The Chutzpah! Festival presents Things My Dad Kept at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre on November 4 at 7:30 pm

RONIT RUBINSTEIN WAS helping her mother clean out their family home when she made an unexpected discovery: an archive of her entire family stored inside an unassuming filing cabinet.

It belonged to the playwright’s father, who passed away from cancer in 2012. His office was mostly left untouched for over a decade, but tucked away safely within those walls were endless files documenting every moment of each family member’s life—including that of his beloved daughter.

On November 4, Rubinstein’s Things My Dad Kept will make its West Coast premiere at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre as part of this year’s Chutzpah! Festival programming. Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, the one-woman show traces the artist’s personal journey of mourning, reflecting on her father’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor, her relationship with him, and the spontaneous nature of memory and grief. Her performance features humorous anecdotes, family history, and paper airplanes folded from images of her father’s files and thrown by the audience (a process that will also determine the chronology of the show).

Live description services will be available at Things My Dad Kept, presented as a Relaxed Performance with lower volume levels and dimmed lights.

Later in the week, on the morning of November 6, a storytelling workshop will take place at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Presented in partnership with the JCC Adults & Older Adults Program, the event will be led by Rubinstein as she guides participants through the process of creating their own stories that can be cherished by their loved ones.

More information on Things My Dad Kept and Chutzpah! programming can be found on the festival’s website here. 

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Music on Main presents BlackGate at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre on November 3 at 7:30 pm

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT a new-music composer finds himself performing for an audience of 13,000 people, but Caimin Gilmore isn’t just any new-music composer. The Irish musician is also an in-demand freelance double-bass player, which explains why, when Stir gets him on a Zoom call, he is fresh from a gig with Hozier at Dublin’s 3Arena the night before.

The occasion was the kickoff show of American rap superstar Macklemore’s three-show Free Palestine benefit tour. Hozier was a surprise guest at the concert, and Gilmore and other string players joined the Irish singer-songwriter for a six-song set that included the hits “Too Sweet” and “Take Me to Church”.

“This is the first night I’ve been at home in about six weeks,” Gilmore says. “I’ve been out on the road. I was actually just in Canada, in Montreal, with Teaċ Daṁsa, which is an Irish dance company, doing a piece called MÁM. I’m on the road with another two Irish singer-songwriters, called Declan O’Rourke and David Kitt, over the next couple of months.

“I think the instrument, the double bass, has been quite advantageous to me in being able to sustain just a performance career, because I can jump between orchestras and bands,” notes Gilmore, who admits that keeping a full calendar of such gigs is a double-edged sword. It certainly helps pay the bills, but it also has a downside.

“It’s quite hard to find time to write music, actually,” the composer admits.

Gilmore was able to carve out sufficient compositional time during a yearlong residency with Dublin City Council. With support from the Arts Council of Ireland, he used the opportunity to complete a commission from Galway’s Black Gate Cultural Centre.

The result is an album, aptly titled BlackGate, released in August of last year. For the recording, on which he played both double bass and a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, Gilmore recruited cellist Kate Ellis and harpist Lavinia Meijer. Throughout the four movements of BlackGate, the three musicians stack shifting melodies in ways that occasionally nod to both Baroque counterpoint and the sustained tones of 20th century minimalism, with the odd dip into musique concrète and white noise in the interstitial segues. It’s a successful melding of the avant-garde and the accessible, and while the individual movements sound free-flowing enough to suggest that some improvisation went on in the studio, Gilmore says that wasn’t the case.

He wrote it all, but he does give Ellis—artistic director Crash Ensemble, of which Gilmore is also a member—due credit for her artistic discernment.

“She had almost a producer role in the first recordings,” he says. “Because the initial first movement wasn’t really working, and she suggested scrapping it. I’m glad I listened to her, because then I wrote the current third movement, which is probably my favourite movement in it. So, in that way it was kind of collaborative, but every bit of music, bar the segues, is notated. 

“And then the segues are cut-away parts from the recording,” he continues. “The first movement that we didn’t do, we had recorded pieces of it, so I put that in. I kind of granularized it and just did lots of post-production on it. And that’s ‘Segue III’. The first segue is other found sounds and stuff that we recorded in the recording process that’s been manipulated. I kind of thought it was a nice idea to include sounds of the room, or sounds along the process into the pieces.”

Gilmore won’t be bringing the DX7 on the road with him, but he says he is keen to continue exploring electronic music-making. Specifically, he’s hoping to get a chance to use the Buchla 200e, a hybrid analogue-digital modular synthesizer system introduced by American synth pioneer Don Buchla in 2004 as a modern continuation of his classic 1970s Buchla 200 series instruments. There happens to be a 200e in the collection of the University of Limerick, where Gilmore’s electronic-music mentor, Neil O’Connor, is on faculty as a researcher and associate professor.

As for precisely what his intentions are when it comes to incorporating modular synths into his music, even Gilmore doesn’t know.

“Not really,” he admits. “I kind of like just doing it. And I’m lucky enough that, for the most part, I don’t have a block or anything when I’m doing it. It just kind of comes out. Something happens. So I wouldn’t intentionally think of anything too specific. The only specificity I have with the Buchla, for instance, is that I want to go deeper into microtonal and quarter-tonal harmony. In terms of the future, I like the idea of performing electroacoustic music with a modern twist on what would be deemed a classical ensemble.”

Wherever he takes his music, Gilmore can be assured that a growing number of people will be keen to hear it. BlackGate has been received warmly enough to afford him chances to showcase it abroad. In fact Gilmore, Ellis, and Meijer will be in Vancouver to kick off Music on Main’s 2026–27 season with a concert that will also include music by Philip Glass, Anne Cleare, and Meijer herself.

It’s opportunities like this one, Gilmore says, that encourage him to focus more on his own music and less on his career as a hired sideman.

