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15 Dazzling Shows Hit The Cultch Stages this 2024/25 Season

This fall, we welcome audiences back to The Cultch for the launch of our 2024/25 Season! 

We are thrilled to bring an innovative mix of live performances to our three stages in East Vancouver— everything from international sensations to world premieres by Vancouver companies to returning audience favourites, like Governor General’s Award-winning puppeteer Ronnie Burkett and Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto. 

Join us for a season bursting with award-winning theatre, contemporary circus, comedy, musicals, and dance!

Image: As You Like It Or The Land Acknowledgement, Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Opening our season this September is As You Like It Or The Land Acknowledgement, a Crow’s Theatre production. After shocking and delighting Toronto audiences with a clever ruse, earning widespread critical acclaim, selling-out performances in New York, Toronto, and at the 2022 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, and winning the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, the brilliant Indigenous playwright Cliff Cardinal returns with his subversive retelling of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

11 Damelahamid - Raven Mother ©Michael Slobodian
Image: Raven Mother, Photo by Michael Slobodian.
Tentacle Tribe_PRISM_Do Phan Hoi (4)
Image: Prism, Photo by Phan Hoi.

In October, The Cultch welcomes two dance performances: the world premiere of Raven Mother, a gorgeous multi-media Indigenous dance work by Dancers of Damelahamid, and Prism, a reality-bending new work by Tentacle Tribe, the acclaimed Montréal dance company whose singular style blends hip-hop, martial arts, and contemporary dance.

“Theatre Replacement’s East Van Pantos are some of the most innovative, entertaining productions we see all season,” writes Colin Thomas, a Vancouver Theatre Critic. This holiday season, co-writers Jivesh Parasram and Christine Quintana—the minds behind last year’s smash-hit Beauty and the Beast—are putting a hilarious East Van spin on the tale of that lovable rapscallion, Robin Hood. Expect inspired silliness, clever jokes for kids and adults alike, and pop song parodies from composer Veda Hille.

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Image: Duck Pond, Photo by Pia Johnson
Mother Nature in Wonderful Joe by Ronnie Burkett
Image: Wonderful Joe, Photo by Ian Jackson

In January, The Cultch teams up with DanceHouse to bring the acclaimed Australian contemporary circus company Circa to the Vancouver Playhouse. In this gravity-defying show for all ages, the Swan Lake ballet takes flight as Duck Pond, a show that Blue Curtains Brisbane calls “a thrilling circus epic…charmingly magical in its whimsy”.

Ronnie Burkett—a favourite of Cultch audiences and recent recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award—is back in town this February with Wonderful Joe, a story for adult audiences only about a homeless man and his dog on a grand adventure. “It’s pure magic from a veteran puppeteer,” writes the Edmonton Journal.

Image: Dimanche, Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic.

Also in February, The Cultch and PuSh Festival are collaborating to bring Dimanche by Belgium’s Chaliwaté & Focus Company to the Vancouver Playhouse. This inspired work of comedic physical theatre, combining puppetry, video, and ingenious practical effects, has taken the international theatre scene by storm, with the New York Times calling it “gorgeously realized.”

In March, The Cultch welcomes two works of Indigenous theatre: Savage Society’s wickedly funny satire Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer and Urban Ink’s Children of God, a soaring musical about the impacts of residential schools.

Image: Beauty and the Beast: My Life, Photo by Tim Matheson.

Also on stage in March, Beauty and the Beast: My Life is a world premiere by playwright Niall McNeil. McNeil who identifies as an artist with Down Syndrome, will transport audiences into a vibrant world of whimsy.

Image: N.Ormes, Photo by Thibault Caron.

Dance Nation, produced by the Search Party, lights up The Cultch’s York Theatre in April. This Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama follows an ambitious team of pre-teen competitive dancers vying for the national championship. The Vancouver premiere of this critically acclaimed play features many of the city’s finest actors and promises to be an unforgettable theatrical experience. Also in April, Agathe and Adrien, a contemporary circus duet from la belle province, will push the limits of their bodies in N.Ormes.

Image: Love You Wrong Time, Photo by Helen Yung.

Mixing stand-up and music, Love You Wrong Time is a razor-sharp comedy about two friends looking for love while contending with the fetishization of Asian women. This show sold out before the opening of its world premiere in Toronto. Don’t miss your chance to see it this May.

In Every Day She Rose, “a blazingly intelligent play” (The Slotkin Letter), the Black Lives Matter protest and the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade collide and two best friends find their politics aren’t as aligned as they first thought. The Vancouver premiere, produced by Zee Zee Theatre, is on stage at The Cultch in May.

The Cultch will send off its 2024/25 season with Haus of Yolo, a wild and risqué circus show by Dust Palace (Aotearoa / New Zealand). High fashion meets high-flying acrobatics in this crazy fun show.

“This season marks The Cultch’s 51st year as East Vancouver’s unconventional theatre space,” says Heather Redfern, the organization’s executive director.

“After half a century of making art, building community, sparking conversations, and throwing parties we’re still here because of everyone who’s supported what we do. We have curated a tremendous season, some of the best shows in the world. We can’t wait to share our 2024/25 Season with you!”