An East Vancouver arts organization has come up with a creative response to troubled times. The Cultch has announced that its inaugural Warrior Festival will offer “five innovative, status-quo toppling shows from some of Canada’s most boundary-breaking artists and companies”.
“This festival, an evolution of our Femme Festival, will be a platform for radical creativity that challenges the status quo, redefines power, and amplifies voices that have been marginalized,” Cutch executive director Heather Redfern and Cultch associate executive director Nicole McLuckie said in a joint statement.
The Warrior Festival will take place on all three of the Cultch’s stages from April 16 to May 11.
It opens with Lxdy Parts: Babes, which is the newest installment of Kate Hoffman and Cheyenne Rouleau’s sketch show. This iteration is inspired by their experiences as mothers, and it will be presented at the Vancity Culture Lab from April 16 to 19.
Over at the York Theatre, a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Dance Nation, will run from April 23 to May 11. Directed by Mindy Parfitt and choreographed by Amber Bartin, this Search Party production revolves around a group of pre-teen competitive dancers. The Western Canadian premiere of Clive Barron’s show stars Eileen Barrett, Jennifer Copping, Tess Degenstein, Liza Huget, Rami Kahlon, Nyiri Karakas, Nathan Kay, Amanda Sum, and Todd Thomson.
Warrior Festival addresses friendship, politics, and power
If you’re in the mood for a show that challenges gender conventions, N. Ormes will certainly deliver this at the Historic Theatre from April 24 to 27. Quebec-based Agathe et Adrien plans to offer a one-hour circus show. The two protagonists turn the stage into an arena in which they navigate complicity and power struggles. As the show unfolds, “the archetypes fall apart, giving way to a quest for friendship, fairness, power, and fluidity”, according to the company.
From May 1 to 11 at the Historic Theatre, Maddie Bautista and Deanna H. Choi will perform in Love You Wrong Time. The Cultch website describes this two-time Dora Mavor Moore Award winner as a “hilarious, no-holds-barred song cycle featuring two friends looking for love while contending with the fetishization of Asian women”.
Meanwhile, Zee Zee Theatre’s production of Every Day She Rose will also run from May 1 to 11 as part of the Warrior Festival. Playing at Vancity Culture Lab, Andrea Scott and Nick Green’s show is about two best friends who discover that their racial and queer politics aren’t in sync following a Black Lives Matter protest at a Toronto Pride Parade. Diane Roberts and Cameron Mackenzie are directing the Vancouver premiere, which stars Ivy Charles and Jeffrey Follis.
The Cultch will present the Warrior Festival from April 16 to May 11 at its three venues. For tickets and more information, visit the website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Pancouver is also on Instagram @PancouverMedia. Follow Charlie Smith on Bluesky @charliesmithvcr.bsky.social.