“Because the compositional side is getting international gigs, it kind of shows me that I should put more time into it,” he says. “There’s a momentum behind it, so that I can say no to freelance gigs.”

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Ballet BC presents Bodies & Voices at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from November 5 to 7

IN A REHEARSAL STUDIO on Granville Island, two Dutch superstar-sibling choreographers are grappling with life and death. 

Marne and Imre van Opstal are fine-tuning a pair of contrasting pieces with Ballet BC: I’m afraid to forget your smile and Miriam. Both deal with the “full circle” of existence, as the duo puts it. 

I’m afraid to forget your smile finds six dancers navigating loss and mortality to the soaring voices of an onstage choir. The world premiere Miriam, on the other hand, explores the life-giving force of motherhood, and features the full, 22-member company. 

Both works—debuting at November’s Body & Voices program—mark the much-anticipated return of the brother-and-sister team, which first arrived here in 2022 with the raw, erotically charged Heart Drive. In the studio, their rehearsal process is about physical communication, movement, and feeling. As dancers lunge, squat, twist torsos, and carve the air in I’m afraid to forget your smile, the siblings take turns jumping up to demonstrate what they’re after—the way to snap back from falling backwards, or how to flick your hands in subtle invitation.

The van Opstals were world-class dancers in Nederlands Dans Theater, and Imre also performed at the renowned Batsheva Dance Company. Though they stopped performing almost six years ago, their perspective as dancers is still fresh.

“As long as we can still use our own body to show something, that is a great mirror for them, and then they can apply it to their own bodies,” Marne explains on a rehearsal break.

More than anything, Marne explains, communicating with the dancers through movement allows ideas to come from the body, as opposed to being dictated from the mind. That keeps the meaning open to personal interpretation—for dancers and audiences.

“It can be very dangerous when you think you know what you want to create,” asserts the artist, who with his sister works beyond dance across Paris runway shows, film, and large-scale concerts. “There’s a level in your creativity that is very fed through your intuition that you might lose because you start to overthink every decision you make. And you have to sort of hone in on this feeling, and then trust that things will emerge.”

Take the poignantly titled I’m afraid to forget your smile: the siblings reveal that the piece, originally created for Hessisches Staatsballett in 2022, was shaped by the profound memories that hit them after a personal loss. 

“When someone goes to the other side, we want to hold on to the memories,” Imre says. “What was their laugh? What was their smile? What was their smell? But we hope also that the piece is not necessarily about that itself, but more about the transition to the other side. It’s almost like showing how fragile our existence is—you have it, and then you lose it.”

In the creative process here, Marne relates, the pair was careful not to tie the piece too closely to their own story of loss, which they’re choosing not to describe specifically. 

“We were conscious of the fact we were touching a subject, obviously, that everyone has a personal relationship to,” he explains. “When we were creating, we were interested to hear how the dancers look at the topic of mortality, and what was their first experience with death? We really wanted to allow them to have a personal connection to the piece.

“It’s almost like otherwise you’re overexplaining something, and it doesn’t leave room for other possibilities,” he adds. “So you want to be quite careful sometimes with what you share. That’s why we really had a physical approach into work.” 

The van Opstals describe the set, with lighting by renowned designer Thomas Visser, as a purgatory- or limbo-like space that resembles a laboratory or waiting room. A huge component of the new piece is the presence of the soaring live voices, courtesy of 16 members of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, performing the transcendent work of composers like Eric Whitacre and Jóhann Jóhannsson while seated on benches that stretch along three sides of the stage. 

“Everything you hear and see comes from the human body,” Marne says, “so it’s produced from the body, from our own mortal vessel. That’s also why we wanted to work with the choir. It is creating this ethereal layer, this sort of essence that is always around us, but that we might not always get our hands on. Maybe only in the end of our life, we’ll get a glimpse of what’s on the other side. That’s being portrayed through the voices of the singers, and then we have the mortal, the visceral, the real, which is the flesh of the dancers, in a way. So those were the two layers that we wanted to present.”

Adds Imre of the music: “It already is so dramatic, so encompassing and overwhelming. And so we wanted to be very careful to go in contradiction with that a little bit, by keeping the physicality alive, to keep it rich, to keep it also playful at times.”

Miriam also draws on some specific inspiration: the new commission is named for the pair’s own mother. But the full-company work has ended up drawing on a much more expansive idea of motherhood as a force, as Imre puts it, “that’s bigger than us”.

She says the piece centres around the wider idea of the mother figure as a source of creation. 

“We all start inside someone else’s body. Before we even had an identity, or even a sense of self, or even have language, there was a presence, and there was warmth, and there was rhythm, and we heard sounds,” Imre explains. “That presence with a mother—that’s like your first home. It’s the first relationship you have with someone else.”

Both describe Miriam as energetic and powerful, with Amos Ben-Tal’s original music incorporating primal drum rhythms, guitars, and other acoustic instruments.

“It’s something that is ancient—we didn’t want to place it necessarily in the now,” Marne says. “We want to get to an energy of something that is older.”

“We wanted to create a sort of warm environment—this encapsulated sensation of being held by something bigger,” Imre emphasizes. “I think it’s almost this feeling of maybe what we are all looking for as adults, unconsciously. Maybe we want to be held by something bigger again.”

For the van Opstals, the past year and a half has been a whirlwind of new creations at companies like Paris Opera Ballet, NDT, and Dresden’s Semperoper Ballett, not to mention choreography for a candlelit Cruise 2026 show by Dior in Rome. 

In demand around the globe, they’re thrilled to be circling back to Ballet BC to open the company’s 40th season, with new works. 

“They’ve grown so much within those four years,” remarks Imre, pointing to the performers. “That’s really a privilege, to have dancers that have already touched your work before. It’s like, you don't have to start all the way from zero. They already know what you’re looking for. They already understand your language, and so that saves a lot of energy also from our side—and just magnifies how they execute things.”  

