Oct. 23, 2024 to an eager audience. So eager,

Tanya Talaga has been speaking truth to power for over twenty years. It is difficult to picture the landscape of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada without her sure voice. Her career of twenty years at the Toronto Star moulded Tanya

Lutalo Jones’s debut album, “The Academy,” dropped in the early days of fall this year. The seasonal timing could not have been more apt. As the leaves turned, we bid summer farewell and returned to stillness and contemplation. Mirroring this

Shashi Bhat writes the interior lives of South Asian women with depth and grace. Her debut novel, “The Family Took Shape” is the coming of age story of Mira, a young South Asian woman, set in the suburbs of Toronto. Its

Note: The images included in this article are from previous performances.  “An Evening with A.R. Rahman: Stories and Music from his Career” was a marquee event at Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) in collaboration with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO). The

As an arts reviewer, I’ve witnessed countless deliveries of land acknowledgements–they vary in tone and intent, ranging from awkward and inauthentic to aspirational statements of solidarity. The creative antics employed in this usually symbolic, rather formulaic pre-show component do not

“Agrimony” is a genre-defying performance featuring live music (composed by UK-based Laura Reznek) and contemporary dance (choreographed by Vancouver-based Sophie Dow). The show is brought alive by musicians–Laura Reznek, Jonah Ocean, Roisin Adams, J Daniel Baxter, Chris Marriott, and interpretive

The 40th edition of the Vancouver Fringe Festival has been entertaining audiences since the 5th of September at various indoor and outdoor settings on Granville Island. I caught some shows this week and here are my reviews!  Waxing The absurd premise of this solo

  Bach’s Motets: Vanish Spirits of Gloom After attending the profound and moving Monteverdi’s Vespers 1610, we attended a presentation of Bach’s Motets. The ten soloists returned for this concert along with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. The concert also featured the

Vancouver’s Early Music Festival brings eight days of cultural immersion to the city every year. Early Music is often classified as European music from the Medieval Period through to the Baroque (about 1800) but the Early Music Festival expands this definition to

Twelfth Night  To open their 35th season, Vancouver’s iconic Shakespeare company, Bard on the Beach, presented “Twelfth Night,” a production directed by Diana Donnelly. The whimsical classic comedy of unrequited love and mistaken identity is given a cheeky carnival theme.

“Sunrise Betties” is a subversive theatrical experience, presented by Vancouver’s own ITSAZOO Productions. Depicting Vancouver of the 1970’s, the play takes place entirely in an expansive basement suite. Loosely based on the thrilling exploits of the Clark Park Gang, the

There are many ways to describe Rakesh Sukesh. He is a prolific dancer. A movement and yoga instructor. A Malayalee from Malabar. An experienced practitioner of Kalaripayattu. An aspiring global citizen (restrained by his Indian passport). What happens when all

Ramanenjana is a performative docu-fiction presented at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival by Romania’s Tangaj Collective. Part dance, part audio-visual lecture, the performance explores historical accounts from 19th century Madagascar through a post-colonial perspective.  The production is a collaborative effort between

“Snow White”, produced by Carousel Theatre for Young People, is a play developed for audiences over the age of five and runs for 75 minutes. The show is fast-paced, interactive and cheeky, winning over the hearts of the audience on

The 42nd Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) presented a cornucopia of Canadian, Indigenous and International cinema from September 28 to October 8, 2023. The thoughtfully curated list consisting of movies, documentaries, short films and live events had local cinephiles spoiled

Produced by Vancouver Moving Theatre with Carnegie Community Centre and a number of community partners, the 20th Annual Heart of the City Festival had over 100 projects and events taking place in and around Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighborhood from October

Award-winning playwright Pippa Mackie has arrived at The Cultch’s Historic Theater with a brand new production titled “Hurricane Mona”. The play uses elements of drama and absurd humor mixed in with some real climate talk and ecological emotions. Aiding her

With her ninth novel, “Silver Nitrate,” Silvia Moreno-Garcia has cemented her reputation as one of the most prolific contemporary novelists of our time. The novel follows lifelong friends, Montserrat and Tristán. The duo finds themselves confronted by Nazi occultism worked

In his latest novel, “The Double Life of Benson Yu,” Vancouver writer, Kevin Chong, uses deeply inventive narrative methods to understand the stories we tell ourselves to process trauma. As a young boy growing up in 1980s Chinatown, Benson finds himself all alone after

“Sculpting the Giant ” documents the 28-year long process of Indonesian sculptor Nyoman Nuarta’s dream of completing the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (aka GWK), a 122-meter tall statue in Bali, Indonesia.  Originally hired to document the statue’s construction for archival purposes,

Trigger Warning: This review mentions a person’s experience with PTSD as a result of sexual assault.  “I Used to be Funny” follows Sam Cowell (played by Rachel Sennott), a comedian in Toronto who balances her income as an au pair

The 2023 Edition of Vancouver International Film Festival ran from September 28 to October 8. VIFF Live was a series of events curated to platform artists who sought to expand beyond the cinematic experience. The most anticipated event of this

The 2023 Edition of Vancouver International Film Festival ran from September 28 to October 8. VIFF Live was a series of events curated to platform artists who sought to expand beyond the cinematic experience.  The first event at VIFF Live,

“Richelieu” is director Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s debut feature film that explores the brutal treatment of temporary foreign workers at a food processing plant in Richelieu, Quebec. The fictional plot derives inspiration from the real stories of numerous Guatemalan farm workers who

Back in 2018 I was a broke student living in Edmonton. One summer evening, I serendipitously stumbled into a bar after school. This bar happened to be one of the many venues for that year’s Fringe Festival. I don’t remember

Set in the bleak rural landscape of post-Brexit North England, “The Old Oak” tells a deeply human tale about Syrian refugees and the local resistance against their peaceful assimilation. The story begins in 2016 when the town is well-past its

Even if you have seen a flamenco performance before, nothing can prepare you for the talents of Spanish dancer and choreographer, Rocío Molina. She has contemporized a dance tradition loved by the world across centuries. She has done this with

Vancouver’s annual 46th Folk Music Festival made its return after a three-year pandemic hiatus. The three nights of the festival were each attended by three of our brilliant writers who eloquently put into words below what it was like to

Summer is here and so is one of Vancouver’s summer staples – Theatre Under The Stars with a brand new season of awe-inspiring musical theater. The Vancouver Arts Review attended the opening night production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical

This might be unorthodox – I want to begin this review on a personal note. I am an obsessive gift giver – I tend to expend copious efforts to plan and execute personalized birthday gifts for loved ones. This time

After a 3-year long wait, Fez Faanana AKA Shivannah has finally arrived in Vancouver with his sensational troupe of gender bending artists, much to everyone’s delight! The aptly named show, Dirty Laundry is chock-full of entertainment – there’s acrobatics, juggling,

Millennial book-lovers might remember the 2000’s as the heyday of “epic-fantasy” bestsellers. Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” was one such series that successfully implanted Greek gods and mythical creatures into the average teenager’s consciousness. Last Sunday, the fantasyland

The Wrong Bashir is set in present day Vancouver and depicts the intergenerational story of a wonky Ismaili family. The comedic plot highlights the absurd relationship dynamics and idiosyncrasies one tends to witness in displaced and migrant communities. Bashir Ladha

Our world exists in the realm of glaring contradictions – humans yearning to express love are ordered to perform hatred; children and grandchildren of trauma survivors are taught cultural lores that are incompatible with the current material reality; parents who

Photo credit: Ontroerend Goed Are we not drawn onward to new erA is a theater production that casts a reversible gaze on human actions that have led to climate change. The show, just like its title, is a palindromic sequence.

