Live from a Bush of Ghosts is a ghost story for the digital age. Spirits arise from the toxic smoke of First World electronic trash dumped in the developing world. A boy lured by an internet predator, an elderly online gambling addict, a suicidal stockbroker, and a heavy metal televangelist— these are some of the ghosts haunting a woman who melts down computer components to retrieve precious metals for pennies a day. With music inspired by Brian Eno and David Byrne’s seminal recording My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Theatre Conspiracy delves into the fallout of our electronic culture. Electronic band No Luck Club performs along with live video mixes by Candelario Andrade as dancer/actor Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg creates multiple roles to bring alive a ghostworld that is a physical, visual, sonic feast for the senses.
Two guides in a gallery. Two lovers with a lifestyle to maintain. Two hearts beating four thousand miles apart. Translations. Transactions. A transplantation.
ENGLAND is the story of a search for a new heart. It’s a story about a life saved and an illness overcome at any cost. It’s a tour through spaces and across borders: from an art gallery to a jam factory, from London to Osaka, from a hospital bed to a hotel room.
It's a tour to the end of the world.
Taking place within an exhibition, the play continues Tim Crouch’s fascination with the nature of the theatrical experience; the communication of an idea from actor to audience… and back again.
Presented by PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and
The Cultch
Jan 20 - Feb 8, 8pm
Waterfront Theatre
Billy Twinkle is a theatrical piece intended and created solely for a mature audience. Children under 14 will not be admitted.
Billy Twinkle is a middle-aged cruise ship puppeteer who dazzles audiences with his Stars in Miniature marionette niteclub act. His saucy stripper Rusty titillates the tourists, octogenarian Bunny invokes sidesplitting laughter with the inflatable balloon in his pants, Bumblebear juggles, roller-skates and steals the hearts of every audience, and society dame Biddy Bantam Brewster brings a bit of highbrow hilarity to the high seas with her drunken aria. Billy is the best in the business and on top of the world as he floats along through life.
Until he is fired by the cruiseline. Standing at the edge of the ship contemplating a watery demise, Billy is abruptly called back to reality when his dead mentor Sid Diamond appears as a hand puppet. Sid literally will not leave his side, and forces Billy to re-enact his life as a puppet show in order to remember and rekindle the passion Billy once had for puppets, people and the dream of a life that sparkles.
Presented by PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and MovEnt.
Mix fabulous contemporary dance, an intimate cabaret space and a ridiculously small stage, and find yourself at Dances for a Small Stage® 20. MovEnt celebrates 20 shows in seven years with a two-program, four-show extravaganza! Featuring eight specially commissioned Canadian dance artists as well as some of Vancouver’s best local talent, Dances for a Small Stage® 20 opens the doors on a fresh, up-close-and-personal view of the contemporary dance scene. With drinks in hand, sit back, relax and enjoy great dance theatre performed in an exhilarating, hip environment. This is new dance, made to measure.
MovEnt is a non-profit dance production/creation company devoted to developing the contemporary dance audience in Vancouver and Canada. Relentlessly searching out a physicality of strength, style and integrity, MovEnt aspires to fashion and produce new dance that encourages high expectations and discovers engaging art. Promoting live dance theatre that is accessible and artful, MovEnt showcases new and established creators who have passion, vision and an energized commitment for dance making. MovEnt events demonstrate that live dance theatre need not be for only the art connoisseur, but for anyone who enjoys expressive physicality in a dynamic, urban setting. www.movent.ca.
Jan 21 - Feb 7, 8pm
Arts Club Theatre - Granville Island Stage
Matinee performances Saturdays @ 2pm
NO SHOW SUNDAYS
What would you risk to live out your dreams? A clear blue sky. From far above, the distant sound of a receding airplane. Two men, a house-bound agoraphobe desperate for change and his brother, the lead singer for an '80s cover band desperate for recognition, tumble at terminal velocity in the midst of a skydiving adventure gone terribly wrong.
Written by Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Kevin Kerr, Skydive is an action-adventure-comedy that pushes our limits of perception to the breaking point. Defying gravity in theatre by using Sven Johansson's ES Dance Instruments, Skydive literally raises the bar and makes a quadriplegic fly. This PuSh Festival-commissioned production returns for an extended run, following success on tour and critical acclaim.
Realwheels is a professional theatre company whose goal is to create and produce world-class art that deepens the audience’s understanding of the disability experience. www.realwheels.ca.
Tickets available at the Arts Club box office. Call 604.687.1644.
Tickets $31-$43.
Feb 4 – 7, 7pm & 8:30pm Feb 7 & 8 2 & 3:30pm
Chapel Arts
Are you desperate for childcare? Need someone to look after your ailing parents? Have you left your children in the Philippines to find a better life in Canada? Nanay is a testimonial play that puts these different worlds of need and desire into collision. It uses the words of domestic workers, their children, nanny agents and Canadian employers to explore the complexity of live-in care giving in Canada. Realized as a multi-media event, Nanay takes the audience through a series of encounters in search of a deeper understanding of the human costs of Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program.
Based in Vancouver, Urban Crawl’s vision focuses on producing artistic work that opens up spaces for physical and social dialogue. The company is committed to an artistic practice that is socially engaged and enmeshed in the messy world of everyday life. It works to create art that crosses disciplinary boundaries, crisscrossing sites of aesthetic and political exploration. For Urban Crawl, Nanay represents an opportunity to further the potential of testimonial theatre, and to put theatre to work on an issue of civic importance.