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Jazz music lovers are in for a real treat: legendary trumpeter Jon Faddis takes the stage at Capilano University Centre for the Performing Arts (formerly BlueShore at CapU) on November 27 at 7:30 pm.

Celebrated musician Faddis was mentored by renowned jazz pioneer Dizzy Gillespie, who he played with for decades. Closely mirroring Gillespie’s virtuoso style early in his career, Faddis later served as musical director for several tribute bands devoted to his mentor, including the acclaimed Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars.

For this concert, Faddis shares his Dizzy charts with CapU Jazz ensembles in a thrilling program of music for both jazz orchestra and smaller ensembles.

Faddis played with Lionel Hampton and Charles Mingus in his early career before becoming a noted studio musician in New York. His distinct trumpet appears on hundreds of artists’ records, from James Brown to Paul Simon. His solo career has yielded numerous stellar albums, including the Grammy-nominated Remembrances.

Tickets are available at CapU Centre.

Post sponsored by CapU Centre.

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THE CANADA COUNCIL for the Arts has announced the finalists for the 2026 Governor General’s Literary Awards, and there are a few B.C.–associated names among the nominees.

The awards recognize books published in Canada in both English and French,  highlighting the work of writers, translators, and illustrators.

Up for the English-language fiction award is Kim Fu’s The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts (HarperCollins Canada). Although Fu is currently based in Seattle, she was born in Vancouver to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and studied creative writing at UBC. Fu’s third novel, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is up against Sharon Bala’s Good Guys (McClelland & Stewart), Sara Peters’s Mother of God (McClelland & Stewart), Kaye Cayley’s Property (Coach House Books), and Nina Dunic’s Suddenly Light (Invisible Publishing).

In the English-language poetry category, Burnaby’s Brandi Bird received a nomination for Pitiful: Poems (House of Anansi Press).  This is the Saulteaux, Cree, and Métis poet’s second nomination in this category; the first came in 2024 for their collection The All + Flesh.

Vancouver-based artist Julie Morstad received a nomination, alongside Toronto-based author Kyo Maclear, in the Young People’s Literature—Illustrated Books category for A Door Is to Open (Tundra Books).

Jovanni Sy is a familiar name to local theatre audiences. From 2012 to 2109, he was the artistic director of Richmond’s Gateway Theatre. During that time, Sy premiered the play Nine Dragons in 2018, in a staging coproduced by Gateway, Vertigo Theatre and Winnipeg’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. That play won a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Script, and a Winnipeg Theatre Award for Outstanding New Work.  He also penned Lasa Ng Imperyo (A Taste of Empire, a PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and Boca Del Lupo presentation in 2025.

Currently based in Montreal, Sy cowrote the play Salesman in China with his wife and artistic collaborator Leanna Brodie; it’s a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, along with Jordan Tannahill’s Prince Faggot, Susanna Fournier’s PYPER, and Hannah Moscovitch’s Red Like Fruit (which played here at this year’s Warrior Festival at The Cultch). (All the nominated plays were published by Playwrights Canada Press.)

Although none of the nonfiction nominees have B.C. roots, at least one does have a local connection. Trina Moyles, the Whitehorse-based author of Black Bear (Knopf Canada) graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC in 2023. 

Other finalists in the category include  Miriam Toews’s A Truce That Is Not Peace (Knopf Canada), Greg Mercer’s The Lobster Trap (McClelland & Stewart), Adrian Sutherland’s The Work of Our Hands (Viking Canada), and Saeed Teebi’s You Will Not Kill Our Imagination (Scribner Canada).

The 14 winning books will be announced on November 12. For the full list of finalists, visit the Canada Council website.

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The Chutzpah! Festival presents Exile at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre on November 10 and 11 at 7:30 pm

WHEN FACED WITH uncertainty and turmoil, Meghann Michalsky turns to nature for clarity and reassurance.

“Like going for a walk and actually feeling the wind on my skin, because then you know you’re in the present moment,” the dance artist tells Stir over the phone. “I’m sure people have gone for walks and not felt the temperature or any sensation, but I actively seek those out.”

Nature also appears in her works. The choreographer-performer has produced several dance films that take place outdoors—on beaches and in forests and fields. But could she bring those experiences to the stage? Could she share that feeling of wind and water with a live audience?

Exile, presented at the Chutzpah! Festival on November 10 and 11, is her answer to those questions. Developed in partnership with Project InTandem (a contemporary dance production platform co-founded by Michalsky) and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the show is set in a world where clean air and water are scarce. The music, composed by Darren Young, incorporates euphoric water and wind sounds alongside energetic rock ’n’ roll. Michalsky and four other dancers (Reese Wilson, Kaili Che, Maddy Cruz, and Kelsie Vanstone) share the stage with rigid scaffolding, industrial fans, and clear water troughs, interacting with the sacred elements as they undergo spiritual transformation. Their tense, controlled movements carry a primal quality that often appears in Michalsky’s projects.

“Within this industrial setting, you will see big, virtuosic dancing and five women embodying risk and abandonment in their cellular structure,” she says of the choreography. “This type of physicality is also more rare in Western concert dance. We’re trying to sense euphoria in our bodies and cause chaos onstage, going through rounds of repetition that create change.”

The process of reconstructing oneself, Michalsky says, is inevitably uncomfortable and challenging. She likens the journey to that of being banished, and the title speaks to the feelings of vulnerability and loss. “In order to transform into something new, you have to let go of what you were,” she explains. “And not knowing what it will be like in the new version of you can feel like you’re exiled and displaced in your own skin.”