  My oldest memory of a book library comes from early schooling years in Bangalore, India. I attended an institution that was run by Catholic Missionaries who embraced an ethic of strict discipline with mandated obedience to authority. The school

Can art exist in a world that routinely endorses hegemony and oppressive systems? Is it possible for artists to occupy a place of relevance in the midst of contradictions that disregard human life for material profit? Soliloquio (I Woke Up

  Author’s note: As an outsider to African culture, I am not privy to many of the deeper symbols, sounds and movements that were invoked during the performance. So, I have not attempted to critique or analyze those aspects in

Historic Theatre, The Cultch is featuring a verbatim production, In My Day from December 2nd to December 11, 2022. Presented by ZeeZee Theatre and written by Rick Waines, this production shines a light on the stories of those affected by

“Angel’s Bone follows the plight of two fallen angels whose nostalgia for earthly delights finds them far from heaven. They are found battered and bruised by a man and his wife, known only as Mr. and Mrs. X.E., who have longed

The Vancouver Arts Review received an invitation to review re:Naissance Opera’s 3rd annual Indiefest. The program brochure mentioned a lineup of 14 events happening over 11 days from November 16 to 27. We attended a few events and were blown

Have you heard the saying, “Art has the capacity to unravel the emotional recesses in one’s soul”? An audience composed of opera artists and other such industry insiders got an opportunity to internalize this saying during the Community & Industry

A new season of ballet is upon us. If “Overture/s” is any indication, we are in for a journey bursting with the energy that comes from having finally emerged from a pandemic, and from the desire to stretch our wings

I arrived at the Historic Theatre dressed in layers, on a chilly evening in Vancouver. The agenda:  to watch a crew of animal brethren perform a cabaret show called “The Cave”. On entering the theater, I got a sense that

The Honeys are back, and they are as sensational as ever! The beats, the rhythm, the dancing, the crowd-work, the pure unfiltered and unapologetic joy on stage is equally enchanting and contagious. It is the ultimate celebration of queer femmes,

We hit up another evening at the Fringe Festival and caught some wildly entertaining shows. There are still many great shows to see and we wish we could see them all! The Fringe continues all weekend so make sure you

The Vancouver Fringe Festival is back and we couldn’t be happier about it! It’s been a long two year wait to see the city’s most whimsical and boundary pushing theatre and performing arts festival back in full swing. The line-up

  We Will Rock You A whole-hearted standing ovation for We Will Rock You! From the plot to the music to the laced social commentary, We Will Rock You makes you want to get up on to your feet, sing,

“And then they woke up” is perhaps the most unholy way to end a story, and thankfully Shakespeare would never do that to an audience—he respects us too much. In his beloved comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, something more important

This week I stepped out of the unrelenting spring rain into Queen Elizabeth Theatre to check out the grand finale of Ballet BC’s 2021-2022 season. Emerging from the pandemic, slowly but surely, we are learning to get back to where

Historical fiction musical “The Invisible: Agents of Ungentlemanly Warfare” questions right and wrong in wartime. It follows the story of an all-female group of secret agents in World War II, tasked with sabotaging German supply lines and travel routes. This

As we waited in line to get our vaccine passports checked at the Vancouver Playhouse, the person behind me said to their date, “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. It’s going to be so good!” And just like

Rhodnie Désir’s BOW’T TRAIL RÉTROSPEK conjures a hopeful vision of the future despite the horrific history of the Americas. Presented by the Vancouver International Dance Festival and the Cultch, this work looks back on Désir’s previous works BOW’T and BOW’T

(Enjoy our bilingual review of this bilingual play! English words follow the Spanish below.) Algo que me fascinó de la obra Clean / Espejos fue el enfoque en el idioma. Me encantó lo completamente bilingüe que era la obra. Es que

With an outstanding ensemble cast, “Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer” takes you through twists and turns that will have you on a roller coaster of laughter and sobering truths. The wit and candor of the script combined with skillful

Whether or not the 1762 operatic premiere of the Orfeo ed Euridice love story was meant to be humorous is difficult to know. Vancouver Opera’s 2021 iteration at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre, however, married narrative drama with somatic comedy to

This week BalletBC rewarded Vancouver’s dance lovers with performances that were both beautiful and badass. Performances that screamed – dance is still here, art is still here, we are still here! With Medhi Walerski at the helm as Artistic Director, the

After waiting a full year and a half, Montreal dance company, RUBBERBAND, is finally in town with a show that investigates the upheaval and momentum of societal change. Director Victor Quijada founded RUBBERBAND to create space for fusing contemporary and ballet with

This years’ Vancouver International Burlesque Festival featured digital versions of their usual events. I attended Teach, Inspire, Transcend (T.I.T.) Talks, and the main event, the Anti-Showcase, curious to find out how an art form as intimate as burlesque would work

How many people would’ve recognized the genius of Basquiat at first glance? Even Warhol, his eventual patron and mentor, didn’t immediately anoint the soft spoken graffiti artist from the streets as the next great luminary in the pantheon of modern

On Wednesday night, I attended the launch party for Performance Lab’s Black Box Pizza Box. The Performance Lab (formerly Black Box) students created a box of “jollification essentials” inspired by Victorian era parlour games. Participants could pick up a pre-made

Proximity – a collection of short works features five dances woven into one mesmerizing 50 minute performance. Co-presented between the Dance Centre and PuSh Festival, the stream features two choreographies created by, and two pieces danced by, Joshua Beamish, and

Crystal Pite’s “Body and Soul” has me questioning what it is to be human, and whether it’s different than being any other animal. The incredible dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet take us on a journey exploring human nature and

In Heist’s “Frequencies,” Aaron Collier takes us on a journey that combines techno music, philosophy and deep interrogations of space and time. This live-streamed performance exceeded my expectations on all levels. I had not attended a theatre production for almost a year

When I tuned in to recent SFU graduate Caroline MacCaull’s 003_playback, I felt like I was watching two shows at once. There was the dance, of course, but the spectacle put on by the audience was equally diverting. Part of

