FASCINATING FALL ARTS
The best in books, theatre, music and much more
The keyword for theatre this fall is diversity. Many ethnicities grace our stages, from China Doll at the Gateway, Take d Milk, Nah? at The Cultch, and The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito at Presentation House and Carousel to Indigenous solo works at the Firehall and Chan Centre, Kuroko at The Cultch, Anne Frank Latinx at the Chutzpah Festival’s Rothstein Theatre, and Bombay Black at the York.
As for classics, some go the revisionist route — Pacific Theatre’s Frankenstein: Lost in Darkness and The Cultch’s East Van Panto: Pinocchio — while Arthur Miller’s The Price from United Players and Carousel’s Peter Pan play it more or less straight.
And what would a fall season be without musicals? The Arts Club’s The Sound of Music, Waitress (Broadway Across Canada), Green Day’s American Idiot (URP), Fado — The Saddest Music in the World (Firehall), and Forever Plaid (First Impressions) are all onstage.
These are a few of my best bets:
ESCAPED ALONE
When: Nov. 1-17
Where: PAL Studio Theatre Tickets and info: westerngoldtheatre.org
The increased diversity on our stages has also meant more inclusion of work by and about women and elders. Eighty-one-year-old Caryl Churchill, “the most dazzlingly inventive living dramatist in the English language” (New York Times), has written an apocalyptic drama about four women in their senior years sipping tea at a garden party. And who better to produce it than Western Gold Theatre, a company of senior artists whose motto is “Creativity has no expiry date.”
Churchill’s remarkable drama, only 55 minutes long, has got stunning reviews: “magnificent” (The Guardian); “wondrous” (New York Times); “funny, charming and alarming ” (The Atlantic); “quietly devastating” (NOW Toronto).
This Vancouver premiere marks Western Gold’s first production under new artistic director Tanja Dixon-warren, who succeeds longtime artistic director Anna Hagan. Both Dixon-warren and Hagan are in the cast along with Eileen Barrett and Jenn Griffin. Kathryn Bracht directs.
KUROKO
When: Nov. 6-17
Where: The Cultch Historic Theatre
Tickets and info: thecultch.com A new play from Vancouver’s
Tetsuro Shigematsu is always an event. Like his previous sold-out hits, Empire of the Son and 1 Hour Photo, Kuroko is produced by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre and weaves together technology and deeply personal experience. But unlike those solo shows that Shigematsu performed himself, Kuroko features a cast of five without him.
The play, described as “darkly comedic,” concerns a young woman who hasn’t left her bedroom in six years. Maya is hikikomori, an extreme recluse, who spends her time exploring virtual reality until she meets a mysterious player online who challenges her to save her dying father, Hiroshi, by visiting the scariest place IRL (in real life). The title references the blackclad stagehands in Japanese kabuki theatre.
Starring Kanon Hewitt as Maya and John Ng as Hiroshi, with Manami Hara, Donna Soares and Lou Ticzon. A-lister Amiel
Gladstone directs.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
When: Nov. 7-Jan. 5
Where: Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Tickets and info: artsclub.com The term “beloved” is seriously overused but The Sound of Music is surely a beloved musical. Since its 1959 Broadway debut, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s brilliant mash-up of kids, nuns and Nazis has endured and thrived with many major revivals. Its songs have become iconic: My Favorite Things, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, Do-re-mi, Sixteen Going on Seventeen, Climb Every Mountain, and of course the title tune.
Director Ashlie Corcoran will be tackling her first big musical since taking over the Arts Club. The role of Maria, made famous by Mary Martin and Julie Andrews, will be played by up-and-comer Synthia Yusuf with support from veterans like
Barbara Pollard, Meghan Gardiner, Andrew Cownden, Craig Erickson, Damon Calderwood, and Jonathan Winsby as Captain von Trapp.
Playing von Trapp in the movie, Christopher Plummer famously disliked it so much he called it The Sound of Mucus. He has since recanted.