Onstage, that discomfort extends to the dancers’ physical conditions. She describes Exile as a kind of ritual, simultaneously fragmented and circular; the performance begins and ends with water, and the dancers repeatedly interact with different set elements to create a series of seemingly fractured images. After starting the show by lying inside a partly filled aquarium, Michalsky has roughly 45 seconds to change her clothes before her next scene. “I physically have to go from one element to another, so one moment I’m soaking wet and then I’m onstage still feeling the water dripping from my hair,” she says. “The sensation of being wet and then, by the end of the show, dry is a pretty unique feeling…and that’s also a transformation that’s actually real.”

For the artist, the towering scaffolding at the back is more than an addition to the industrial architecture. It also represents a framework within an individual, constructed by their personal experiences, whether positive or negative. She questions whether trauma actually fully leaves one’s body or does our reaction to it soften and our memory of it fade and it still stays somewhere faint in our cells.

Then there is wind. Five 42-inch industrial fans line the stage, filling the room with a loud, mechanical hum and powerful gusts of air that reach the audience. “The fans actually kind of dry out the space,” she adds. “Dancing a 60-minute show, and you have no saliva and there’s no air…The show is called Exile, so we are in the trenches with the environmental elements as well.”

Performing alongside her all-women ensemble, Michalsky reflects on the sense of interconnectedness she strives to achieve in all her projects. “I hope people can witness a version of themselves within the work, and that it brings a kind of peace to their own lives,” she says. “Life is hard and it’s always nice to see other people going through a similar experience.”  

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Zee Zee Theatre presents Hedwig and the Angry Inch—a loud, queer, iconic rock musical—at VIVO Media Arts Centre from November 12 to 29, with opening night on November 13 at 8 pm.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a four-time Tony Award–winning show. Part high-octane concert, part stand-up routine, and part heartbreaking confessional—all scored by a live band—it’s a story about love, survival, and the radical act of accepting who you truly are.

Written by John Cameron Mitchell, with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, this production is directed by Cameron Mackenzie (a.k.a. The Queen of East Van, Isolde N. Barron), with music direction by Brendan Steele.

Audience members are invited to arrive early for Hedwig’s Happy Hour at Hedwig’s “Hole in the Wall”. The bar will be open throughout the performance. A black-and-white dress code is encouraged, and folks who embrace the Hedwig aesthetic will get VIP seating.

Tickets are available through Zee Zee Theatre.

Post sponsored by Zee Zee Theatre.

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The Polygon Gallery presents Halloween at the Polygon on October 31 at 8 pm

ONE COULD EASILY make an argument that the decade of the 1980s was Halloween’s golden age.

Think about it. At the cinema—or in your VCR—you had John Carpenter’s Halloween franchise (okay, the first one came out in 1978, but it still counts), to say nothing of Friday the 13th, The Lost Boys, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

In your Walkman you had all the best Halloween songs ever recorded, from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1982) and Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters” (1984) to Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Halloween” (1981) and Ministry’s “(Every Day Is) Halloween” (1984). 

There’s a reason so many 21st-century attempts at conjuring up ooky-spooky vibes (think Stranger Things, It Follows, and the entire recorded output of Vancouver band Gang Signs) have taken their aesthetic cues from the decade of scream queens and slasher flicks.

No wonder the Polygon Gallery has picked the ’80s as the vibe for its Halloween event. Less explicable is the event’s apparent aerobics theme, with marketing materials featuring leotards, headbands, and pink dumbbells, but we suppose 20 Minute Workout was as emblematic of the decade as anything else. Happening on All Hallows’ Eve itself, between 8 pm and 1 am, the licensed (19-plus) party features a free-play arcade, a tattoo parlour, and a costume contest with a $500 cash prize.

Drag queen Genesis hosts the main stage, which features performances from live performances from Trauma Novelle, Reveal Yourself, and Devours, with Christa Belle DJing between sets.

In a second room, DJs from popular club nights Club Bebé, Black Box, and Pip will keep pulses pounding on the dance floor, which will be a plus for any vampires in attendance.

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Elektra is opening its 40th anniversary concert season—“The Ruby Season”—with Chez Nous: Christmas With Elektra. Performances are taking place at Pacific Spirit United Church on November 28 at 7:30 pm and November 29 at 3 pm.

The holidays bring joy and celebration, but also nostalgia, longing, and reflection. Under artistic director Cassie Luftspring, this year’s Chez Nous makes room for these experiences, offering music that explores memory, belonging, and the search for light.

Compositions by Shireen Abu-Khader, Srul Irving Glick, Marie-Claire Saindon, and Stephen Smith offer perspectives on peace, compassion, and connection throughout this concert shaped by the season’s emotional contrasts. Moving from intimacy and contemplation to exuberance and wonder, the program celebrates the warmth of gathering together while leaving space for quieter moments of reflection.

Members of Allegra Chamber Orchestra and singers from Elektra’s Mira Youth Mentorship program will join the choir onstage.

Tickets and more details are available through Elektra.

Post sponsored by Elektra.

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In partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre, the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival presents Electric Company Theatre’s Epigone at the Russian Hall from November 3 to 15

AT THE HEIGHT of the pandemic, acclaimed B.C. playwright Kevin Kerr faced a devastating family loss that involved one of the most urgent issues of our times: his sister Tricia, who had struggled with addiction, succumbed to the toxic drug supply. But to work his way through that complicated grief, he ended up looking back thousands of years to the ancient Greeks—ultimately creating the new Electric Company Theatre play Epigone.

“One of the things this piece is about is the question: Is there still room for myth in our contemporary lives?” he says, speaking to Stir amid rehearsals with the innovative company he helped found 30 years ago. “Can we at moments access this sort of collective archetypal imagery that transcends time and thousands of years—the kind that bridges material worlds and spiritual worlds?”