  They’re throwing phrases around like “light at the end of the tunnel” and “new year, new beginnings” and “Vaccines! Vaccines! Vaccines!” 2020 was so off-script that feeling hopeful now feels like a trap. But hope is powerful. It is

“Black Bear” has been marketed as a cross between a thriller and a comedy. I’d say it’s a cross between a mushroom trip and a fever dream. Director Lawrence Michael Levine has created a work that is so novel it

The world premiere of the documentary Frida Kahlo at VIFF unsurprisingly adds little to the gargantuan body of work on Frida. In fact, the parts that were left out of the documentary become the most revealing elements in a film which otherwise

  The Giller Prize-Winning Writer on Craft, “Reproduction”, Academia, Workshopping, and His Pandemic-Edition Creative Process   I never understood why critics sometimes describe books as “devastating” but after reading Ian William’s “Reproduction,” I get why. The book is, at once,

As the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF), Anoushka Ratnarajah never imagined being faced with a task like this. Now in it’s 32nd year, the Festival has had to reinvent itself in the face of a pandemic

It has been a long time since I read “Romeo and Juliet” or watched the much-loved Claire Danes and Leonardo Dicaprio movie. What I remembered was young romance, two fighting families and distraught, unnecessary deaths. However, we barely needed a

I had no idea what to expect from “Le NoShow Vancouver” right up to the moment it started. I sat in the audience wondering “Is it a comedy? Is it improvised?”, then thought it couldn’t be improvised because there were

At first glance, a theatre show with a secret location may seem like an exclusionary practice rather than a way to build community. However, after descending into the theatre space, and entering the strange, slightly uncomfortable, but always thought-provoking world

From the minute we walked into the Vancouver Playhouse theatre for Carmen Aguirre’s new play, Anywhere But Here, we were already engrossed in the story. The set, a floor of sand with a backdrop of mountains, alluded to the desert

A night of laughs and splendour, “The Barber of Seville”, is a familiar opera that never gets old. The artful direction by Ashlie Corcoran and impeccable music from the astute orchestra led by Nathan Brock gives life to a spectacle

“Footnote Number 12” is a contemporary theatre experience made by and for word-nerds. It’s a composition of speech. It questions the politics of language by deconstructing words, sentences, and writing styles. It explores the voice as an instrument, using various

“Unikkaaquat” is a wonderful circus show illustrating Inuit creation myths. What a privilege it was to watch this show – to have performers bring these stories to my hometown for me and other Vancouverites. From 1880 to 1951, Indigenous cultural

It is easy to see why “Kuroko” sold out its first week and the Cultch added an extra performance. The play is fun, emotional, and educational – everything you could want in a single show! I heard lots of laughter

“This is not a story about a long time ago, but about now” says a PuSh Festival presenter. This is the perfect way to describe 2B Theatre’s “Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story”. The show is set in 1908 but

Merry Kiss-mas – A Royal Roaring Fest!   “Merry Kiss-mas – A Royal Romance” is all you could hope for the holidays and more! It’s the perfect night out with friends and family, and almost therapeutic since the troupe had

Dancers of Damelahamid are back on the Vancouver stage with their newest offering, “Mînowin.” The brand new show explores the process of recovering and re-interpreting Indigenous teachings over multiple generations, through story, dance, and music. The show’s choreographer, and Executive

Emily Molnar is leaving Ballet BC and this is her last season. She has transformed Ballet BC from a predictable dance company into a force of the future. So with some sadness in my heart, and wanting to lap up

When I get on the phone with Gwen Benaway for our Saturday morning, coast to coast call, it’s a happy occasion. Gwen has just become the first trans woman to be nominated for a Governor General Literary Award for Poetry.

Bard on the Beach took a chance through a new twist to Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well”. This story of a secret unrequited love is set during the India-Pakistan Partition era, where an Indian woman falls in love with a British

We’re mid-October and it’s a time as good as ever to look back at the shows that moved us in September at the Vancouver Fringe. Many of these shows will continue on the worldwide Fringe circuit and we might even see

Jiv Parasram begins “Take d Milk, Nah?” with his distaste for “identity” plays. He goes on to explain their structure, their predictability, and how all of them talk about snow, especially the Canadian ones. At first, I just couldn’t stop moving

I have a confession to make. Before Vancouver Opera’s “La Traviata” I had never been to the opera. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought everything would fly right over my head. But that is, thankfully, not the experience

“The Shipment” has returned to Vancouver after sweeping the Jessie’s for its debut run a few years ago. The play is the proud work of playwright Young Jean Lee and has toured North America since 2009. Ten years on it

Guards at the Taj This show brought the house down to its feet– it’s a must-see! This is by far a polished piece for the more experimental atmosphere of the Fringe. I was blown away by the acting, the story,

Monica Ogden’s Fringe show is about the toxicity of the Internet. It’s about trolls. It’s about racism. It’s about being of mixed heritage and it’s about the perpetual internal conflict that heritage comes with. But most of all, “Monica Versus

“Amelie” at the Firehall Arts Centre is a full blown musical squeezed into 90 minutes. Fans of the movie get everything that they came for. It is romantic, it is heart warming, it is visually textured, layered and cosy. The cast

And just like that, we’re thick into Fringe season! It’s raining outside but summer is still bumbling around. The wind is still warm and friendly. It feels like a cloudy summer day with the hint of October approaching. The school year

In “Bike Face” a very charming narrator takes her audience across Canada on a hair-raising adventure. Natalie Frijia’s writing is poetic and intelligent. She conjures up the scenery accurately as she recreates her journey from Halifax to Vancouver. Natalie’s storytelling is so vivid and

I entered the glassed gallery at the SFU downtown building, welcomed by a veil of paper, lit and suspended into the air. There, swayed frozen the work by Minahil Bukhari. In her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduating exhibition, Minahil

Musicals are polarising. You’re either a diehard fan or run in the opposite direction from them. “Silence! The Musical” brings some unique and unconventional draws to this controversial genre. It’s based on a movie that most people have seen and the

Melissa Major and The Cheshire Unicorn’s “I Feel You” opens with six individuals playing with an imaginary soccer ball and passing it around to each other. They are drowned in their own world, yet connected. They are surrounded by the

It was a movie about a play, and now it’s a play about a movie about a play. The transition is surprisingly seamless, and in some ways, “Shakespeare in Love” works better as a play because it situates the audience

When your evening begins with a handsome man in glittering platform shoes ushering you to your seat, you know you’re in for a great time.  And that’s what we had at the latest instalment of the Vancouver Men’s Chorus concert

With elegant gowns flowing through the reception hall, I found myself tantalized with thoughts of what Cinderella must have felt like at her ball—equal parts of awe and feeling out of place. As a newbie to the Opera domain, I

The “River of Light” premiered as part of the 2019 Vancouver Opera Festival. The show included seven movements and featured soloists (opera singers and poetry readers), choir, and orchestra. Each movement was based on a different spiritual text “that describe

