Tag Archives: The Cultch

East Van Panto: Beauty And The Beast At The York November 22 to January 7

10 Nov

The Cultch and Theatre Replacement are thrilled to present East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, November 22, 2023 until January 7, 2024 at the York Theatre. For over a decade, Theatre Replacement and The Cultch have partnered to bring this holiday tradition like no other. It transforms well-known stories with an East Van twist along with pop song parodies, it really has something for all ages.

This year, East Van Panto’s Belle and Bento Buddies invite you on a fun adventure to escape the Beast’s clutches and break the curse on Venables Street.    Bright, business-minded Belle is separated from her free-spirited dad Maurice and becomes imprisoned in an enchanted specialty grocery store by a strangely familiar Beast who seems very set in his ways. Time is running out and Belle who must use her smarts alongside her new friends Miso Potts, little Tofu and their Bento Buds to flip the perspective of Belle’s captor and break the curse before the last cherry blossom falls.

Seeing the live performance of the East Van Panto is a treat with the whole audience involved, but for those that wish to watch it from the comfort of home, the East Van Panto will again be available online from December 18, 2023 to January 7, 2024. If you plan to attend in person, you also have the opportunity to be part of the filming magic as part of the studio audience for Panto Online on December 5th & 6th when tickets are $30.  Whether you attend in person or online, this is one show not to miss.   Be sure to grab your tickets early. Tickets start at $39 for in person shows, family packages are available, digital tickets from $25.  For more information, or to grab your tickets, visit The Cultch.

“Rowdy made-in-East-Van fun for the whole family”
Stir Vancouver

“It is the silliest, most wonderful of traditions.
And for me, it has become essential.” 
The Globe and Mail

“If the East Van Panto isn’t part of your holiday tradition yet,
what are you waiting for?”
Georgia Straight

“East Van Panto has earned its place as one of the best-loved holiday traditions in Vancouver…”
Colin Thomas

Image Credit: Cindy Mochizuki

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Pulizter Prize Winning Play The Fairview At The Cultch September 27 – October 8

20 Sep

The Cultch presents Fairview, from Vancouver’s The Search Party in partnership with Toronto’s b current Performing Arts, running at the Historic Theatre from September 27 until October 8, 2023.

The Frasier family are getting ready for Grandma’s birthday party but things keep going wrong. Beverly wants everything to be perfect, but nobody is cooperating. Her sister Jasmine won’t help, her husband Dayton is more interested in the game and isn’t paying attention to her, her brother Tyrone is MIA, and Keisha—well, her daughter is a teenager. And while everything is falling apart around Beverly … maybe nothing is what it seems in the first place!

Jackie Sibblies Drury’s hard-hitting examination of race and surveillance premiered June 17, 2018, at Soho Repertory Theatre in New York Theatre. The response was immediate and substantial. Audiences were stirred up, and the show quickly gained momentum as it began gaining accolade after accolade. It went on to win the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was also nominated for six 2019 Drama Desk Awards. Since then it has been produced all over the world.

For Fairview’s Western Canada premiere, Vancouver’s award-winning company The Search Party is partnering with Toronto’s b current Performing Arts. Toronto’s Kwaku Okyere, a Ghanaian-Canadian director, will be joining The Search Party’s Artistic Director Mindy Parfitt to bring Fairview to the Historic Stage. “Often conversations about race can happen in silos with people who have similar lived experiences rather than cross-culturally,” says Okyere and Parfitt. “Our collaboration aims to model what the play is doing, which is to ignite conversation across differences.” For tickets, visit The Cultch.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Falcon Media Presents Dantor-Olas Altas at The Cultch August 24 & 25

7 Aug

Falcon Media and The Cultch invite you to enjoy a musical journey created by Mexican virtuoso guitarist Daniel Torres.  His compositions feature sounds of Mexico, jazz and word music.  Daniel will be on stage at The Cultch accompanied by an ensemble of musicians. Tickets are on sale now starting from $32. To purchase tickets, visit The Cultch.

Tags: , , , , , ,

The Cultch Presents Dirty Laundry June 9-25 At The York Theatre

28 May

After 3 years of being postponed the Briefs Factory is finally bringing their larger than life show Dirty Laundry to the York Theatre June 9 – 25, 2023. Dirty Laundry is a new show from the world-renowned Australian cabaret collective Briefs Factory. You can expect a mix of circus, drag, dance, burlesque, music and comedy. Led by Briefs Factory director and co-founder Fez Faanana, the show is performed by a collective of talented performers from many disciplines. This is a sexy ensemble that is perfect for a night out for men and women alike. The Cultch’s Executive Director Heather Redfern says “Dirty Laundry is a show that will really heat up everyone’s summer!”   To grab your tickets for this sizzling show, visit The Cultch.