Wrestling with the sense of shame and secrecy that surrounds a death tied to addiciton and the opioid crisis, he became focused on Sophocles' Theban Plays—especially its myth of Antigone. In the story, Antigone goes against the king’s order that her dead brother be left unburied on the battlefield as a traitor; she believes that divine and family law demand a proper funeral rite and burial for her brother, regardless of which political side he was on.

Ancient myth, real life, and fictional elements now interweave in Epigone, in which a brother visits his late, estranged sister’s remote trailer—a setting inspired by Kerr’s sibling’s final isolated outpost in northern B.C. 

“At the beginning of the play, a brother, in the aftermath of the sister's death, is kind of evading and running from those responsibilities, trying to manage and cover the circumstances around her death,” explains Kerr.

The central struggle in the new play, complicated by the arrival of a young cousin, is to move beyond societal stigma, he says. “And to figure out: Is there a way to still help the dead on their journey to the next realm, and for the community to to be able to support or be together on that?” Kerr says. “Antigone was so clear that her brother couldn't be left—not just for him and his journey to the underworld, but for what it meant for the community as a whole. And that’s, I think, the beautiful thing in that play: the awakening of the community to realize, ‘Yes we owe this.’”

Kerr finds added resonance in the fact the work is premiering at the Downtown Eastside’s Heart of the City Festival, amid its odes to the Day of the Dead. “It’s that recognition of how important the larger ceremonial aspect is for everybody, no matter where you are or what community you inhabit,” he says. “And so it really felt like there was an alignment between what was going on in this exploration we were engaged in and what this festival has been doing now for many many years in the Downtown Eastside and its role in allowing that space—to be honouring the lives and the relationships and the members of the community, and those that have departed, in that absence that’s left in their wake.”

Transformation—between life and death, between paralyzing grief and acceptance—has become an overriding theme in the work, with the object-packed trailer as a liminal, near-mystical space between life and death, and between the present day and the mythological forces of 440 BC. The production conjures a striking visual and sonic world, care of lighting designer Eric Chad, composer Scott Morgan, and sound designer Kate De Lorme. The top-flight cast consists of Colleen Wheeler, Lili Beaudoin, Tom McBeath, and Kevin MacDonald.

Kerr says it’s been a joy to return to collaboration with Jonathon Young, best known as cocreator of Kidd Pivot’s Betroffenheit and Revisor, who’s directing the play. Over 30 years, the long-time friends have worked together on such form-pushing performances as 2010’s Tear the Curtain!. 

But there’s another palpable creative force in the room. Years ago, before the death of his sister, who was a talented fashion designer, Kerr had thought about doing a project with her. She passed away before that could happen, but he feels like she’s with him as he’s been making Epigone.

What would she think of it? “I do wonder if she would be rolling her eyes at me,” he says with a laugh. “One of the early things I said to Jon was ‘I would love to make something that I feel like my sister would like to watch.’ She didn’t really like theatre, so I wasn’t quite sure how to do that. So it’s been kind of a goal that we feel will be sort of forever not met. But there are moments where I think, ‘She would definitely dig that.’”

Kerr has wrestled before with the theme of mortality in his work—most notably in his Governor General’s Award–winning Unity (1918), about the Spanish flu hitting an isolated community. But with its personal touchstones, Epigone has, obviously, been a more painful journey. Still, Kerr has felt supported in the theatre company that he’s called home for three decades. 

“It’s been a ride at times, and it’s been kind of tough trying to find a way to partition the memories and emotional realities with the work of making a show,” the playwright says. “I’m not always super successful at finding that partition, which is why I’m so thankful to be working with Jon—because he’s incredibly in tune with that, helping me navigate that. So yeah, it’s been intense at times, but also really just quite beautiful too, to be able to feel that presence of my sister again, and be constantly in a state of connection with her and her story.”  

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New Works, in partnership with Mardon + Mitsuhashi and the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, presents the world premiere of good loser. This captivating full-length performance is onstage November 20 and 21 at 7:30 pm.

Choreographed and performed by Alexa Solveig Mardon, good loser is a high-energy, scored improvisation featuring a dynamic duet between dancer Mardon and live drummer Jen Yakamovich. Together, they navigate a continuous, unpredictable flow of movement and sound—ranging from delicate, nuanced gestures and real-time storytelling to expansive dance and powerful rhythmic soundscapes. The performance serves as an open invitation to embrace life’s inevitable shifts, sharing honest reflections on vulnerability and presence.

Rich visual storytelling unfolds through original sculptural and costume design by Jaewoo Kang and Tess Rafael, complemented by Gillian Hanemeyer’s evocative lighting design. Dramaturgical support is provided by long-standing collaborator Erika Mitsuhashi, alongside Finnish artist Even Minn and Slovenian artist Mala Kline.

For tickets and further information, visit New Works.

Post sponsored by New Works.

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Cirque du Soleil presents LUZIA from November 4 to January 10 at Concord Pacific Place

SPINNING AGAINST THE glowing sunset surrounded by quiotes, Cyr wheel artist Sarah Togni is unfazed by the sudden shower of rain drenching her vibrant yellow dress. It’s the first time the audience sees the rain in LUZIA, Cirque du Soleil’s only touring production to use water in the show.

“Every time I see it as well, it’s mesmerizing,” Togni tells Stir of the downpour, interviewed at the Annex where she gave a sneak peak of her performance. “It can be slippery, and I need much more strength for that part, but it’s a big finale of the act and a natural crescendo.”

The towering agave plants, the prickly cacti, the pouring rain—it’s all part of Daniele Finzi Pasca’s imagined world, inspired by the writer-director’s decade spent in Mexico. First staged in 2016, LUZIA follows the enchanting journey of a parachutist who unlocks a magical realm that sits between dreams and reality. The title is a portmanteau of the Spanish words luz (light) and lluvia (rain), two recurring symbols that guide the show’s exploration of Mexico’s rich culture and traditions.