Erin Shields’ “Beautiful Man” does more than just flip gender roles. It exposes the absurdity and the downright mental perversity that we succumb to when adhering to these arbitrary roles. You’re probably thinking, I’ve seen many works that show a

Ballet BC’s “Program 3” was a modern emotional ride in the best sense. The first piece, “Bedroom Folk”, brought us inside ourselves. It was like watching the private life of our neighbours. The second show, “Poesia”, was a delicate exploration

If ever enchanted by Cinderella, see Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”. It’s a lively, more complex, and humorous version of the beloved fable. Part of what makes this opera accessible is its feverish music written in a flash by Gioachino Rossini and

“Nassim” is unexpected and absolutely brilliant! In an unconventional show where a new actor performs every night without any prior knowledge of the script or concept of the play, “Nassim” takes us far away into another city, only to bring

There is nothing better than having time fly by at the opera! “Faust” is a gripping tale of making a contract with Satan and exploring what we really desire if we had the choice. The classic story warns us that morality

“Angélique” is an important Canadian play. It shows us how little we know about our country and its less than savoury past. It is not as difficult a watch as you would imagine, and in doing so it teaches and

Three cheers and a couple of rhythmic claps for “Cuba Vibra!” This nearly two-hour performance, divided by a short intermission,  showcases exquisitely hypertalented Cuban dancers in eclectically thematic dance numbers. Some are accompanied by a live band, lined upstage behind the dancers,

“Hot Brown Honey” is back in Vancouver. After its run last year, it left rave reviews and awestruck audiences. This is an Australian troop of six fiery women, who refuse to be quiet about the inequalities they see. Celebrating and

Everything you expect from a theatrical piece titled “School Girls: An African Mean Girls Play,” you get and then some! For women of colour specifically, watching an all black and all female cast is a special and rare treat altogether.

Ballet BC’s “Program 2”, features three pieces from internationally renowned choreographers, Jorma Elo, Adi Salant, and Crystal Pite. It is a nicely balanced program, contrasting classical prowess with conceptual richness. If there is a commonality between themes investigated, it is

The description for “Palmyra” sounds heavy: a show with only two men, full of broken plates, and named after a Syrian city known for its incredible art and architecture – which was tragically destroyed by ISIS. And “Palmyra” is heavy –

Child sexual abuse is not the easiest theme to tackle. We attended “Grace” on the day of the Women’s March here in Toronto, which unwittingly heightened our expectations of the production. In the #metoo era, an exploration of sex abuse survival

When Julia Croft comes on stage and plays with the microphone for a good ten minutes, no one in the audience knows what to expect. The sounds are that of her making through her performance, but the show has little

It was chilling, and not because bricks of dry ice were being pulled from a family sized cooler. The scene was dark and the room was quiet—in the beginning. Tetsuya Umeda walked across a wide room effortlessly navigating a collection

Cecily Nicholson won the 2018 Governor General’s Award for English-language poetry for her latest book, “Wayside Sang”. She has two other books of poetry called “Triage” (2011) and “From the Poplars” (2014). “Wayside Sang” concerns entwined migrations of Black-other diaspora coming

If there is anything “freak cabernet” about the Dakh Daughters, it’s that they hug the freak within themselves. A troupe of six actors take up instruments, and in absolute punk spirit, play them unabashedly for 80 minutes. Dakh Daughters have one

From the surprise of a party to the delicious daal and rice – “Mrs. Krishnan’s Party” is delectable! Theatre in of itself is so enjoyable but when espoused to an interactive party at which you are a guest and participant, the

The Vancouver Men’s Chorus  (VMC) is Canada’s first gay chorus. Founded in 1981, it now has 130+ members. The company put on several shows a year, both at home in Vancouver and across Canada. It is therefore with some embarrassment

On a cold Thursday Vancouver night, “Bombay Black” gripped every audience member in the Firehall Arts Centre. It had been a while since I’d held my breath watching a truly riveting drama and feeling unpredictability linger in my chest. One minute

To start, I’m not a dancer. When I watch dance performances, I’m not sure when to clap because I don’t know which moves are the most difficult. They all look hard to me! And yet dancers have a unique ability

This being the sixth time for the East Van Panto, it was predictably an astounding success! The production brought audiences from all walks and stages of their lives- children. entire families enjoying this as a holiday affair, the elderly, and

My dearest Vancouver Arts Review reader, It is with much alacrity that I write to tell you about the recent developments at the great house of Pemberley. It’s been two years since Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet put aside their pride

When I sat down with Sarah Henstra at the cosy, chandelier-lit “Wallflower” in Parkdale, it became apparent to me early on that everything about Sarah- her stories, her job, her life, have been shaped by love for literature. This fall

When I entered Toronto’s Four Seasons Theatre the cold was climbing, and when I left, the streets were coated with a fresh dusting of powder. But for the time that I was watching this ballet, I was wrapped in a

After a rigorous two weeks of apartment hunting in Toronto, my partner and I found ourselves signing the lease on a snug one bedroom on the border of Roncesvalles and Parkdale, a historically Polish neighbourhood. We had just missed the

Kick off the festive season with a lyrical Christmas vacation courtesy of the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, as they return with this year’s “Making Spirits Bright” concert (8th-15th Dec St Paul’s Anglican Church). Following the rollicking fun had at the summer show, we

There is nothing ordinary about this performance though it seeks to normalize things we might not otherwise see in public spheres. “Public and Private”, as the name suggests, pushes the audience to question and look beyond the superficial. The diverse

Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” beckons thoughts of rich aristocrats, gold tapestries, Russian revolutions and beautiful yet troubled heroines. Some of us have braved its 800 pages while others dream of the day we can finally cross it off our reading

Ballet BC’s 2018/ 2019 session has begun with the wonderfully eclectic “Program 1” which showcases works spanning three decades of contemporary dance. The line-up balances a tumultuous and poetic piece, “Enemy in the Figure” from 1989, by celebrated choreographer William Forsythe,

“Backbone” is the latest show by the Australian circus group Gravity and Other Myths. Directed by Darcy Grant, the performance reflects an organic composition of playful interactions through extraordinary dance and acrobatic talent. It has a Cirque du Soleil vibe

The play “Sweat”, comes with a bit of a fanfare. It won the Pulitzer Prize last year (for Drama), and during its Broadway run was heralded as showcasing the zeitgeist of our age, the blue-collar discontent which was in part

There are plays that tug at your heartstrings and you know, once you’ve witnessed them, that they will never leave you. “The Ones We Leave Behind” is just such an experiential piece that stays with you because it talks about

Bathed in extravagance and out-of-this-world costumes and set design, Franz Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” was a smash-hit on its opening night in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. This operetta is an indulgent treat! It is a marvellous display of

The year is 2178. The last woman on earth is haunted by a question: Do humans deserve a second chance? Granted, it didn’t work out great the first time. Homo-sapiens’ insatiable appetite for earth’s resources has created optimum conditions for a deadly

