Harlem Duet | Bard on the Beach | Sen̓áḵw / Vanier Park | June 15 – July 17, 2022
When Billie’s partner leaves her for a white woman, she descends into a depressive funk and buries herself in self help books while doubling down on her convictions about race and the importance of black people having their own spaces and distinct culture. “If you spend too much time among white people, you start believing what they think about you,” she says.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Bard on the Beach | Sen̓áḵw / Vanier Park | June 8 – September 24, 2022
Bard on the Beach returns to the play that started it all for their first live production since 2019. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a popular play melding fantasy, humour, and love — a good bet for the festival’s sole mainstage production this year.
Men Express Their Feelings | Zee Zee Theatre | Firehall Arts Centre | March 18 – April 3, 2022
It all started with a hug. Not an “appropriate man-to-man hug” that Brad’s father would have liked to see, but an embrace between two friends and teammates. Perhaps more than an embrace. Brad’s father, Mr. Bacon (Jeff Gladstone), comes to his own conclusions about what he saw in the locker room and confronts Raj’s father, Mr. Sharma (Munish Sharma), in the parking lot. Until they resolve their conflict off the ice, their sons can’t get back on the ice.
Read more: Two fathers and sons skate around their feelings in Zee Zee Theatre’s latest production
Nunsense | Boone Dog Productions | Metro Theatre | March 11 – 27
Five nuns, tons of puns, and plenty of fun. Oh, and a puppet. That’s really all you need to know about this rollicking musical comedy of errors that sends up Catholic traditions. A group of nuns of the Mount Saint Helen’s convent come together to plan a talent show fundraiser after many of their sisters fall victim to poisonous vichyssoise soup.
Read more: Nuns having fun with puns: Nunsense lets loose at Metro Theatre
Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play | Touchstone Theatre | Performance Works | March 6-13, 2022 | Streaming March 22 – April 10, 2022
“It’s just what we need in the year of our demise: another fucking dinner party play,” says a disgruntled actor in a moment of self-awareness. “We perform a stale little psycho-drama while nature collapses around us.” But this isn’t just another dinner party play; it’s a clever examination of the nuances and complexities about who has a right to tell which stories in contemporary theatre.
Zéro | Orange Noyée, in collaboration with Le Théâtre français du CAN | Mani Soleymanlou | Théâtre la Seizième | Scotiabank Dance Centre | February 9 – 12, 2022
Standing beside a mountain of chairs, Mani Soleymanlou tells the story of the night in Iran that his father was abducted and interrogated. He was a young child at the time and the family decided to immigrate to Canada to escape the violence in Iran. Now with a son of his own, he alternates between recounting the story of that night and talking about his hopes for his son, his struggle to define his own identity, and the grey areas between many binaries including the political left and right.
Read more: Mani Soleymanlou dissects identity and binary thinking in Zéro
One of the biggest thrills of this year’s PuSh Festival is seeing live theatre again. While this year’s festival saw three shows cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions or infections, the diverse in-person line-up of theatre, dance, music, and multi-media works was refreshing—reminding us of the power of being together and sharing stories from both our own backyards and around the world.
Read more: PuSh in person: The 2022 festival provided a captivating return to live theatre
East Van Panto: Alice In Wonderland | Theatre Replacement | The Cultch | York Theatre and online | November 24, 2021 – January 2, 2022
The evil Queen of Hearts, Jess Cheetos, owns a “super giant evil online store” that threatens to put East Van shops out of business, the White Rabbit sells cell phones, the Cheshire Cat (Amanda Sum) is a busker, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb are transit police officers, and the Mad Hatter presides over a leftist tea party on Commercial Drive. It’s Alice in Wonderland like you’ve never seen it before, full of local East Van references and political commentary.
Lights | Touchstone Theatre | Firehall Arts Centre | December 2 – 12, 2021
“Do not let me stare at a picture and think it’s a window,” says Nancy (Susinn McFarlen) to her son. She worries that her Alzheimer’s will get so bad she’ll be placed in a dementia village where people look at pictures and think it’s the outside world. This concern for her future and resistance and denial of her condition is at the heart of Lights, a moving mother-son story about taking care of each other.
Read more: Lights is a relatable story about how families care for each other
Via Kanana | Via Katlehong Dance | Digidance | February 16 – March 16
“Kanana” means the promised land that never comes in the Sotho language. Choreographer Gregory Magoma has created a bold, pulsing condemnation of corruption fusing pantsula, step, and gumboot to comment on the lack of change in South Africa since apartheid.
Read more: Via Katlehong Dance presents a bold condemnation of corruption
