Home - tessaperkins.ca

Sophie Buddle headlines Yuk Yuk's

Sophie Buddle with Harris Anderson, Sam Tonning, and Ari Matti | Yuk Yuk’s Vancouver | June 28, 2019

With her recently-released comedy album, Lil Bit of Buddle, weekly Obsessed podcast, and stand-up gigs across the country, Sophie Buddle has been busy. Headlining Yuk Yuk’s Vancouver for the first time this June, the local comedian who has written for This Hour Has 22 Minutes had the room laughing about sexual fantasies, rape-front jobs, mermaids, and Christian horse camp. Her material is diverse, her delivery is confident, and her punchlines are unexpected and well-timed.

Ce qu’on attend de moi dares us to imagine alternate lives

Ce qu’on attend de moi | 2par4 and L'Homme Allumette | Théâtre la Seizième | Performance Works | May 21 – 25, 2019

A play with no actors and no script that has the audience watching from outside the walls of the theatre — it doesn’t get much more innovative than that. In Ce qu’on attend de moi, an audience member becomes the protagonist of an improvised journey to explore an alternate life they could have lead.

The Preston Rivulettes pave the way for women's hockey in Glory

Glory | Western Canada Theatre and Alberta Theatre Projects | Gateway Theatre | April 4 – 13, 2019

A Chatelaine article from 1933 states that “Ice hockey is a game for which [women’s] soft, unyielding flesh is unsuited.” Helen Schwartz (Kate Dion-Richard), a member of the pioneering Preston Rivulettes, reads this quote in disbelief as she sits with her teammates. Glory is the true story of the Rivulettes fighting back against a society that didn’t think women should play hockey. We’ve come a long way since then, but, as the current lawsuit in US women’s soccer demonstrates, we have a long way to go to achieve gender equality in sports.

Surreal antics and yodel queens combine in New Cackle Sisters: Kitchen Chicken

New Cackle Sisters: Kitchen Chicken | L’orchestre d’hommes orchestres | The Cultch | York Theatre | April 2 – 6, 2019

Dancing chickens, spray bottles of wine, and Cheese Whiz art — just a few of the joyously weird sights in this delightful orchestra that caters to all the senses. By the end of the show, the smell of roasted chicken fills the theatre and audience members have been treated to various delicacies such as lettuce wrapped hotdogs, mashed potato cones, and cups of tea with a whipped cream rim. But it’s not what’s on the plate that’s important — it’s how it gets there.

Gross Misconduct is sharply written with plenty of suspense and superb acting

Gross Misconduct | SpeakEasy Theatre | Gateway Theatre | March 14 – 23, 2019

Meghan Gardiner’s sharply-written Gross Misconduct is a difficult yet important story about sexual assault that explores the complex consequences and repercussions for all involved.

In a stark jail cell with two white boxes serving as beds and harsh fluorescent lighting, Deke (Ian Butcher) enjoys his silence. He tells the guard, Gareth (Scott Bellis), “I haven’t had a cellmate since —…” The unfinished sentence begins to build the suspense as we wonder why Deke is in prison.

Yoga Play parodies the commercialization of yoga

Yoga Play | Gateway Theatre | February 7 – 16, 2019

Playwright Dipika Guha’s Canadian debut, Yoga Play, takes aim at corporate culture, the false authenticity of the yoga lifestyle, and cultural appropriation. The themes and comedic material are all stacked in favour a great play, but the narrative remains on the surface; instead of delving deeply into the issues this production takes a more slapstick approach that didn’t resonate with me.

Circle Game gives new life to Joni Mitchell classics

Circle Game | Firehall Arts Centre | January 12 – February 9, 2019 | On tour around the Lower Mainland February 14 – March 26, 2019

Joni Mitchell’s songs are full of classic themes of love, environmental consciousness, and social justice. In this marathon musical, her songs have been updated and reimagined with new arrangements or musical styles, and sometimes with new narrative interpretations. Mitchell’s words still retain a great deal of relevance for today’s generation, and Circle Game reminds us of her wisdom.

The Full Light of Day is innovative, ambitious

The Full Light of Day | Electric Company Theatre | Vancouver Playhouse | January 7 – 12, 2019

This is the most innovative piece of theatre I’ve seen in a long time. The integration of beautiful film elements, suspenseful plot, tense family dynamic, and brilliant cast made for a spectacular production. Ambitious and immersive, this is theatre that’s pushing the art form in new and exciting directions.

Mary (Gabrielle Rose) is an aging matriarch of a wealthy family who feels that she must face her husband’s corrupt past and reject it wholeheartedly before she dies. In an act of redemption, she banishes him from her deathbed and comes to terms with her self-imposed ignorance.

In review: Dancing on the Edge 2019

Dancing on the Edge 2019 | Edge One, John, Edge Five | Firehall Arts Centre and Goldcorp Centre for the Arts | July 5 and 11, 2019

Edge One: Dab Dance Project, Meredith Kalaman, Linnea Swan

South Korea’s Dab Dance Project returned to the Edge after last year’s trio, BOMBERMAN. This year’s First Abundance Society was an inventive piece with plenty of humour. Hoyeon Kim and Jungha Lim’s robotic interlocking movements were intricate and precise. Upstage was a potted fruit tree, and every so often they would pick a piece of fruit and shove it in their mouths in a show of gluttony.

Contemporary dance for all at Dancing on the Edge

Dancing on the Edge Festival | Firehall Arts Centre, SFU Woodward's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, and site specific locations | July 4 – 13, 2019

Over 10 days, the Dancing on the Edge Festival (DOTE) presents an eclectic mix of local, national, and international choreographers along with many free and site-specific works. Dance fans on a budget can take in free shows in the Firehall Arts Centre courtyard, including Danse Carpe Diem from Montreal. Another opportunity to see them for free is at the Granville Island public market courtyard where they will present Ecoute pour voir, which is composed of simultaneous solos throughout the space. The dancers and spectators both wear headphones to hear specific music associated with one solo and they share in the experience of a piece of choreography.

At a warehouse on Georgia Street, former Ballet BC dancer Rachel Meyer presents Transverse Orientation, a piece described as being in between two allegories taken from the moth: metamorphosis and a mysterious source of distant guidance (light source that guides them).

Jolene Bailie/Gearshifting Performance Works from Winnipeg also presents a full-length work, Schemas, 1-5, and local artist Helen Walkley presents her full-length memoir, John danced by Josh Martin and Billy Marchenski.

Dab Dance Project of South Korea returns to the festival, this time with First Abundance Society focusing “on the fact that preparing for the future doesn’t guarantee a better quality of life.” As the program notes say, “as the boundaries between true and imagined paradise begin to blur, the realities of life and the accompanying work, fears and hopes begin to muddle utopia.”

In Edge Three, Brazil’s Experimentus Dance Company presents Dispositivo Móvel “about the disconnect between imposing government standards and reality in Brazilian cities, referring to the power relationships put forward by Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben.”

And there are many Canadian artists from at home and across the country presenting their original works, including Calgary’s Linnea Swan who brings a tounge-in-cheek response to Yvonne Rainer’s No Manifesto in Edge One; and Ballet BC dancer Kirsten Wicklund explores her choreographic voice in Afloat amidst the steam of my combustion in Edge Six.

With over 30 performances and over 20 choreographers, there are too many anticipated works to name them all but dance fans will surely find something to suit them with such a variety contemporary dance from experimental and works-in-progress to polished and virtuosic. That’s the beauty of the Edge.

Full performance schedule.