Seven Things to Do in Metro Vancouver Dec. 13-19: Mixed Nuts, Magic Sword, and more
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:00:59 +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 Dec. 13 and 19.
Headlining this week’s picks is the Arts Umbrella’s annual production Mixed Nuts.
For more ideas, click HERE for our coverage of Vancouver’s arts scene, or HERE to search our entertainment listings database.
Here are seven things to do in Metro Vancouver this week:
Pic credit: David Cooper.
When: Dec. 13 to 15 , various times
Where: Vancouver Playhouse
Tickets: From $25 at artsumbrella.com
Arts Umbrella’s annual holiday family treat updates The Nutcracker with local references and performances by Vancouver-based choreographers and dancers. This year, the company is replacing the traditional second-act Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and Russian dances with a production number inspired by the 1940s board game Candy Land.
When: Dec. 13, 7 p.m.
Where: Venue
Tickets: $25 at ticketweb.ca
As the holidays approach, non-seasonal-related pickings thin out. So let’s hear it for Magic Sword, a Boise, Idaho-based electronic trio who dress in masks and cloaks and call themselves The Keeper, The Seer, and The Weaver. Willamette Week describes their sound as “epic sci-fi electropop that sounds something like John Carpenter producing the next Justice album.” Magic Sword is touring with Dance With the Dead, a duo from Southern California with a fondness for ‘80s electronic music, science-fiction and horror movie soundtracks, and metal. You can’t get much more non-Christmassy than that.
When: until Dec. 21
Where: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Tickets: From $24 at eventbrite.com
The musical version of A Christmas Carol is celebrating its 10th and final year. This version is set in the city’s Downtown Eastside, the better to confront local social issues. Jim Byrnes (pictured) plays Scrooge, here a pawnshop operator and hotel landlord who displaces people through renovictions. Other actors include Tom Pickett, Kevin McNulty, Sam Bob, Savannah Walling, and Margo Kane. Blues, gospel and industrial rock genres are interspersed with traditional seasonal favourites. Images by muralist Richard Tetrault of back alleys, ravens and Vancouver’s portside provide a backdrop to the adaptation.
When: Dec. 14, 9 p.m.
Where: Rio Theatre
Tickets: $25 at riotheatretickets.ca, $30 at the door
Vancouver burlesque dancers perform selections from the Geekenders’ popular series of Star Wars-themed shows, including A Nude Hope, The Empire Strips Back and Reveal of the Jedi. True to its title, the show also references the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, which is apparently so bad it’s never been rebroadcast or released on home video (it lives on in bootlegs, though, and YouTube). Spoiler alert: the show includes a tribute to Baby Yoda.
When: Dec 13, 8 p.m.
Where: St. James Hall
Tickets: $28 at roguefolk.bc.ca
Local gypsy-jazz act Van Django presents a variety show that mixes Christmas favourites, jazz standards, pop tunes, classical elements, and singalongs. As in past years, L.J. Mounteney (pictured) lends her vocals to the evening’s selections.
When: until Dec. 21
Where: Pacific Theatre
Tickets: From $20 at pacifictheatre.org
As he reads from Charles Dickens’ original text, Pacific Theatre artistic director Ron Reed enacts Scrooge and 43 other characters. In 2011, the year of the show’s debut, Reed said “working with Dickens’ original text, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge is anything but frivolous or sentimental. This story plays for keeps. Dickens’ language is extraordinary, his passion for justice electrifying, his insights into the human heart substantial.”
When: Dec. 16, 7 p.m.
Where: Biltmore Cabaret
Tickets: $15 at eventbrite.ca
Fans of Mark Bérubé take note: the Montreal singer/songwriter is back in Canada, this time touring as one-half of Berlin-based duo Kliffs. Bérubé formed the unit with Kristina Koropecki, who plays cello, keyboards, and sings. Following a self-titled five-song introductory EP, Kliffs has just released a full-length, Temporary Cures. They describe their music as “recycled tone poems for the perpetually bemused, and pop songs for shy dancers.”
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