Intense show Eternal Tides slated for Push festival

If you can’t catch them all, these PuSh productions look like winners, writes Stuart Derdeyn.

1. King Arthur’s Night

Jan. 31-Feb. 4 | Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC

Neworld Theatre applies its radical approach to the stage to present a Camelot you’ve always wanted to see. With a live band, 20-member choir and a cast featuring actors with Down syndrome, this show was a hit when it premiered at Toronto’s Luminato Festival. Fun, zany, catchy.

2. Foxconn Frequency (no. 3): For three visibly Chinese performers

Jan. 31-Feb. 2, various times | Performance Works, Granville Island

Pianist Vicky Chow becomes the element around which a group of artists connected to video links, multiple speakers and a group of 3-D printers must orbit as they do their best to perform her driving musical drills. Coming from Vancouver’s Hong Kong Exile, known for bringing exciting new angles to dance and performance art, this one has the potential to take the group to the next level of recognition.

3. RPM LIVE: 010

Feb 3, 10:30 p.m. | The Fox Cabaret

Club PuSh is where the late night fun comes in for the 19+ fest goer. Looser and geared toward the most adventurous demographic, this collection of drag, comedy, spoken word and music nights is also priced lower than the theatre gigs. This closing night concert is a showcase for RPM Records, the recording arm of the RPM music platform focused on promoting Indigenous artists from around the world. Under the curation of RPM founder Jarrett Martineau, this edition of the series ranges from an opera singer to hip-hop crews, EDM teams, and even a singing storyteller. See emerging talent when they are, in many cases, still underground.

4. Reassembled, Slightly Askew

Jan. 17-Feb 4 | The Cultch

Northern Irish playwright and performer Shannon Yee took inspiration from her own traumatic brain injury, chemically induced coma and recovery to put together this immersive work. You get placed in a hospital bed, suited up with headphones and an eye mask and journey to the centre of her mind. Or at least where a great deal of time was spent during her lengthy recovery. Heavy, unique — and don’t fall asleep.

5. Some Hope for the Bastards

Jan. 16, 7 p.m. | Vancouver Playhouse

This music-dance hybrid from Frederick Gravel, a star of Quebec’s supercharged dance scene, features nine dancers responding to the rhythms of a driving soundtrack, launching into movements that range from ecstatic to nuanced, calm and freneticism. If you like dance that blends styles, ideas and really rallies around the beat, this is not to be missed.