Where the Blood Mixes, Bordertown Café, Benevolence as Firehall Arts Centre announces 2026–27 season
A new dance work by Kirsten Wicklund and Peter Smida, the world premiere of a musical, and more round out the lineup
Firehall Arts Centre. Photo by Sarah Race
Cian Parker (Ngāpuhi)’s Sorry for Your Loss.
THE CANADIAN PREMIERE of Hideki Noda’s Red Demon will kick off the Firehall Arts Centre’s 2026–27 season from October 8 to 18, the theatre announced today. Produced by rice & beans theatre and Gokko Creative Society, Red Demon tells the story of a creature that washes up on the shore of a small beach town and explores intolerance and xenophobia.
That’s followed by the Governor General’s Award–winning play Where the Blood Mixes, from November 14 to December 6. The work by Nlaka’pamux playwright Kevin Loring, who also directs, tackles the subject of intergenerational trauma through humour, as two Indigenous friends spend their time drinking in a bar, masking the pain tied to their childhoods in residential schools.
Ballet BC alumni Kirsten Wicklund and Peter Smida then present the world premiere of Horses Won’t Follow from December 9 to 12, in which six strangers arrive in a barren landscape suspended between reality and myth. Since her time dancing in Vancouver, Wicklund has performed with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium, and served as artistic director of Ballet Edmonton. Smida is an independent dance artist, photographer, and filmmaker, and has been working as the rehearsal director and creative associate at Ballet Edmonton.
In time for the holidays, Krystle Dos Santos and her band present A Holly Jolly Jamboree, from December 16 to 24.
In the new year, Blocking, a hit performance from the Dancing on the Edge Festival, choreographed by Helen Walkley and danced by creative collaborator and Company 605 standout Josh Martin, happens January 6 to 9. The solo work integrates 250 small cedar blocks.
Set in a diner on the Alberta-Montana border, Kelly Rebar’s Canadian classic Bordertown Café takes the stage from January 16 to 31.
And February 4 to 14 sees a Blackout Art Society production of Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here, a dramedy that draws on the relationships between five women during the Iranian Revolution.
In the spring of 2027, the Firehall will also present the world premiere of Dumpster Fire: A Satirical Musical Revue of Here and Now, a collaborative musical creation produced by the Firehall Arts Centre that uses humour to satirize the unique challenges and absurdity of today’s world. It takes place March 20 to April 11.
The critically acclaimed Tarragon Theatre production Benevolence will be presented on the Firehall stage from April 21 to May 9, telling playwright and performer Kevin Matthew Wong’s story of wrestling with his Hakka identity.
From May 13 to 23, the Firehall closes the season with Sorry for Your Loss, Cian Parker (Ngāpuhi)’s widely touring work about growing up on the mean streets of Aotearoa (New Zealand) with an often absent father.
Season passes are on sale now, and single tickets are available starting September 1. More info is at the website here. 
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