Today is the first day of the Neanderthal Arts Festival at the Vancouver Eastside Cultural Centre (July 21 to 30), a developmental festival featuring new and experimental work by local theatre companies, and one from Montreal. This year’s line-up includes a play about a pregnant man (My Pregnant Brother/Freestanding Productions), a musical about a bigamist […]

One of my all-time favourite plays, Shakespeare’s Richard III, will be opening at Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival this Saturday night at Vanier Park. Directed by Kathryn Shaw, Richard III completes a two-play lineup (the first being Henry VI: The War of the Roses–an amalgamation of Henry VI part 1,2, and 3) in the […]

Theatre Under the Stars (“TUTS”) first premiered at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park in 1940 and it’s still going strong. On stage for July and August 2011 TUTS presents Bye Bye Birdie and Anything Goes. Bye Bye Birdie “Rock and roll returns to Malkin Bowl as Bye Bye Birdie, written by Michael Stewart with […]

July 5th, 1959 was the opening day of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in downtown Vancouver and a few weeks later Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II personally gave it her name. The venue accommodates 2,781 patrons and over the years it has hosted some of the world’s greatest plays, musicals, operas, ballets and concerts. 1957, excavation […]

Director Rachel Ditor’s interpretation of The Merchant of Venice is probably one of the best productions I’ve ever seen at Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, now in its 22nd season. Ditor clearly translates the text into fantastic direction for her actors, all of whom give outstanding performances. The story follows Bassanio (Charlie Gallant) who […]