Again this year, the Vancouver Fringe Festival is holding over some of its most popular shows. Of those, I highly recommend 6 Guitars and Unpossible! In 6 Guitars, Chase Padgett becomes half a dozen characters who all play the guitar in different styles. His...

This year at the Victoria Fringe Festival I learned never to trust my intuition: shows that I thought looked like caca turned out to be great; others, that I thought were guaranteed winners, not so much.  I'd read the book version of Alison Wearing's Confessions of a...

There are a bunch of good shows up this summer. Here are my picks.  Of the shows I've seen at Bard on the Beach (Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Elizabeth Rex), I highly recommend Hamlet. In her contemporary staging, director Kim Collier goes a little tech-crazy, but she...

The Arts Club's production of Avenue Q is pretty much perfect. No kidding. A distillation of the concerns of Gen X, Avenue Q explores the struggles of a group of young adults who are finding out they're not as special as they've been brought up to believe. They search...

Last week, I had a fabulous chat with Jonathon Young, who's playing Hamlet at Bard on the Beach this summer. You can read the interview in the Straight by going to www.straight.com. Jon and I had such a rich conversation that I want to pass along some more of what he...

As a substantive editor, one of the most common problems I run into—especially with new writers—is that of the passive protagonist. I suspect that this is because writers are, by nature, observers. We pay close attention to the world around us. That's great, but it's...

This week's theatre pick is easy: go see Mump and Smoot in Something at the Cultch. These "clowns of horror" are the real deal. I first saw them almost 3o years ago and their audacity still makes me laugh myself stupid.

  So far, the only sure bet I have for this weekend is good old reliable Craigslist Cantata. Bill Richardson and Veda Hille's musical revue, which is based on Craigslist ads is inspired and the multitalented cast is terrific. But that's not all; a couple of...

If you want do catch one of the best shows that's on this week, you've got tonight and tomorrow night to do it. Radix Theatre's The Performance Art Trap, which Boca del Lupo is presenting as part of its Micro Performance Series, closes on May 4. Catch it if you can....