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.

Featured

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.

Articles

With fresh adaptation (a) Winter’s Tale, two well-known theatre talents launch The Ecstasy

Colleen Wheeler and Moya O’Connell have gathered a crack team of actors for micro-sized Shakespearean shows at the City Centre Artist Lodge—and this is only the beginning

Comedy review: Improv Centre’s agile cast conjures ’90s holiday TV specials in ’Tis the Sitcom

With audiences supplying the laugh track, the days of “Must-See TV” return in a different form every night, with heartfelt moments arising among hilarious period-correct details

East Van Panto: West Van Story gets an extended run thanks to overwhelming popularity

Theatre Replacement’s nearly sold-out holiday tradition continues at The Cultch’s York Theatre to January 11

Even after a century and a half, Little Women continues to capture emotions of both actors and audiences

Director Barbara Tomasic talks about the Arts Club Theatre Company’s new production of the Louisa May Alcott classic, which still inspires heartfelt reflection on sibling bonds and the challenges of finding a place in the world

Theatre review: East Van Panto: West Van Story serves up a so-Vancouver villain for the ages

Dawn Petten’s megadeveloper slays in a show with pumped-up song-and-dance numbers, subversive satire, and standout performances

Theatre review: Cue the chaos as Burnout Paradise entices an audience to pitch in together

Amid the laughter and DIY signs, Pony Cam show at The Cultch captures a world where we can’t step off the ever-racing treadmill

Holiday shows 2025: Stir’s ultimate guide to Vancouver’s merriest performances and events

The local arts and culture scene has bright gifts in store this season, from music by candlelight to wintry ballets

Joylyn Secunda plays a portal-hopping office worker in surreal solo show The Routine, November 22 and 23

At Studio 16, artist weaves mime and clown components in vignettes that explore a person’s search for the meaning of life

Theatre review: Between Breaths honours the stubborn dignity of a man devoted to saving whales

Artistic Fraud production portrays the joys and griefs of Jon Lien, a pioneering Newfoundland conservationist whose challenges included a late-life struggle with dementia

Metro Theatre hosts annual holiday pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, December 12 to January 4, 2026

Shel Piercy directs the delightfully silly show full of colourful sets and sparkling costumes

Burnout Paradise runs its performers ragged at The Cultch, November 20 to December 7

Cheer on Pony Cam as chaotic treadmill performance captures the mad rush of life

Playwrights Pedro Chamale and Marcus Youssef joyfully throw jabs in all directions in East Van Panto: West Van Story

Duo complicates East-West rivalries and draws on everything from Shakespeare to Gen Alpha slang in a music- and dance-filled installment of the Theatre Replacement tradition

Gateway Theatre hosts holiday musical Annie, December 11 to January 3

Story follows little orphan Annie as she escapes the cruel Miss Hannigan’s rule and sets out on a search for her parents

Theatre review: Faye’s Room resists easy answers about autism and the human struggle for empathy

In this candid Glitch Theatre production, first-time playwright Alex K. Masse creates an open-hearted, often funny encounter between young neurodivergent and neurotypical co-workers

Performers and audience find bigger, brighter, braver selves in kids’ show Parents Are a Drag

Carousel Theatre for Young People brings back a hit celebration of drag that juggles song, education, dress-up, and play

Theatre review: Frozen’s wintry spell carries the magic of the Disney original

With sparkling effects and powerful performances, the Arts Club Theatre Company’s production of the beloved musical captures imaginations of young audience members

Theatre review: The Effect packs powerful doses of dark humour and difficult truth

Rumble Theatre and ITSAZOO’s sleek production of an unsettling, uncanny drama by Lucy Prebble explores our choices in a pharmaceutical-driven world

Theatre review: Festive warmth fills witty Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley

With Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, Metro Theatre offers a Pride and Prejudice sequel in which a long-overlooked member of one of literature’s most famous families finds love

Stir Q&A: Between Breaths tells the true story of a Newfoundland man who rescued over 500 whales

Artistic Fraud production at the Firehall Arts Centre centres on conservationist Jon Lien’s powerful work and eventual battle with dementia

Arts Club and Touchstone Theatre lead winners at Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards

Casey and Diana, Burning Mom, Behind the Moon, and Yaga shared the spotlight with prizes for Bard on the Beach’s The Dark Lady, Theatre for Young Audience category’s Otosan, Small Budget dominator The Sound Inside, and much more