When I walked into the Culture Lab, I was welcomed into a home. It felt familiar, with floral couches and pictures of the Golden Temple, which I am accustomed to seeing in many Punjabi Sikh homes. “A Vancouver Guldasta”, thus,

“Dear Elizabeth”, Wunderdog Theatre’s most recent project, explores the thirty year relationship between American poets Sarah Bishop and Robert Lowell. From 1947-1977, the literary duo shared the ups and downs – divorces, the death of a partner, the birth of

The Other Side of the Flood   “The Other Side of the Flood” is a one-man show that sheds light on the traumas we face from political action, or lack there of, war and violence through our investment and ubiquitous

  Surrendering to the best indie musicians shred guitars, framed by endless expanse of summer air and the earthy gradients of cliffsides, is an essential part of the West Coast music festival experience. As far as settings go there are

It’s fair to say that being in your 72nd session justifies the title Vancouver summer institution. “Theatre Under the Stars” (TUTS) continues a long tradition of outdoor theatre in Stanley park dating from 1934 (with some hiatuses over the years

Every year Vancouver’s theatre community gathers to recognise the hard work of its members at the Jessies. For its 36th year, the ceremony was held at the scenic Bard on the Beach Main Stage. It was wonderful to see our city’s

When it comes to comedy, self-deprecating humour is king. In Vancouver TheatreSports’ Avocado Toast – Vancouver Grown Organic Free-Range Comedy, some of the city’s most talented improv comedians take a shot at the crown, poking fun at the colourful clichés

The sun was shining on the grassy fields of Jericho Beach for the 41st Vancouver Folk Festival last weekend. The lineup boasted of folk musicians ranging from the new and emerging to the well-known, mainstream kingpins. Headliners Neko Case, The Dead

Bard on the Beach’s “Timon of Athens” is Shakespeare at its best. Director Meg Roe has taken a script that is convoluted, difficult to decipher, and, many scholars believe, actually unfinished, and turned it into a meaningful and thought-provoking commentary

Part of the Dancing on the Edge Festival, “Volcano” investigates how, for better or worse, sometimes inexplicable events can interrupt the frenetic bustle of modern life. The particular event under the spot light was the Icelandic eruption of 2010, which caused

The Gameplay “The Gameplay” is a two-person play centred on the contrast between a boy’s relationship with the physical world around him and that with the world in an online video game. The show explores the strangeness of interactions we have with

Katharine Ferns Is In Stitches Brave has a new name and it is Katharine Ferns. This Fringe show is a dark comedy and stand-up routine that keeps us on the edge for the entire hour. There are times when we laugh,

  4’33” in Baghdad Referencing John Cage’s musical composition, “4’33” in Baghdad” is not what it seems. It goes back to the recent past, and the persisting present of the riveting Middle East, to reveal how music might have been

If ever there was a Shakespearean work that was summery, breezy and required minimal mental cardio, “As You Like It” is it. The Bard on the Beach team has set this sangria-like romantic comedy to the backdrop of 1960s Vancouver

There’s Sherelle. She’s exhausted. She’s a Yale PhD, but that doesn’t matter because she’s black and a woman and there’s no way she could have gotten to where she is today with only brains and talent. Sherelle is tired. So

Lois Anderson is directing Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata”, a riotous comedy from 411 BC playing at Bard on the Beach from July 6th to September 13th. Her many roles at Bard have included Paulina in the “Winter’s Tale”, Viola in “Twelfth Night”,

Granville Island is about to get a whole lot funkier from Friday, as the Vancouver Men’s Chorus (VMC) brings us six days of music and celebration, paying homage to the ‘Gays of Our Lives’. On at Performance works from June

Aeriosa has been part of Vancouver’s cultural landscape for almost a decade now. And quite literally so! The dance company has performed aerial dance pieces amongst the lofty branches of Stanley Park trees, on the textured cliffside of the Stawamus Chief,

“Les Filles du Roi”, a new piece by creative duo Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac, is a historical reimagining. It follows the story of Marie-Jeanne, played by McIsaac, a young “fille du roi”, who discovers that the “new world” is

If you’re looking for upbeat entertainment, dance galore and music that’ll have you singing in the shower for weeks – “The Smash-Hit Musical Based on the Songs of ABBA: Mamma Mia” is a must this summer! This show has been tried and

In “12 Minute Madness” playwright, director, professor and choreographer, Raïna von Waldenberg, goes where few dance shows dare to go. Using twelve characters to depict the twelve psyches that inhabit the mind of a child sexual abuse survivor, von Waldenburg

Ballet BC dazzles again with “Program 3” at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Showcasing three works, which are loosely linked together through the use of the human voice in their musical accompaniment. It is an audacious program full of textural and

An opera singer called the “Queen of Baroque,” a revered music director/conductor of three baroque orchestras, and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra merged their talents on May 6th at the Chan Centre. Marked by winged flights of operatic undulations, violins conversing

The Pemberton Ice Cap (photographing the hand-stitched panorama below) Taking helicopters to remote mountaintops, some covered in snow, ice and glacier lakes, others barren, remote, desolate and hot. Wind blowing in your face, sun beating down, rain, maybe hail. Stitching

How can we best introduce children to the splendid array of instruments in an orchestra? On an afternoon crowned with cherry blossoms and sparkling waters around Vancouver, it was this pedagogical question that eventually enabled numerous children to crowd into the

Have you ever felt like your heart filled to the brim and drained all at once? If art is meant to touch the soul, this opera lurches and grabs every inch of you and refuses to let go. Based on

This year’s Vancouver Opera Festival has a Russian White Nights theme, paying homage to the solstice festival held in St Petersburg every year. There’s plenty going on, but the two headliners are pieces that interpret important works of Russian literature. One

Those who find that the opera is an artform not meant for the masses can rejoice in Vancouver Opera and Toronto’s Canadian Stage Company and Tapestry Opera’s production of Nikolai Gogol’s 1842 short story. “The Overcoat – a musical tailoring” 

Watching “World Without Us” and “The Explanation” back to back at the Cultch, and in that order, was serendipitous. On the surface, no two plays could be further apart but in retrospect, it’s clear that they share the same core

I would like to acknowledge that Vancouver is on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish,and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations- Maddison Miller “Sandra Semchuk’s work reminds us of the necessity to continually rethink our positions as artists, as

Never one to shy away from controversy, Canadian visual and performance artist, Adrian Stimson, has been asking difficult questions with his art for decades. He has done so with humour and a perspective like no other. Often drawing from his

An extravaganza of daring art and epitome of beauty, Vancouver Fashion Week 2018 brought together diversity in all shades and a spectrum of aesthetics. From urban chic footwear from Samuel Tick you can’t wait to wear, to picturing yourself as

“Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen” is a tribute like no other. In it, we witness an artist’s love for music. His journey as a composer shines through in a theatrical orchestration of musical talent and spectacle. “Chelsea Hotel” commemorates

When Cheyenne Mabberley and Katey Hoffman debuted “The After Party” at the 2016 Fringe Festival, no one was prepared for the theatrical phenomenon the show would become. It won the Pick of the Fringe, Cultchivating the Fringe Award as well as

This Italian dance company’s ensemble featured two pieces. Like two sides of a coin they contrasted, yet complimented each other. Both were set to well known classical scores, but that is where the similarities end. One evoked a dark and

The Crazy8s gala is a screening of 6 short films that were shot and produced within 8 days. Beginning at The Centre downtown followed by an after-party at Science World, it is also the time when the film fauna of

Ballet BC have never disappointed me and their latest creation, “Romeo + Juliet” is no exception. It’s an interesting premise, taking a classical tale, in fact, one of the most well known in the western literary canon, and a much

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite the claws that catch”. What did I think of the Old Trout Puppet workshop’s production – “Jabberwocky”? Well, I don’t think I could put it better than Alice herself: “It seems

The big show of the PuSh Festival this year was “Eternal Tides” by proclaimed choreographer Lin Lee-Chen as part of Legend Lin Dance Theatre. The hype worked as Queen Elizabeth Theatre was packed on Saturday with a bustle of anticipation

Shakespeare’ s iconic play, “Romeo and Juliet” lay the solid foundations of our present-day ideas of love and romance, despite the wear and tear of four centuries. William Shakespeare vividly recreated the mad longing of young love, its reckless nature,

“Dublin Oldschool” is a labour of love. Whether conveying a love for a city as intriguing as Dublin, the love of doing things for the heck of it, the love for family, or the love of music, this show is

“It’s Dark Outside” was a delight. It was intrinsically sad yet uplifting, visually mesmerising and ultimately spellbinding. Its meaning is elusive at first. Pitched as a wild west mystery, we follow our weathered protagonist’s quest to understand the mysterious things

The beginning of “I’m Not Here” is just as the title suggests. One minute someone is there and then they aren’t. One minute the chair is there and then it isn’t. The performance asks and echoes, again, and again, “is

A show about Radiohead can only be accurately reviewed by a Radiohead expert. So we turned to an avid fan of the iconic band to check out “Radio Rewrite” at the Push Festival. Abhi’s perspective is not only valuable in the

I don’t know much about opera, in fact, historically my attitude has been one of disinterested ignorance. Listening or watching recordings of opera has never really moved me, apart from maybe the hard-hitting arias popularised on ice cream commercials. So

Cute is a dangerous word because when we say anything is cute we think it’s small and it’s frivolous and of course, feminine. We definitely don’t think cute is intellectual or extremely well versed in philosophy, history and ethics. But

A packed house in Roundhouse Mews on a rainy evening explains the transcendent experience that is MDLSX. Silvia Calderoni is beyond phenomenal and unflinchingly gripping throughout the 80 minute performance. Not one viewer felt the time go by. The Italian

Frédérick Gravel has produced “Some Hope For the Bastards” after a long string of successes. He has been felicitated the world over for concocting a fearless and modern strain of contemporary dance that embodies Montreal’s quirky and witty spirit. As an

What do we do with all these books? “Books” is a performance with and about books. In collaboration with four performers, director Patrick Blenkarn uses books and bodies to sculpt an encounter of ideas—chaos, order, labour, devotion, knowledge, and consumption.

Berlin has a special place in the hearts of Vancouver’s artists. It’s not uncommon to overhear snippets of conversations, at cafes and at concerts, about how someone just came back from a cleansing pilgrimage to the capital of breaking rules,

There’s no better way to dive into the clear waters of a new year than by exposing your eyes to fresh sights and wrapping your brain fibres around outrageous concepts. PuSH Festival never fails to give us this perfect social start that guarantees

Well. It’s almost over. But where did the year go? Time sure races by when you’re occupied with following Twitter feeds to make sure the world doesn’t explode. In 2016 we were fearful of the year ahead. Would we be depressed beyond

Each year we have our choice of Nutcracker performances, all are worthy accompaniments to your festive antics, but the grandeur of Queen Elizabeth Hall and the sumptuousness of Alberta Ballet’s rendition is something special. In this much-loved tale, we follow

Beauty and the Beast has a long history in modern culture. The elegant, French, classic film made in 1946 with Josette Day and Jean Marais, the iconic Disney animated feature of 1991, and more recently, Emma Watson’s splendid 2017 film

At the Cultch this festive season we’re treated to Ronnie Burkett’s much-loved cast of marionettes in an errrm… “organic” retelling of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. I say organic because the original story is used more as a guideline for Burkett

In the knowledge sharing, jargon pillaging world of the internet, different disciplines often reference one another. But even by today’s standards of cross-pollination, blending Quantum theory with dance is novel. Not to be deterred by a little impenetrably complex scientific

Last week in downtown Vancouver, The Dance Centre hosted talented choreographers and dancers so they could tell unique stories and blur the lines between genres of dance. We saw contemporary dance go places that we didn’t know existed. The visuals

I have always struggled with how to describe dance in words, a medium that can stir in us, without the use of words, an understanding that is so innate, so visceral. How do you use language to describe something that

Carousel Theatre for Young People has officially ushered in the holiday season with the staging of C.S. Lewis’s much loved classic “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” at Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island. The show follows the magical escapades of

Firehall Arts Centre’s latest staging of Playwright Drew Hayden Taylor’s ‘Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth’ is an emotionally charged and intricately woven tale of the tragedy that befell many families during the 60’s scoop. Audiences are immersed in

Things are not as they seem. If there was one central message in Alley Theatre and Neworld Theatres’s The Ridiculous Darkness, that may be it, but this kind of reduction doesn’t lend itself to the complexity of colonialism and capitalism. Led

Ballet BC’s 2017 opener, “Program 1” was a spectacular mind-bender of a show. A purely contemporary two-part effort by choreographers Cayetano Soto and Johan Ingers, it dug deep into two of the most relevant themes humanity is constantly confronted with, in

The magic of Narnia sweeps onto the Waterfront Theatre stage this holiday season as four siblings step through a wardrobe into an enchanted land filled with mythical creatures, talking animals, quests and dangerous secrets. Featuring a stellar ensemble cast including

  Vancouver’s contemporary dance scene takes centre stage in Dance In Vancouver, November 22-25. This biennial event provides a unique opportunity to experience the energy and innovation of contemporary dance generated by local artists. The 2017 edition features some of the West

Ballet BC opens its 32nd Anniversary season with an evening of visual storytelling by two celebrated dance artists at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, November 2-4 at 8:00pm.   Passionate and distinctly talented, Ballet BC’s company of dancers captivate audiences on home, national and global stages. Like never before, each