Seven years since its Vancouver premiere, LUZIA returns to the Grand Châpiteau at Concord Pacific Place from November 4 to January 10. The show features 47 artists representing 18 nationalities, bringing diverse acts that span juggling, contortion, trapeze, aerial straps, and more. Live music blends traditional and contemporary Latin American sounds, from flowing melodies of the Spanish guitar to the brassy notes of tubas and trumpets. Among the production’s innovative highlights is a rotating, 14-metre-tall rain curtain that can create two-dimensional images using water droplets and blank spaces. The rotating stage is also complete with 94,657 holes that drain the water into a 5,000-litre pool before it is filtered and reused.

A fifth-generation circus performer from Italy, Togni had dreamed of joining the Cirque du Soleil stage from a young age. “I saw my first [Cirque du Soleil] show when I was 9 years old with my family,” she says. “For me, compared to a traditional circus, it was really a different world that touched me deeply. From that day on, I decided that I wanted to be on that stage, and in 2022, I accomplished my dream.”

As one of two Cyr wheel artists on stage during the rain curtain’s first appearance, Togni is more than familiar with the mechanics, as well as the difficulties that it poses.

“I have a different wheel for the water part with a stronger grip that helps me out,” she says. “I also need to be really careful, especially when I’m tired and might not have the same strength as usual to control the wheel. It’s a challenge, but a good challenge.”

In a later act, Togni climbs up and down vertical poles alongside other acrobats, in a sequence reminiscent of a psychedelic peyote trip. She reveals that she had to learn pole dancing specifically for the show. “But I was more than willing to learn it because it’s a beautiful discipline that gave me a lot of upper body and abdominal strength,” she adds.

Introducing the audience to the captivating world of LUZIA is Helena Merten as Running Woman, with her metallic horse companion and billowing, six-metre-long butterfly wings—a nod to the annual migration of the monarch butterfly from Canada to Mexico. The Australian multidisciplinary artist performs in multiple acts, including swing to swing and hoop diving, where she and a group of acrobats dressed as hummingbirds effortlessly jump through hoops on two giant treadmills powered by 28 car batteries.

A former national tumbling champion and the youngest athlete to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Merten came to the circus from a background in sports. “I grew up doing a range of different gymnastic disciplines, and of course I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show when I was seven; I always had it in the back of my mind that I could maybe do that someday,” she explains. “I deferred my university degree in sports science and just started putting up my résumé and trying to get on the road. I thought, ‘I’m young, so this is the time to do circus, and I can always study and go back to those things later.’”

Ten years since she joined LUZIA, Merten’s excitement for the stage remains constant. She shares her favourite moment in the show: her opening entrance as Running Woman. “It’s when the audience gets to see this imaginary world for the first time,” she says. “I love watching their reaction to seeing this explosion of colour and vibrance for the first time.”  

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United Voices Choir is presenting two of Mozart’s most beloved sacred works: the Requiem and Coronation Mass. Performances take place at Pacific Spirit United Church on November 22 at 2 pm and at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church on November 27 at 7:30 pm.

Mozart’s 1791 Requiem is one of the most powerful and enduring masterpieces ever written. For centuries, it has captivated audiences with its dramatic intensity, emotional depth, and breathtaking beauty. From the thunderous “Dies Irae” to the exquisite “Lacrimosa”, this extraordinary music speaks directly to the heart, inspiring awe, reflection, and hope.

Written more than a decade earlier, the radiant 1779 Coronation Mass reveals another side of the composer’s genius, overflowing with graceful melodies and joyful energy.

Director Greg Caisley leads this concert, which features the 60-voice choir, an orchestra, and four soloists: soprano Rachel Suzanne, countertenor Erik Kallo, tenor Mark De Silva, and baritone David Rosborough.

Tickets are available through United Voices Choir.

Post sponsored by United Voices Choir.

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Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria present Tosca at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 29 and November 1

A POWERHOUSE TRIAD of singers, clear storytelling, and visually striking sets ensure Vancouver Opera’s season-opening Tosca delivers on multiple fronts.

Giacomo Puccini’s masterwork carries considerable challenges—the first being arias so well known that, thanks to legendary interpretations by the likes of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti, they carry high expectations. Here, the all-Canadian cast lives up to that anticipation across the board. 

The famous Act II “Vissi d’arte” is a masterclass in modulation, time standing still as Joyce El-Khoury’s Floria Tosca oscillates between mesmerizing quiet moments of despair and rafter-rattling anguished high notes, with all the star power and charisma that the diva role demands. 

As her artist boyfriend Mario Cavaradossi, tenor David Pomeroy opens into his gorgeous “E lucevan le stelle” aria with even more assuredness than he did in the role here 13 years ago; as the character faces his mortality, he taps a raw honesty that’s integral to the piece—hushed, broken, and melancholy at first, building to dynamic swells. 

And the VO’s favourite villain, Gregory Dahl, brings sinister heft to Baron Scarpia without ever overacting. His “Te Deum” finds the sadistic police chief gloating about his evil plan over a resounding church choir, nailing the chilling contrast between the sacred and the sacrilegious. And watch the malevolent anticipation Dahl brings to the simple, single word “Ebbene?” (“Well?”) to Tosca, waiting to see if she’ll give him what he wants. 

With music director Jacques Lacombe at the podium, the Vancouver Opera Orchestra offers lush yet nuanced support, never rushing the tempo, providing just enough romantic flourish, and allowing space for the formidable cast to stretch languidly into their emotions.