What others around the world are saying about their shows:

★★★★★
“The perfect blend of flesh, acrobats, dance,
boylesque and brilliance.”
FRINGEWORLD 2019

★★★★★
“Briefs is the drag party you always wish you’d be invited to!”
Glam Adelaide

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Stupid F*ing Bird At The Cultch April 12-23

26 Mar

The Cultch and The Search Party YVR (Vancouver) bring a contemporary adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, STUPID F*ING BIRD to the stage April 12 – 23. This is a whip smart comedic tragedy about unrequited love, missed connections, lost dreams and the pursuit of happiness. The production features original songs, live music and multi-generational tales that reveal the danger in our own desires and the elusive pursuit of happiness. Tickets are now on sale and start at $25. To purchase tickets online, visit The Cultch.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Jill Barber At The York Theatre April 15th

21 Mar

The much loved Vancouver based singer/songwriter, Jill Barber, invites you to an evening of live music at The York Theatre Saturday, April 15th.   Jill will be featuring songs from her new album, Homemaker. This album, which she helped co-produce, is very personal and reflects on marriage, motherhood and self-identity.    Jill Barber is a three-time Juno Award nominated singer-songwriter who has an unforgettable voice once. Her critically acclaimed repertoire includes songs in both French and English. Tickets are $45 and available online at The Cultch.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

World Premiere Of Starwalker At The York Theatre February 16 to March 5

9 Feb

The Cultch, Urban Ink & Raven Theatre present the world premiere of Corey Payette’s Starwalker, which comes to the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl’ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations February 16 until March 5, 2023, at the York Theatre.

The story follows Starwalker, an Indigi-Queer Two-Spirit drag queen learning the ropes of the East Van Drag community. When Starwalker is introduced to Drag at the House of Borealis, their whole world changes, introducing them to a home they never knew they needed, creating a new persona that blends their grounded Indigenous cultural spirit with drag performance, resulting in an empowering and celebratory experience that only tearing down the patriarchy can provide. 

Award-winning interdisciplinary storyteller, writer, composer, and director Corey Payette has gained acclaim for his large-scale contemporary musicals, which bring his Indigenous perspective to mainstream spaces—including Children of God, and Les Filles du Roi (which Payette co-wrote with Julie McIsaac). Both powerful musicals had their premieres at The Cultch’s York Theatre, and have toured extensively, receiving accolades wherever they go.  

In 2021, Payette received the inaugural BC Reconciliation Award for his work and commitment to inspiring and making lasting change to reconciliation through the arts. His highly acclaimed musical production, Children of God, has brought conversations on truth and reconciliation to audiences throughout Canada. 

Starwalker was commissioned and developed by The Musical Stage Company (Toronto). Their blank canvas offer gave Payette the freedom to explore a side of himself that he hasn’t spent as much time within his other work. It allowed him to express the joy he finds in his Two-Spirit and queer identity.

Starwalker will share a familiarity of style and scope with Payette’s past work, but brings to life a more modern story, presented with a contemporary score combining pop/rock music, with pulsing drums, and powerful vocals from some of Vancouver’s most talented.

The cast includes Dillan Chiblow (known as Tommy/Tom in Children of God), Stewart Adam McKensy (known for his portrayal of Lola in Kinky Boots), and Jeffrey Follis (Drag Queen Urupa)—bring Starwalker’s story to life with choreography from Ralph Escamillan, and musical direction from Sean Bayntun. “I really wanted to look at uplifting some of these voices in a way that was joyous and wasn’t tied to their trauma,” says Payette. “While the characters have experienced hardship, the show is actually about how they are working their way through those issues to find joy, to find love, and to find family and home.”

Tickets for Starwalker are now on sale starting from $25.  Note, for self-identifying Indigenous patrons, there $15 tickets available. For tickets, visit The Cultch.

