Vancouver theatre: Here are the six best plays to see in June
Ah, June. Summer sunshine (maybe) and summer theatre. Musicals, comedies, more musicals and comedies, and a few outliers. June in Vancouver means Bard on the Beach — three shows this year are comedies. And Theatre Under the Stars — two musicals. And the Arts Club's summer musical. Funnyman Colin Mochrie at the Improv Centre. Theatre in the Country's musical. A post-apocalyptic musical from Renegade Arts. An embarrassment of musical and comic riches.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Article content
No one is funnier than Oscar Wilde, who here applies his incomparable wit to a fin de siècle tale of political scandal and blackmail. The kind of material the Vancouver Playhouse would once have produced now frequently gets done, and done well, by United Players. Starring Hayley Sullivan, Cat Smith and Chris Cope. After 11 seasons at the Shaw Festival, director Moya O'Connell knows the period style.
Article content
Article content
Haus of Yolo
Article content
From New Zealand's The Dust Palace, The Cultch's season-ender features acrobats creating their own costumes onstage in real time: 'from sewing machine to circus routine.' In this 'anti-cabaret cabaret,' the show's four performers take turns playing the designer and the Sexy Meat Puppets who wear the clothes and do the routines. One reviewer described it as a celebration of 'the half-naked body in the tiniest leotards I have ever seen.'
Article content
Article content
Article content
Bard on the Beach opens its season with one of Shakespeare's finest romantic comedies, featuring witty lovers Beatrice and Benedick. A couple of Bard veterans, the divine Jennifer Lines as Beatrice and hilarious Scott Bellis as goofy Constable Dogberry, make this a guaranteed winner. I don't know about the 'additional text by Canadian playwright Erin Shields' to enhance the near-serious subplot. But director Johnna Wright has a good track record with Bard comedies.
Article content
Article content
Waitress
Article content
Local TV star Rachel Drance (The Flash, Virgin River) plays a pregnant small-town waitress in a bad marriage whose pie-baking skills save her. Warning: Extramarital sex! Adapted from the 2007 movie, the stage play has music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles and an A-list supporting cast including Ben Elliott, Josh Epstein, Jennie Neumann and Tom Pickett. The Arts Club's Ashlie Corcoran directs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Province
6 days ago
- The Province
Theatre: The women get their say and the dog has its day in Bard on the Beach's season-opening comedies
Jennifer Lines as Beatrice and Sheldon Elter as Benedick in Bard on the Beach's Much Ado About Nothing. Photo by Emily Cooper / Bard on the Beach Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Much Ado About Nothing This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The Two Gentlemen of Verona When: To Sept. 20 Where: Sen̓áḵw/Vanier Park Tickets, info: From $35 at Bard on the Beach opens its 36th season in its big tent with two of Shakespeare's romantic comedies playing in repertory. Each is engaging in its own way but stylistically they couldn't be more different. Director Johnna Wright gives Much Ado About Nothing a conventional Elizabethan-style setting while The Two Gentlemen of Verona gets the full 1980s Don Johnson-Jane Fonda-George Michael treatment from Dean Paul Gibson. Both amusing productions end with similar twists: Altered endings provide correctives to the plays' blatant misogyny. Much Ado is the superior play, featuring the famous battle of comic wits between wannabe but reluctant lovers Beatrice (Jennifer Lines) and Benedick (Sheldon Elter) plus a dramatic subplot involving young romantics Claudio (Angus Yam) and Hero (Jennifer Tong). Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Benedick vows to live a bachelor, and Beatrice will have no man with a beard or without one. But when Don Pedro (Matthew Ip Shaw) and friends plot to get them together, a few comic scenes later they're done. Meanwhile, Don Pedro's evil brother Don John (Karthik Kadam) plots to ruin Claudio and Hero's marriage, staging a scene that makes Hero look like a slut. Both Claudio and Don Pedro fall for it. When the villainy is revealed by goofy Constable Dogberry (Scott Bellis) and his posse, every boy gets to have his girl without further ado, despite Claudio's appalling behaviour towards innocent Hero. So director Wright has appended text by playwright Erin Shields: a long monologue by Beatrice at the beginning of the play about Hero and a long monologue by Hero at the end, scolding Claudio and pointing out the injustices she has suffered. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Thematically, I get it. Theatrically, it doesn't really work. What works best is the zest with which Lines and Elter parry and thrust in Beatrice and Benedick's love battles on Pam Johnson's gorgeous set through which we watch the sun slowly set. Bard on the Beach The Two Gentlemen of Verona Photo by Emily Cooper / Bard of the Beach The Two Gentlemen of Verona also features two sets of lovers but only a single plot. Valentine (Ip Shaw) mocks best pal Proteus (Jacob Leonard) for falling in love with Julia (Tess Degenstein). But Valentine falls in love with Silvia (Agnes Tong). Then Proteus also falls for Silvia, abandoning Julia, who follows him disguised as a boy. Sylvia's father (Elter) wants her to marry blockhead Turio (Tanner Zerr). This is pretty thin material so Gibson lays on the dumb fun '80s style. Characters enter, exit, and change scenes carrying boom boxes, dancing (choreography by Nicol Spinola) to sound designer Malcolm Dow's pounding disco beats and Gerald King's kaleidoscopic lighting in gorgeously horrid period clothing (especially the men's) from costumer Carmen Allatore. Shakespeare's dialogue is peppered with contemporary interjections: OK, shut up. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In the end, all the complications get straightened out, but not before some really nasty behaviour by Proteus and Valentine, whose bromance is stronger than their respect for the women. Silvia, the character with integrity, has some strong speeches. But the coup de grace here is not rhetorical as in Much Ado. Forget the traditional marriage celebration. The production concludes with a gang of heavily armed women dancing violently to Pat Benatar. The comic coup in this production is the beautifully understated performance of Scott Bellis as the servant Launce, joined by his equally funny, very low-key dog Crab, played adorably by Bard artistic director Christopher Gaze's pooch Mason.
Vancouver Sun
7 days ago
- Vancouver Sun
Theatre: The women get their say and the dog has its day in Bard on the Beach's season-opening comedies
Much Ado About Nothing The Two Gentlemen of Verona When: To Sept. 20 Where: Sen̓áḵw/Vanier Park Tickets, info: From $35 at Bard on the Beach opens its 36th season in its big tent with two of Shakespeare's romantic comedies playing in repertory. Each is engaging in its own way but stylistically they couldn't be more different. Director Johnna Wright gives Much Ado About Nothing a conventional Elizabethan-style setting while The Two Gentlemen of Verona gets the full 1980s Don Johnson-Jane Fonda-George Michael treatment from Dean Paul Gibson. Both amusing productions end with similar twists: Altered endings provide correctives to the plays' blatant misogyny. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Much Ado is the superior play, featuring the famous battle of comic wits between wannabe but reluctant lovers Beatrice (Jennifer Lines) and Benedick (Sheldon Elter) plus a dramatic subplot involving young romantics Claudio (Angus Yam) and Hero (Jennifer Tong). Benedick vows to live a bachelor, and Beatrice will have no man with a beard or without one. But when Don Pedro (Matthew Ip Shaw) and friends plot to get them together, a few comic scenes later they're done. Meanwhile, Don Pedro's evil brother Don John (Karthik Kadam) plots to ruin Claudio and Hero's marriage, staging a scene that makes Hero look like a slut. Both Claudio and Don Pedro fall for it. When the villainy is revealed by goofy Constable Dogberry (Scott Bellis) and his posse, every boy gets to have his girl without further ado, despite Claudio's appalling behaviour towards innocent Hero. So director Wright has appended text by playwright Erin Shields: a long monologue by Beatrice at the beginning of the play about Hero and a long monologue by Hero at the end, scolding Claudio and pointing out the injustices she has suffered. Thematically, I get it. Theatrically, it doesn't really work. What works best is the zest with which Lines and Elter parry and thrust in Beatrice and Benedick's love battles on Pam Johnson's gorgeous set through which we watch the sun slowly set. The Two Gentlemen of Verona also features two sets of lovers but only a single plot. Valentine (Ip Shaw) mocks best pal Proteus (Jacob Leonard) for falling in love with Julia (Tess Degenstein). But Valentine falls in love with Silvia (Agnes Tong). Then Proteus also falls for Silvia, abandoning Julia, who follows him disguised as a boy. Sylvia's father (Elter) wants her to marry blockhead Turio (Tanner Zerr). This is pretty thin material so Gibson lays on the dumb fun '80s style. Characters enter, exit, and change scenes carrying boom boxes, dancing (choreography by Nicol Spinola) to sound designer Malcolm Dow's pounding disco beats and Gerald King's kaleidoscopic lighting in gorgeously horrid period clothing (especially the men's) from costumer Carmen Allatore. Shakespeare's dialogue is peppered with contemporary interjections: OK, shut up. In the end, all the complications get straightened out, but not before some really nasty behaviour by Proteus and Valentine, whose bromance is stronger than their respect for the women. Silvia, the character with integrity, has some strong speeches. But the coup de grace here is not rhetorical as in Much Ado. Forget the traditional marriage celebration. The production concludes with a gang of heavily armed women dancing violently to Pat Benatar. The comic coup in this production is the beautifully understated performance of Scott Bellis as the servant Launce, joined by his equally funny, very low-key dog Crab, played adorably by Bard artistic director Christopher Gaze's pooch Mason.
CTV News
26-06-2025
- CTV News
Things to do in Metro Vancouver on the last weekend of June
The last weekend of June is a little less jam-packed with events than previous ones this month, with many upcoming summer festivals happening on Canada Day, rather than Saturday or Sunday. Still, there's plenty to do in Metro Vancouver before the country celebrates its 158th birthday on Tuesday. Here are some options. New Science World exhibit Science World's new exhibit "Artemis Space Adventure with LEGO Bricks" opened to the public this week. Featuring 'larger-than-life LEGO sculptures, hands-on engineering challenges, and collaborative workshop stations designed to ignite creativity,' the exhibition draws its inspiration from NASA's Artemis program, which aims to send humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. The exhibit will be at Science World through April 6, 2026, so visitors who don't make it on opening weekend will have plenty of time to check it out. Theatre Under the Stars This weekend also marks the start of a new season of Theatre Under the Stars, with preview performances of this year's productions of Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Legally Blonde' scheduled for Friday through Monday. Opening night will be July 2 for the former and July 3 for the latter. The annual run of live, outdoor theatre in Stanley Park's Malkin Bowl will continue through Aug. 16. A full schedule and ticket information is available on the TUTS website. Surrey Pride 2025 The 26th Annual Surrey Pride Festival will be held Saturday in the city's Civic Plaza from noon to 7 p.m. Started in the late 1990s as a response to efforts to ban books in the Surrey School District, the event has grown into an annual celebration featuring dozens of vendors and live performances. A performance schedule can be found on the Surrey Pride website. Pollinator Picnic at UBC UBC Farm is hosting several special activities during its weekly farmer's market this Saturday, all to celebrate the pollinators that make the food system possible. Among the free events scheduled are tours of the farm and various pollinator-related projects currently in progress there, as well as graduate student talks and kids' colouring activities. There will also be tea tastings and a 'meet n' treat' with bunnies from Rabbitats rabbit rescue by donation. The 'Pollinator Picnic' runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information can be found on the UBC Farm website. Portobello West Summer Market Portobello West will host the first of two summer markets at VanDusen Botanical Garden's Floral Hall on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Featuring '39 local B.C. makers of family fashion, jewelry, art, home decor, skincare, gourmet treats, wine and spirits, and more,' the market is free to enter. Organizers will hold a second summer market at VanDusen on Aug. 16.