Another of Tosca’s challenges is that its taut plot unfolds over a fast-paced 24 hours across multiple iconic Rome locations, from the Basilica di Sant’Andrea della Valle to the fortress Castel Sant’Angelo. Under the lucid direction of Brenna Corner, the story plays out compellingly as the bloody, lust-charged political thriller it is. Set during the political and military tensions of 1800 Rome, Tosca centres on three characters: the title diva, a famous opera singer; her lover, the painter and revolutionary Cavaradossi; and the corrupt chief of police, Scarpia, who has long lusted after the diva. When Scarpia finds out Cavaradossi has assisted an escaped political prisoner, he manipulates Tosca into revealing the escapee’s hiding place and then offers her an impossible bargain: if she’ll sleep with him, he’ll save her lover from torture and death.

In this Vancouver Opera–Pacific Opera coproduction, many of these scenes are staged with inspired touches. The treatment of Cavaradossi’s torture is one of the most memorable, with the shadow of the gruesome procedure stretching up the wall behind Tosca as she listens to his agonizing screams. Later, when the diva discovers a knife, it flashes wickedly in the light. And her death scene from the upper archways of the fortress does not disappoint.

Scott Reid’s sets, with their dramatic and disorientingly angled walls, are integral to the production’s success. They bring added intensity to Cavaradossi’s final aria, Rome’s dramatic skyline slowly emerging from the starry night as the sun rises. Michael Walton’s lighting choices work evocatively with the scenic design throughout, especially in Scarpia’s lair in Act II, where ivory, gold, and warm candlelight mix with foreboding hits of blood red.

Staged with the intensity demanded by its high-stakes plot of romantic jealousy, political intrigue, murder, and revenge, this Tosca is a fantastic introduction to the world of opera. What was clear on opening night, though, was that audience members knew the art form well enough to recognize a good thing when they heard it—roaring their extended approval after each knockout aria.  

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The Eastside Arts Society is celebrating the 30th annual Eastside Culture Crawl from November 19 to 22. This local festival of visual arts, design, and crafts invites visitors into the studios of more than 525 artists across Vancouver’s Eastside Arts District.

This year’s Crawl features more than 85 new artists and 12 new buildings, a measure of the enduring creativity and resourcefulness of a vibrant community. What began in 1996 as a small gathering of 45 artists has grown into one of the city’s largest fall cultural events, connecting more than 40,000 art lovers each year with artists, craftspeople, and designers.

The festival’s milestone 30th anniversary arrives at a landmark moment for the Eastside Arts Society. This year, it secured a major step toward permanence with the purchase of its 5,980-square-foot headquarters building at 716 E. Hastings Street, through the approval of a Making Space for Arts and Culture grant from Vancouver City Council. Beyond serving as a cultural hub for productions and presentations, the building represents a vital path forward to protecting, preserving, and expanding the Eastside’s vibrant arts and culture ecology.

As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, the building will serve as the central hub for the Culture Crawl’s 2026 Preview Exhibition, P.A.R.T.Y. – Pushing Art diRectly To You, bringing 75 juried artists together from November 5 to 28. The Preview Exhibition provides a sneak peek at the variety of art that will be on display throughout the Crawl, with a curatorial concept, statement, and title developed by Crawl artists Eri Ishii, Hugh Kearney, and Paul de Guzman.

In the leadup to the Crawl, the Eastside Arts Society will also host a series of fundraisers that are critical to keeping the festival free. These include the Culture Crawl 30th Anniversary Silent Auction, which runs from October 22 to 29; and the 30 for 30 campaign—inviting the community to help raise $30,000 to support 30 more years of accessible, low-cost arts programming—from November 2 to December 31.

Full details of festival events, artists, talks, and locations can be found on the Eastside Culture Crawl website.

Post sponsored by Eastside Culture Crawl.

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Metro Theatre presents Nuncrackers to November 14

LAST SEASON, METRO Theatre breathed fresh life into the “habit-forming” musical comedy Nunsense, featuring a group of charismatic, spotlight-obsessed nuns. Now, the exuberant sisters are back for more in Nuncrackers, the holiday-themed installment of the Nunsense series. And while missing some of the refreshing qualities of Nunsense, Nuncrackers delivers much of the same warmth and likable personalities, this time with a festive twist and some entertaining new additions.

For those thinking it’s a tad early for holiday fare, there’s a practical explanation. In the original Nunsense, Sister Amnesia recovers her memory and discovers she’s won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. Now flush with cash, the sisters have the resources to produce a Christmas special for cable-access television. And as Sister Mary Regina (Jennifer Suratos, who also directs) explains, holiday specials must be filmed well in advance.

Naturally, the sisters have a full lineup of entertainment planned, but things go awry, prompting some frantic improvisation and delightful comedy, including accidental drunken antics and an unexpected tap-dance battle.

Three of last season’s five performers are back. Alongside Suratos are Mary Cleaver as the street-smart Sister Robert Anne and vocal powerhouse Paula Higgins as the level-headed Sister Mary Hubert. Joining them is the terrifically animated Keri Smith as Sister Amnesia. And Father Virgil (Vincent Keats) joins the festivities as a welcome addition to the onstage antics.

As Reverend Mother, Suratos reprises her measured, no-nonsense portrayal, occasionally letting her playful side emerge. She also demonstrates engaging storytelling in “A Carnival Christmas”, using expressive vocals and physicality, including mimicking a tightrope walker, to paint a larger-than-life visual.

Cleaver likewise brings back her tough but tender interpretation of Sister Robert Anne, particularly in her touching rendition of “Jesus Was Born in Brooklyn.” Smith is hilarious as the scatterbrained Sister Amnesia, especially during her amusing audience interactions. Meanwhile, Keats delivers pleasing vocals in “The Christmas Box”, and a terrific comedic turn in a Julia Child–inspired parody.

As with Nunsense, the first act concludes with a standout song-and-dance number. In this decidedly ballet-free interpretation of The Nutcracker, Suratos and Keats lead the cast in Shelley Stewart Hunt’s crowd-pleasing tap choreography, highlighted by a clean, synchronized triple time step. Keats also contributes impressive athletic moves throughout the show.