“Starwalker is a brilliant and unique piece that expertly and
unexpectedly blends musical styles to tell moving stories in innovative ways.”
 Playwrights Guild of Canada, Tom Hendry Awards Jury

Photo Credit: Matt Barnes

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Daisy Theatre Is Back With A Twisted Retelling Of Romeo And Juliet ‘Little Willy’

7 Dec

The Daisy Theatre is back with their take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Little Willy. If you haven’t attended one of Ronnie Burkett’s shows, you are missing out on fun night out. Burlesque star Dolly Wiggler starts the show with an Elizabethan striptease in this riotously funny improvised mash-up of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays. All the leading ladies of the Daisy ensemble battle for the role of Juliet, including faded diva Esme Massengill in a boozy interpretation of the lovesick ingénue.  Beloved audience favourites Schnitzel and Mrs. Edna Rural are back in supporting roles, and adding to the fun and mayhem, The Bard himself joins The Daisy Theatre cast for a twisted retelling of this timeless tale. Tickets start from $35 and are now available online at The Cultch. The production runs from January 10 – 29, 2023.   Tickets to this show would make a great gift of experience this holiday season.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

East Van Panto Celebrates 10 Years With Their Own Spin On The Little Mermaid

6 Nov

The Cultch and Theatre Replacement are thrilled to present East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid, November 16, 2022 until January 1, 2023, at the York Theatre.

For a decade, Theatre Replacement and The Cultch have partnered to bring this holiday tradition like no other. It transforms well-known stories with an East Van twist and has something for all ages. This year, East Van Panto is going under the sea with a wild East Van-centric adventure to the bottom of the Burrard Inlet and back.

In East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid, Ariel is busking with her girl band at New Brighton Beach, when she falls in love with a teenage mer-person. She dives into an ocean adventure, where she makes a questionable deal with a devilish octopus named Ursula, fights off evil electric eels with her trash crab BFF, Sebastian, and has to help save the ocean from a mysterious purple slime of despair.

The writer-director duo from last year’s East Van Panto: Alice in Wonderland, Sonja Bennett and Meg Roe, return to create this year’s 10th anniversary production with Veda Hille, who has been writing the music and fun parodies of popular songs since East Van Panto began. For those that have attended past shows, you will know the music is great every year. Tickets start are $35 and are now available online for in person shows with audience participation encouraged. If you prefer to take in the show from the comfort of home, The Little Mermaid is available to watch online on-demand from December 17, 2022 – January 31, 2023 through RE/PLAY, The Cultch’s digital playground. To learn more, visit The Cultch.

“It is the silliest, most wonderful of traditions.
And for me, it has become essential.” 
The Globe and Mail

“If the East Van Panto isn’t part of your holiday tradition yet,
what are you waiting for?”
Georgia Straight

“East Van Panto has earned its place as one of the best-loved holiday traditions in Vancouver…”
Colin Thomas

Photo Credit: Emily Cooper

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

A Heart Wrenching Cabaret, The Cave, Hits The Stage at The Cultch November 10-20, 2022

26 Oct

The Cultch hosts a heart wrenching cabaret, The Cave, from Tomson Highway, music from John Millard and book from Martha Ross from November 10 – 20, 2022. It’s an important one to see that shows the climate crisis through the eyes of a group of animals trapped together in a bear’s cave as a forest fire draws near. As they await their inevitable demise, they sing. Their tales—reflections on their lives, their ‘lost garden,’ and their impending doom—slowly reveal the reality of a land exploited by humans. At times hysterically comical, at times dramatic and tragic, the four performers—Andrea Koziol, Derek Kwan, Alex Samaras, Maryem Tollar—sing seventeen stirring songs in English and Cree, playing abstractions of Bear, Moose, Beaver, Skunk, Snake, Wolf, Crow, and Fox. And presiding over everything, the cabaret is hosted by a wry and charming MC played by the composer, Millard, himself.

An online version of The Cave was part of The Cultch’s 2021 digital season. It was an immediate hit with critics and audiences alike, who expressed their desire to see it in person when it became possible. The newly staged in-person version comes to Vancouver with new animations.

“I was born and raised in a completely natural environment,” recalls lyricist Tomson Highway. “It was completely safe, and a blissful experience to live in that ‘garden’. And a true garden it was. Now, a half-century later, it is no longer safe to live up there. The reason? Forest fires. Hundreds of them every summer. In Fort McMurray’s fire some 2,000 people lost their homes. How many animals lost theirs? The destruction was, and is, gargantuan. That is to say, the current state of global warming is THEIR eviction from the garden. And it is ours.”

Tickets are available online now at The Cultch. What people are saying about The Cave:

“Messages on climate crisis delivered in a creatively charged cabaret that defies expectations” 
Janet Smith, Stir

“Playfulness abounds… But there are operatic thrills, too, and heartbreaking lyricism.”
Colin Thomas, colinthomas.ca

“The Cave is never preachy, always entertaining.”
Jo Ledingham, joledingham.ca

Photo Credit: Cassandra Popescu

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries