I recommend two evenings this week. Macbeth, at Bard on the Beach, is bloody good. Colleen Wheeler makes a terrifying Lady Macbeth and Bob Frazer draws a clear and compelling arc as Mr. Mackers. Director Miles Potter makes great big choices and most of them—notably...

I seem to be the only person who dislikes The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In my view, excellent actors, including Judi Dench do much better work than the script deserves. I mean really. A died-in-the-wool racist played by Maggie Smith suddenly sees the light and gets...

I went to see Hive: the New Bees 2 at Chapel Arts, the converted funeral home at Dunlevy and Cordova last night, and I highly recommend it. The original Hive started at Chapel Arts a number of years ago and featured alternative companies that already were or have...

Shelter from the Storm My interview with emerging playwright Peter Boychuk (pictured above) will appear in next week's Georgia Straight (Thursday, May 31). Peter's new show, Shelter from the Storm goes up the next day (June 1) at the Firehall, where it runs in a...

Some novelists and screenwriters that I work with are shy about conflict. My sense is that's partly because they don't want to dumb their stories down with meaningless action or fall into the traps of popular culture, which features a lot of gratuitous—and...

  It's so skillful. Carmen Aguirre's autobiographical solo show, Blue Box, is not only exploding with hot content—Aguirre chronicles both her relationship with a wild Chicano lover who first appeared to her in a vision and her years in the Chilean underground...

If you haven't seen The Bomb-itty of Errors yet, get out there. Niko Koupantsis and Jameson Parker (the lovely ladies in Jay Haddow's photo above) are especially funny. This show is playing at Studio 16 until April 22, but book now. If there is justice in the...

Want to give two-dimensional characters an instant third dimension? Try this. Make a list of characteristics, likes and dislikes for your character. Opposite that list, write opposing characteristics, likes and dislikes. Choose one of the items from the list of...

Some authors build bridges and some authors dig tunnels. In other words, some writers like to get a structure in place, an outline, before they launch into a story: these are the bridge builders. And other writers just burrow right into the tale. Local writer Lois...