Things I Hide From Dad mines life within and beyond a doomsday cult at Pacific Theatre to March 8

Travis Abels’s work is a guest production byVancouver Fringe Festival

Pacific Theatre and Vancouver Fringe Festival present Things I Hide From Dad to March 8

TRAVIS ABELS IS the creator and performer of Things I Hide From Dad, which goes back to his 12-year-old self. There’s a battle going on inside him as he tries to obey his father, a preacher in a fundamentalist sect. Being an adolescent, however, thoughts of sex rage in the boy’s mind, feelings he fears will cause all hell to break loose.

Abels grew up the son of a preacher in real life. The work, which is a guest production by Vancouver Fringe Festival, is an immersive ride through Abels’s life within and beyond a doomsday cult, as he meets the monsters and the friends that are hiding in his closet.

A “2023 Fringe Favourite”, Things I Hide From Dad was described by the Orlando Weekly as a “multi-sensory masterclass in capturing an audience’s attention…with an entertaining, relatable and ultimately uplifting tale.”

When he’s not touring his solo show, Abels trains with the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble and is devising a new production for the 2025 Fringe Festival circuit.

Featured

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

Articles

With Ionesco’s Cabaret, Rumble Theatre brings the Theatre of the Absurd into the modern age

The show, produced by Theatre Conspiracy in association with Pi Theatre, finds contemporary resonances in Eugène Ionesco’s 20th-century works

Theatre review: Gleefully chaotic Goblins dismantle Oedipus at Bard on the Beach

Wug, Kravga, and Moog deliver a take on Sophocles’ Greek tragedy that, in addition to copious amounts of crude humour, has its share of chillingly effective moments

Theatre review: A Streetcar Named Desire unsettles with mix of charm, fragility, and violence

Ensemble Theatre Company taps into the humid haze of a Tennessee Williams classic where love and self-deception mingle

Theatre review: The Little Mermaid dives into glittering storybook setting at Theatre Under the Stars

Standout performances and design bring infectious energy to Disney’s tale of love and self-discovery

Theatre review: Bard on the Beach’s adaptation of Antigone opens new paths through timeless tragedy

Bold update by Kate Besworth brings mythic figures closer to us while continuing to ask the ancient questions posed by Sophocles

Theatre review: Theatre Under the Stars’ Sister Act soars on joyous sounds and heartfelt story

Fierce company transforms characters by committing to the popular musical’s blend of disco, soul, and gospel

Anita Majumdar’s Why We Work Out is an exercise in understanding, at Indian Summer Festival

Presented by the fest and Boca del Lupo, the multifaceted one-woman show carries long-standing reflections on workout culture and the life-altering effects of a pandemic

Local theatre artists’ project King Arthur’s Night culminates in a buoyant new film that blurs documentary and fantasy

Now streaming on Knowledge.ca, John Bolton–helmed movie stars Niall McNeil, Marcus Youssef, Veda Hille, Nathan Kay, and more, in a mix of artists with and without Down syndrome

Dark, funny, and a little weird, The Apiary brings offbeat buzz to summer theatre scene

With live music and innovative touches, a collective of established Vancouver stage artists brings eco-horror play about disappearing bees to life at the Vines Den

Ensemble Theatre Company’s Peerless riffs on Shakespeare and affirmative action

Part of Ensemble’s summer festival, Jiehae Park’s play references Macbeth as it takes on the power dynamics of U.S. college admissions

Theatre review: Arts Club production of The Play That Goes Wrong goes hilariously right

Great performances and impeccable set design and stage management ensure that the comedy about a hapless theatre company is a chaotic mess in all the right ways

Antigone gives ancient Greek play a modern feel at Bard on the Beach, to September 18

In playwright Kate Besworth and director Ming Hudson’s adaptation, contemporary language highlights the continuing relevance of Sophocles’ 5th century BC tragedy

Theatre review: Horror resonates in Bard on the Beach’s dystopian Macbeth

Bold and bloody new take on “the Scottish Play” speaks effectively to an era of intense societal fears, with postapocalyptic atmosphere to burn

Kat Reynolds channels her inner disco diva for Theatre Under the Stars’ Sister Act

The Vancouver performer straps on the platform shoes and readies her powerhouse voice for musical based on the movies she grew up watching

Ionesco's Cabaret mixes absurdist theatre with a playful art party, July 23 to 25

Homage to Eugène Ionesco is presented by Rumble Theatre and produced by Theatre Conspiracy in association with Pi Theatre

Theatre review: Bard on the Beach's spirited, soccer-mad take on The Merry Wives of Windsor builds a wonderfully no-frills sense of place

In a shamelessly fun update, the comedy’s colourful schemers, lovers, and busybodies are regulars at a Vancouver community centre during World Cup fever

Bard on the Beach stages a riotous Goblin:Oedipus in the Douglas Campbell Theatre, launching July 5

WUG, KRAGVA, and MOOG return to the Shakespeare festival for a hysterical take on the titular Greek tale

Josh Epstein’s job is to ensure everything goes right in The Play That Goes Wrong

The Arts Club director says the smash-hit U.K. show is one of the most technically demanding comedies ever written

Theatre review: Sophie's Surprise 29th throws the season’s wildest party, mixing offbeat laughs and high-calibre acrobatics

At The Cultch’s York Theatre, wonderfully weird characterizations meet gravity-defying feats in a raucously unpretentious banger that has “hit” written all over it