Another standout number is the jazzy trio “The Three Kings”, featuring Cleaver, Higgins, and Smith delivering sassy choreography, comedy, and tight harmonies. Kudos to music director Carlina Dykstra for helping to oversee strong vocals and harmonies throughout the show, while leading the small but mighty four-piece band.

All this unfolds against Starlynn Chen’s eye-catching set, which transforms the basement of Mount Saint Helen’s School into a festive space adorned with holiday ornaments, twinkling lights, and a Christmas tree.

As director, Suratos incorporates inventive touches, including bringing assistant stage manager Jaeden Walton into the action. Walton’s constant scrambling to deliver props and move set pieces adds to the frenzy of filming a live television special.

There’s also a cinematic element, with Walton occasionally operating a camera that projects live footage onto a screen above the stage.

Still, as the fourth installment in Dan Goggin’s series, Nuncrackers lacks the magic of Nunsense. Neither Goggin’s book nor score achieves the same level of wit and charm as Nunsense, with less comedy within the songs and a greater emphasis on sentimentality.

The stakes also seem low. Although the sisters’ television special supposedly goes off the rails, their setbacks feel relatively inconsequential compared with the calamities of Nunsense.

Last season’s Nunsense also benefited from contemporary touches, including references to Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds, alongside some playful modern mannerisms.

Still, fans of the franchise will enjoy reuniting with these endearing characters. With familiar faces, spirited performances, and enjoyable newcomers, Nuncrackers offers a welcome return to the Little Sisters of Hoboken. It's also a great primer to get you in the mood for the upcoming holiday season. 

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This fall, Alliance Française Vancouver is hosting the innovative virtual reality exhibition V-Unframed, which merges art, science, and technology.

From November 13 to 15, V-Unframed features a selection of local and international virtual reality artworks from France, Mauritania, Taiwan, and beyond. Folks can drop in and browse the pieces from 11 am to 7 pm each day by booking a time slot in advance here.

Among the special events happening as part of the exhibition is Martin Messier’s 1 Drop 1000 Years. This captivating sensory performance is inspired by the major ocean currents that regulate the planet’s climate. Based on real scientific data, 15 kinetic sculptures transform the movements of water into an all-encompassing visual and sound experience.

1 Drop 1000 Years takes place at Alliance Française Vancouver on November 12 at 7:30 pm, with a meet-the-art talk after the show. Tickets are available online.

For more V-Unframed details, visit Alliance Française Vancouver.

Post sponsored by Alliance Française Vancouver.

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The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival presents House at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre on November 6 at 8:30 pm

NOT BE MISTAKEN for the identically titled TV series about a misanthropic medical genius or the 1985 cult horror-comedy flick starring William Katt, Daniel MacIvor’s House is a solo show that seems designed to provide its star with a serious workout, acting-wise.

The playwright himself starred in a 1995 film adapatation of House, which earned two Genie Award nominations.

As described by Backstage, “MacIvor's script veers unpredictably from oddball comic pantomime to straightforward narrative, from wacky expressionism and free-floating surrealism to something very like standup comedy.”  

Handling all of that in a one-night-only mounting as part of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival is the challenge before Jonathon Paterson, who is no newcomer to the business of one-man performances. In fact, Paterson presented his very own solo show, How I Met My Mother, as part of the same fest last year.

Willow Lewmos directs the darkly comedic show, in which a man named Victor, addressing the audience directly, holds forth on his dead-end job cleaning septic tanks, his dead-end marriage to a woman who can’t stand him, and his dead-end life in general. 

For more on House and other performances at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, visit the fest’s website.

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The Dance Centre presents Forecasting, a mesmerizing work created by Barbara Matijević and Giuseppe Chico, on November 13 and 14 at 8 pm.

Forecasting takes viewers on a journey through the vast, intimate, and often absurd world of amateur YouTube videos. On a bare stage, a single performer and a laptop become a portal into thousands of ordinary lives—food lovers, fitness buffs, gardeners, pet owners, quiet walkers, secret confessors. As the screen shifts between mask and mirror, her voice weaves into the videos until the boundary between self and stream dissolves.

Matijević is the performer in Forecasting, while Chico is behind the show’s video design. Together, the co-creators reveal who people are when they think no one—and everyone—is watching.

Forecasting is produced by Kaaitheater (Brussels) and UOVO (Milan), and presented here as part of the Global Dance Connections series. A post-show artist talkback takes place on November 14.

Tickets are available through The Dance Centre.

Post sponsored by The Dance Centre.

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Visions Ouest Productions and Alliance Française present 125, rue des Malaises on October 27 at Alliance Française Vancouver

LARGELY IMPROVISED BY its all-star cast, the new Quebec comedy-drama 125, rue des Malaises has a raw, unscripted feel that adds to its chaotically fun exploration of a somewhat taboo topic.

The subject matter may not immediately bring to mind laughs: perfectly healthy senior Laurent Perrier (Rémy Girard) decides to request medical assistance in dying (MAID) so he won’t become a burden. He has summoned his daughter, Marie-Claude (Geneviève Schmidt), to their family’s picturesque lakeside chalet, setting off bickering and property disputes. The chaotic weekend spans a live reading of the patriarch’s will and an appearance by his long-lost illegitimate son, Jacob (Pier-Luc Funk).

Directed by Louis Bélanger, the film is full of big laughs, all devised on the fly by actors working their own considerable comedic chemistry based on scenarios created by the filmmaker and producer Denise Robert.

Still, underneath, 125, rue des Malaises also has a lot to say about our right to choose our own fate. (Quebec, after all, was this country's first province to decriminalize medically assisted death.) But let’s just say the way it frames that discussion is surprisingly funny.  

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