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Theatre review: Fat Joke's brutally honest comedy-talk is a fearless indictment of fatphobia

Theatre schools, the BMI, critics, and casting auditions: everything’s fair game in a show that flips easily between biting, big laughs and darker reflections

Adrianne & the Castle opens DOXA with an otherwordly tale of love, grief, and opulence

Filmmaker Shannon Walsh turns her lens on a labyrinthian fantasy world and an all-consuming love that transcends death

SCREEN, FESTSJanet SmithApril 26, 2024DOXA, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Spring 2024, Homepage feature

At the Gordon Smith Gallery, Prevailing Landscapes contrasts Canada's distinct wilderness with urban forces

Monumental exhibition unites works by celebrated Canadian contemporary artists, including Jin-me Yoon, Ian Wallace, Cameron Kerr, and Stan Douglas

Director Rachel Peake reveals the complexities of Carmen's titular femme fatale at Vancouver Opera

“How does a woman with very little means achieve freedom?” the artist asks in massive-scaled new production

MUSICJanet SmithApril 23, 2024Vancouver Opera, VANCOUVER OPERA, opera, Carmen, Homepage feature

Theatre review: You used to call me Marie… is an artfully crafted love story reaching across Métis history

The Cultch, Savage Society, and NAC Indigenous Theatre coproduction balances joy and solemnity for a transporting vision

THEATREJanet SmithApril 23, 2024THE CULTCH, Savage Society, Spring 2024, Homepage feature

Theatre review: This Is How We Got Here provides levity as it explores the weight of grief at the Firehall Arts Centre

In the wake of loss, family and friends struggle to navigate inner turmoil, even as they inadvertently hurt each other in the process

THEATREJanet SmithApril 20, 2024FIREHALL, Firehall Arts Centre, Spring 2024, Homepage feature

In vivid new Night is the Mother, Dance//Novella explores enigmatic nature of dreams

Choreographers Racheal Prince and Brandon Lee Alley reflect on shifting realities, fear of losing loved ones, and intense imagery

Film review: In Flames’ eerily unsettling parable gives an inside look at patriarchy in Pakistan

Canadian-Pakistani filmmaker Zarrar Kahn’s assured feature draws on horror tropes for story of a young Karachi woman and her mother

CULTURE, SCREENJanet SmithApril 18, 2024Pakistan, Cineplex, Homepage feature

Film review: Poetic menace and fated souls in Bertrand Bonello’s Coma and The Beast

French filmmaker probes themes of free will, psychopathy, and perversity in his two most recent works at The Cinematheque

SCREENAdrian MackApril 16, 2024The Cinematheque, Spring 2024, Bretrand Bonello, Homepage feature

In You used to call me Marie, playwright-actor Tai Amy Grauman digs into Métis women’s stories

The artist and politician draws on her own Callihoo ancestors, and fills new play with fiddle and dance

THEATREJanet SmithApril 12, 2024THE CULTCH, The Cultch, Spring 2024, Metis, Homepage feature

Dorrance Dance's SOUNDspace playfully explores the sonic potential of feet against floors

Show had its origins in a 200-year-old church, where Michelle Dorrance’s acclaimed company couldn’t always use metal tap shoes

In Sexy Laundry, director Diana Donnelly unpacks intimacy and longevity in long-term relationships

Arts Club Theatre Company stages Michele Riml’s international-hit play about a couple seeking to rekindle their sex life 25 years into marriage

Abigail Lapell explores love from all angles through song, tracing elation to heartache

Coming to the BlueShore at CapU, singer-songwriter performs ethereal folk ballads from new album Anniversary

MUSICJanet SmithApril 9, 2024Homepage feature, BlueShore at CapU, Spring 2024

Quality and social value have the biggest appeal at annual Reel 2 Real Film Festival for Youth

Nina and the Hedgehog’s Secret headlines a schedule of eight features, 35 shorts, and much more at R2R

Theatre review: Raincity Theatre's Parade still resonates with chilling effect

True story of Jewish-American lynched in 1915 sees a strong and heartbreaking staging in a historic Gastown bank

THEATREJanet SmithMarch 25, 2024Raincity Theatre, Spring 2024, Jewish, Homepage feature

Red Velvet tells the story of the first Black man to play Shakespeare's Othello, at the Arts Club Theatre Company

Director Omari Newton and lead actor Quincy Armorer reflect on the importance of Ira Aldridge’s legacy as they commemorate over 20 years of friendship and collaboration

Blossoms After Dark envelops David Lam Park in enchanting lights at this year's Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

Under leadership of new executive director Andrea Arnot, revival of pre-pandemic event features blossom-pink snacks, live music, and roaming performers

Film review: Stolen Time exposes brutal corporate crime in the long-term care industry

The NFB’s chilling documentary reminds us that a society is measured by the compassion it extends to its most vulnerable

In Dani Gal's Historical Records, obscure vinyl collection provides a unique and haunting trip through 20th-century events

Gathered by the artist over two decades, albums eternalize the voices of figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, Atatürk, Diefenbaker, and more than 200 others, , at the Polygon Gallery

ART & DESIGN, MUSICJanet SmithMarch 12, 2024THE POLYGON, The Polygon Gallery, Homepage feature, Spring 2024