cultch

Christian Barry of 2b theatre company (based in Halifax) has collaborated with musician Hawksley Workman to create a one-man show based on Euripides' The Bacchae. Workman plays multiple instruments and multiple characters in this 75-minute show which has been touring Canada as a work-in-progress, opened officially in Calgary this spring and now has landed at the Cultch Historic Theatre for two weeks. 

For The God Who Comes, the theatre is set up cabaret-style with additional seating around tables and chairs on the floor near the stage. The small raised stage boasts lush red curtains, a plethora of musical instruments and mannequin heads wearing bright wigs. Rather...

Hawksley Workman - channeling ancient history through modern rock'n'roll

After its second show on Thursday night, the nine-person cast of Inside The Seed gathered onstage at the Culture Lab to discuss the show's creation. As a new script by playwright Jason Rothery, Inside The Seed is receiving its premiere production as the second show in the Cultch's 40th anniversary season. Led by Artistic Producer Daniel Martin, the audience engaged in a lively discussion about this topical production. 

To kick off the discussion, an audience member wanted to know more about the playwright. Though Rothery was not in attendance, Martin explained that the producing company Upintheair Theatre has...

Selected cast of Inside The Seed (photo by Daniel Martin)

Two intrepid PLANK reviewers attended opening night of Penelope by Irish playwright Enda Walsh. Inspired by The Odyssey, the play tells of four men who are the last of 100 suitors come to woo Penelope as she waits long years for her husband to return. The men have set up a makeshift bachelor camp in the bottom of a drained swimming pool and now each tries to outdo the others as they believe that today is the day that Odysseus will come back to claim his wife (and kill them for their impunity).

After snagging a few snacks and filling out the survey questionnaire,...

Cast of Penelope (photo by Tim Matheson)

The 2013 Alcan Award winner is Theatre Conspiracy. Their newest show, Extraction, is a bilingual documentary-style theatrical experiment that explores the connections between China and Canada in both Mandarin and English. Inspired by the real life experiences of two men and one woman, Extraction offers interesting viewpoints but little depth.

In Extraction, the show creators are exploring some powerful ideas about Canada and China, about tar sands and their environmental impact, about the individual lives of those who toil in resource extraction and those of us who are merely affected by this work. They query the audience repeatedly through...
Extraction featuring Jimmy Mitchell, Sunny Sun and Jason Wilson (photo credit Tim Matheson)

Poor little Otto. Poor little Astrid. When Mr. and Mrs. Rot got crushed by a train or eaten by an escaped lion (Otto and Astrid disagree on this point), the siblings were shuttled off to relatives who were mean to them and made them do, “folk dancing dressed like squirrels.” So they ran away and set up life in a Berlin squat.

A particularly dramatic moment, is it not, Comrade?

Neanderthal Arts Festival: theatre that knows how to grunt

As reported here at PLANK at the beginning of the year, Vancouver is about to experience a new arts Festival. An initiative of Left Right Minds and Upintheair Theatre the inaugural Neanderthal Arts Festival takes place this summer at the Cultch.

Author Name: 
Andrew Templeton
Photograph Caption: 
To be or ugh (prepare Vancouver for a series of caveman jokes...)
Photograph: 

In this Preposterous Fable, young Abigail, “the girl with the greatest teeth in the world” embarks upon a journey. This is no ordinary sojourn mind you. This one is fraught with emotional sea monsters, melodiously evil pirates, a truly wet ocean tempest and conniving boat thieves just to name a few of the perils she must face. Of course life for Abigail used to be much easier. Her smile lit up the world, she sang with the birds, danced with the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. People would do anything for the young darling as long as...

The Tooth Fairy by some new Old Trouts

Edward Albee is one of my heroes. His dialogue is heightened, verging on the poetic, but maintains a ring of naturalistic authenticity to it.

Meg Roe, Craig Erickson, Gabrielle Rose, and Kevin McNulty from Blackbird's production of an Albee classic

Provincial Essays seems an odd title for a work of contemporary dance: it evokes pastoral traditions, and vaguely suggests the image of a public figure-of-note in his or her sunset years retiring to the country to write memoirs – indeed, the original essays by Montaigne were a grab-bag of reflections on everything from diet to politics.

Provincial Essays