A love letter to Star Trek, game-show dreamscapes, and more as Tremors Festival unveils lineup for 2025

Rumble Theatre’s three-night biennial event set for June 6 to 8 at Progress Lab 1422

*Dear Star Trek.* Photo by Jivesh Parasram

RUMBLE THEATRE HAS unveiled the programming for the Tremors Festival of experimental and interdisciplinary live performance. Tickets are now live here.

Slated for June 6 to 8, the fest brings a collection of daring new works—with influences spanning sci-fi, hip-hop, and beyond—from across Canada to Progress Lab 1422.

Tremors Festival kicks off early on May 25 with TREMOLO: Tremors Launch Party, featuring excerpts from Elio Zarrillo’s If We Be Friends and a cross-disciplinary presentation with Little Chamber Music of Fantasy Vignettes by Vancouver violinist Erin James—the latter a piece that time-travels through 400 years of violin fantasias, brought to life with opulent costumes.

Amid the five early-June offerings is Vancouverite Cameron Peal’s absurd comedy Pelmet and Sables, about two nonhuman spirits who try (and fail) to die.

Joining it on the roster is Dear Star Trek by Whitehorse’s Christine Genier—a one-woman show that examines representation and fandom through the lens of an Indigenous Trekkie.

Elsewhere, Panoptikon, by Kern Albert and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, draws on firsthand accounts of incarceration, and interweaves hip-hop and spoken word.

Dream Machine by creator-performer Howard Dai takes direct inspiration from Taiwanese variety-game TV shows and a lottery draw, exploring parallels between immigration and gambling.

Nod by Paige Louter, meanwhile, is an immersive theatre experience that explores “processes that are responsive to my shifting health and energy capacities”, according to the artist.

Exploring the theme of “transitions, dreams, and the space in between”, Tremors describes itself as hitting a sweet spot within “theatre, community shindig, and art party” celebrations.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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