Currently, at Havana, Aenigma Theatre and Bright Young Theatre have teamed up to present a new work by Vancouver playwright Scott Button. The dark piece sees two young, lost souls on farfetched quests to rectify misfortune that has befallen their

For our third installment of Fringe Reviews, we have the first-class articulation of a talented Vancouver creative! Architect M is, well, an architect!, and her read of the shows is extremely creative. She is also a fan of art that takes

Today our guest writer Juljka Nadir reviews some very out of the box shows for the newest edition of our Fringe Reviews. Juljka is a Vancouver graphic artist and her reviews pay attention to the visual as well as the

If laughs are what you are looking for this year at the Fringe, you in some incredibly hilarious hands. Comedy is alive and kicking at our favourite theatre festival. Read on for our speedy reviews of sketch and stand up

When you watch a Company 605 performance, you see living, breathing masses of dancers travelling together, displays of extraordinary strength, cool, avant-garde electronic music, and the twists and turns of novel movement. Lisa Gelley and Josh Martin are the Co-Artistic

K’Valentine is the latest artistic gem to emerge from Chicago’s gritty and gregarious hip hop mines. She is part of a new wave of hip-hop that craves intellect and integrity. Chicago’s contribution to the Thinking Rapper’s Club boasts of names

If you’ve been to a Ballet BC show before you’ve likely spotted the confident form of the dance company’s Artistic Director hovering over Queen E’s decked out, hustling-bustling crowd, making sure the evening is rolling like a well-oiled machine. Her

The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival has been celebrating Vancouver’s Downtown communities for 13 years now. This year the Festival returns to showcase the rich cultural history of an iconic neighbourhood, on Wednesday, October 26 going all the way

Canadian Women in Public Relations (CWPR) has been bringing together leading business women who strive for excellence in the field of public relations at sophisticated soirees on many occasions now. Their initiatives for empowering women in public relations and media

This batch comprises of the Fringe’s most unusual of offerings. Read on to find out more! Space Hippo You’ve heard the name at the end of every show, on top of every list of Fringe recommendations and be the subject

  Usually, Shaily Kamble is The Vancouver Arts Review’s behind the scenes, tech guru, but this week she tried her hand at a theatre review by attending her first ever Fringe Festival. Shaily is a software developer and a visual

As all Fringe performers will tell you at the end of their show: the best way to promote Fringe shows is by word of mouth. So we searched the far corners of this usually rainy but nowadays, uncharacteristically sunny city

We are mid-way through the Fringe week and crossing off shows on our list with excited fervour by the day. These one-hour theatre projects are more addictive than salted peanuts. Here are two more shows that wooed us in the last couple

Lovers of theatre, the arts, silliness, and just downright weirdness, rejoice for the Fringe Festival is back in Vancouver for its 32nd season! And what a season it is. With over a 100 shows staged across Granville Island and East

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival has been bringing the best of LGBTQ cinema from all around the world to Vancouver, for 28 successful years now. Each year the films get bolder, better and grow in number. The festival is a

If you haven’t seen Dancers of Damelahamid work their magic yet, the Cultch is giving you the opportunity of a lifetime this week. Brace yourself to witness one of the most important works of contemporary Canadian art. Dancers of Damelahamid

Ballet BC’s 2015/2106 season found its best possible conclusion in the very experimental “Program 3”. The show embodied everything that has set Ballet BC apart for 30 years now. Boldness, courage and ingenuity. The show ran for three nights from

The good folks at Vancouver West Side Theatre Society have been bringing the Chutzpah! Festival to the city, every year since 2001. This year the festival began in February and is now coming to a giddy conclusion this weekend. Chutzpah!

Medhi Walerski’s choreography has always embodied Ballet BC’s forward thinking, genre bending, adventurous ways. With “Program 2” he nudges his 21 dancers into creative formations that make for unforgettably stunning, retina burning, visuals. The show was staged at the Queen

Twenty years have passed since Vancouver actor and playwright, Camyar Chai, cordoned off an artistic space where genuine human connections could blossom. That ambitious space, Neworld Theatre, stands proud and tall today. After a long career marked by numerous theatre,

If you are feeling the slump after last month’s Galentine’s Day festivities, we have come up with currently airing TV shows that will let you get your female bonding right back on. Female-oriented TV is not what it used to

Toronto-based actors and playwrights, Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew Kushnir, are in hot pursuit of what it actually means to be gay. “The Gay Heritage Project” is a foray into world history. It seeks to uncover the thread of

I saw “Winners & Losers” a few years ago at the downtown SFU campus. I remember being struck by how I had never seen anything that real in Vancouver before. The show was a pop culture explosion. It was the

“War. What is it good for?!” Jerry Seinfeld proposed was Tolstoy’s original title for “War & Peace”. It was the first thing that came to my ADHD mind when I read up on Belgian theatre artist, Valentijn Dhaenens’ upcoming linguistic

Charles Demers describes his Push show as part theatre, part stand-up, and part TED talk. He carefully weaves hilarious one-liners into a personal story of loss and parenthood. Not only is Demers a stand-up comic who is part of CBC

The downtown Vancouver skyline has had a few glitzy additions lately. You have probably noticed the looming Microsoft and Amazon signs on prominent buildings. The two companies have opened local offices in efforts to create tech epicentres on West Coast,

Don’t you just love high school movies? High schools are mini ecosystems. They are fully-functional, standalone, model societies. High school is a time full of firsts. First glamorous team sport, first kiss, first guitar pick, first braces, first science experiment,

Last night Ballet BC hosted the Alberta Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. It was an evening brimming with feminine grace and acrobatic strength. “The Nutcracker” has long been a Christmas favourite. Not just because it is

The holidays are on the horizon and fast gaining speed. Calendars are filling up rapidly with nights promising eggnog and roaring fires. Stress level spikes will be inevitable! Amidst this manic festive ramp-up, the Commodore is bringing together Vancouver’s top Blues

  What is Christmas without a visit to “The Nutcracker”? A tedious affair, surely. Ballet BC has Vancouver covered for all its Nutcracker needs, with a lavish post-Christmas presentation by the Alberta Ballet. The beloved holiday Ballet will run at

Winnipeg playwright Tricia Cooper’s new play tells the story of a Canadian family who takes in one of The Lost Boys of Sudan. The project could not have come at a more apt time. “Social Studies” opens its two-week Vancouver

Ballet BC have managed to magically push the boundaries of dance yet again. They kicked off their 2015/16 Season with the spectacular “Program 1” last night, which sadly runs only till the 7 of November. The show presents works of

Assembly, Riverside and Poorna Jagannathan Production have taken on the highly ambitious task of reproducing the horrendous gang-rape that shocked the world on December 16th 2012. In “Nirbhaya” the crime is an instrumental backdrop for the real life stories of

I remember hearing about ‘Room’ when it was shortlisted for the Booker in 2010. I remember how the reviews were full of surprise at the innovation of the story and at the unusual choice of narrator. When you read ‘Room’,

