Seven things to do in Vancouver, Sept 6-12: Tommy's Amazing Journey, One Man Avengers, and more
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2019 15:00:53 +0000
Whether you’re looking for date ideas, free things to do or just something fun to do in downtown Vancouver, you can’t go wrong with our list of events happening around Metro Vancouver between Sept 6 and 12.
This week, we’re spotlighting some of the plays on offer at the Fringe Festival.
For more ideas, click HERE for our coverage of Vancouver’s arts scene, or HERE to search our entertainment listings database.
Here are seven plays to see in Metro Vancouver this week:
When: Sept 6-9, 11-14.
Where: WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac St, Vancouver.
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
The long-running New York production Sleep No More is having an effect on local theatre companies. Third Wheel Productions cited the interactive, site-specific work as an influence on last month’s Deep Into Darkness, an Edgar Allen Poe pastiche, at the Cultch. Now local company GeekEnders is taking over the WISE Hall in a similar fashion for its take on Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. In Alice in Glitterland, audiences explore unlocked doors as they follow the White Rabbit (or other characters) to a soundtrack of electro-swing, glam-rock covers and ambient pop music. Added bonus: A ball-pit room.
Lyndsey Britten and Jordan Svenkeson star in Alice in Glitterland.
When: Sept. 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14
Where: Revue Stage, 1601 Johnston St. (Granville Island).
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
“Does the world need a one-man-band version of The Who’s seminal rock opera Tommy?” asked the Edmonton Journal’s Dave Breakenridge. Yes, yes it does, is the answer (Breakenridge gave the show four out of five stars in a review of its Edmonton Fringe run). To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the album’s release, New Westminster’s Kevin Armstrong sings (he’s an opera singer and actor) and plays the entire thing on guitar and drums. If nothing else, you’ll come away whistling Pinball Wizard and marvelling at how he pulled off telling the story of that deaf, dumb and blind kid.
Multiple award-winner Josephine, about Josephine Baker, comes to this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival. Tymisha Harris stars as Baker.
When: Sept. 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15
Where: Cultch Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables St, Vancouver.
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
This musical bio of Josephine Baker has won multiple Best of the Fest awards for Tymisha Harris’s performance. Baker started out as a chorus girl on Broadway before moving to Paris, where she broke through to become the most famous woman in France and the richest black woman in the world. Josephine combines theatre, cabaret and dance to tell the story of the first African-American international superstar.
After a sold-out run last year, the ghost hunters are back in Fake Ghost Tours 2: Journey to the Other Side (of Granville Island).
When: Sept 6-8, 12-15
Where: The Picnic Pavilion, 267 Old Bridge Walk (Granville Island).
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
Experience Granville Island as you never have before (but might again next year). Ghost-hunting “twin brothers” Abdul Aziz and Shawn O’Hara are the guides on this comedic and partially improvised ghost tour. Don’t wait too long before buying tickets; the bros’ first Fake Ghost Tour sold out its 2018 Fringe run.
R’n’J: The Untold Story of Shakespeare’s Roz and Jules plays the Firehall Arts Centre as part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival.
When: Sept. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12.
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
Vancouver-born playwright Carmina Bernhardt’s play follows Juliet (Bernhardt) after Romeo’s death and the discovery that she’s pregnant with twins. She crosses paths with Rosaline, Romeo’s first love and they go on what The Scotsman, in a review of the UK production’s recent Edinburgh Fringe Festival run, called “a Thelma and Louise-style road trip.” The Scotsman also said Bernhardt’s script is “cool, clever and funny.”
Rodney DeCroo stars in the one-man show Didn’t Hurt.
When: Sept. 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15
Where: Cultch Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables St, Vancouver.
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
Rodney DeCroo tells the story of growing up with a violent, abusive father, and the results of toxic masculinity in the home. In a review of a Toronto Fringe Festival show, nowtoronto.com called DeCroo’s performance “smartly constructed and gut-wrenching.” Vancouver-based DeCroo is also a singer/songwriter; his most recent album is Old Tenement Man.
Festival favourite Jem Rolls returns with another story about an unjustly forgotten historical figure in Walk in the Snow: The True Story of Lise Meitner.
When: Sept. 5-7, 9-14.
Where: Carousel Theatre, 1411 Cartwright St. (Granville Island)
Tickets and info: $15 at VancouverFringe.com.
Fringe favourite Jem Rolls returns with another tale of a forgotten physicist. After tackling the tale of Hungarian scientist Leo Szilard in the acclaimed Inventor of All Things, the U.K. performer tells the story of Lise Meitner, a Jewish Austrian physicist who fled the Nazis. Meitner went on to help give the first theoretical explanation of the process of nuclear fission. Rolls is a one-man storytelling machine who has probably played more Fringe festivals than any other artist.
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.