Thank god for Shauna Singh Baldwin. She is Canadian. And Indian. And American. This puts her at an extremely unique vantage point from where she can explore matters of multiculturality and global sociology. A Canadian great in her own right,

Elizabeth Hay has a magical voice. A voice fit for storytelling. A voice tailor-made for radio. Hay has five novels to her name. Her novel “Late Nights in the Air” won the Giller Prize in 2007. The novel is an

Dutch writer Herman Koch wrote “The Dinner” in 2013. His novel examined European society’s hypocritical facade of morality. Two brothers and their respective wives get together for regular family dinners, which all of them secretly hate. The brothers operate out of

Hannah Kent’s very first novel, Burial Rites, is a stunning bestseller. The novel has already racked up nominations for various awards including the Guardian First Book Award. Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last Icelandic woman to

Mexican cinema is edgy. It is unafraid and almost always cinematically beautiful. I have seen many masterpieces in the genre, but never have I seen Mexico City portrayed quite like this before. Julio Hernandez Cordon shows us the underbelly of a buzzing

I don’t get musicals. Never have and never will. I am probably not the best person to talk about “London Road”. I can however weigh in from the perspective of an outsider to the genre. The film is set in a

Move over Lena Dunham, we like this pre-hipster portrayal of Brooklyn much better, thank you very much. “Brooklyn” is the romance I have been waiting to see for years. I absolutely wept through it. You know, I usually, of course

I knew little about Dan Mangan when I walked into the Cultch to watch “Are We Cool Now?” but I came out a believer! The strength of any musical is in the ability of its lyrics to fit the story

The Vancouver Art Gallery has had an exhibition on all through the summer called “Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Paintings“. That exhibit had a lot to do with me going to see “Wondrous Boccaccio”. If you haven’t

“Louder Than Bombs” is Danish director Joachim Trier’s first English language venture. He tells the story of Isabelle Reed, a war photographer who is deeply conflicted between being a great journalist, and a good mother and wife. Her mysterious death creates

And so it ends. Ten glorious days of theatrical chaos have finally come to a maddening conclusion. The awards were announced on Sunday night and the creme de la creme of shows were rounded up for the Pick of The Fringe.

This session brought on the feels for me. There were good laughs. Great ones actually. But I didn’t expect to be moved to the degree that I did. It was a pleasant surprise. Not all Fringe shows can be laugh-riots after

Today I learned that Vaudeville has made a major comeback in theatre. Popular in the early 20th century, Vaudeville shows put together individual performances by actors, comedians, singers, musicians, acrobats and magicians to create light-hearted entertainment. Red (or black) velvet curtains, heightened

Fall in Vancouver means two things: really confusing weather and the Fringe. Toronto gets a film festival, New York get fashion week and we get a week of rambunctious theatre. The Fringe was in full swing this weekend. Granville Island and

The Vancouver Fringe opened last night to the glee of the city’s theatre geeks. The line-up this year is bursting with its usual left-of-centre goodness. Playwright Munish Sharma brings cultural flavour to the festival this year with his dark comedy

Shana Myara has the coolest job in the world. She gets to watch and assess cool, avant-garde cinema for a living. We are jealous all right. Shana has been part of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) for a while

King Lear’s struggle with insanity makes for one of Shakespeare’s most dramatic tragedies. Bard On the Beach tackles the serious play with an extensive cast on the BMO main stage. Lovers of King Lear know that it is a long

Baba Brinkman traces the roots of faith from tribal animism to radical Islam to Justin Bieber thanking god at the MTV Teen Choice Awards in his latest show, The Rap Guide to Religion. The show fires up the Waterfront Theatre stage on Granville Island, for one

Summer in Vancouver seems incomplete without an outing to at least one Shakespearean play at Bard On The Beach. This year the line-up is eclectic and full of thematic twists. Shakespeare’s earliest and shortest play, not to mention one of

Realwheels Theatre has heart like no other theatre company in Vancouver. Their mission is to promote the respectful and accurate representation of disability in the public eye. The company has been responsible for producing shows that allow the talents of

Jay Dodge and Sherry Yoon are the creative forces behind Boca del Lupo, a Vancouver-based theatre company that has been challenging the boundaries of traditional theatre for more than twenty years. Their latest production Big Bad is part of the

605 Collective and Theatre Replacement get together to show The Sensationalists at the Cultch from May 12th to the 16th. The Sensationalists is primarily a dance show that takes “immersive theatre” to a whole new level. The show is 75

Ballet BC performs one of the most scandalous ballets of the 20th century, for the close of their fantastic 2014/2015 Season, and does not disappoint one bit. The Rite of Spring has said to have induced riots when it premiered

I was able to experience Webs We Weave in the perfect context – with a crew of high school students on a school outing. To sit among these high schoolers, as they watched their peers create and perform their own stories,

Proud has been doing the rounds of Canadian theatre circuits for more than a year now and people have not stopped talking about it. Political plays are hard to come by so it is no wonder that audiences flocked to

Norval Morrisseau’s artworks are characterised by their bright colours and thick black outlines. They tell stories of Ojibwe culture and myths. Magic, power and beauty are abundant in his work. The colours so bold that they demand a reaction. Morrisseau

Obaaberima is the show behind all the buzz in town. Winner of the Dora award in 2013 for Best Production, it comes to Vancouver on March 24 and runs for 11 nights. Tawiah M’Carthy is the man behind the brave

Cineastas is the story of four film directors in Buenos Aires and of each of their cinematic visions. In the play, one director is told by a friend over a bottle of vodka, about Eisenstein’s theory of two ideas superimposed to

There is a bold and brave contemporary theatre movement currently emerging in Brussels, Belgium and Kate McIntosh has brought Dark Matter over the Atlantic to give Vancouver a taste of this new creative wave. She takes the audience with her as

To Vogue or Bust is Vancouver’s most beloved fashion blog. Since its conception in 2010 it has taken on quite the following. The blog chronicles Alexandra Grant’s daily outfits along with relevant and profound writing pieces. Her posts feature lush

Vancouver International Film Festival 2014 wrapped up a wonderful 10 days of cinematic innovation this Friday. The festival brought out the dormant cinephile in every Vancouverite. The range of films this year was definitely not your everyday fare. Choosing a

Chad Rook is badass. I borrow the adjective from him as he uses it to describe the things he holds in the highest of regards: his character in the upcoming series pilot Flash, his prairie upbringing and resolute hard work.

Connally McDougall’s voice, as calm as the surface of a summer lake, does not give away that she has been up for most nights this month. Vancouver born and now residing in London, UK, Connally is working on showing her

I meet with Donna Benedicto (@donna_b4u) at a trendy café on Main Street, 49th Parallel. I immediately understand why she chose this particular place. It is buzzing with energy and creativity. Behind a sea of laptop screens there are countless