Upintheair Theatre unveils lineup for 13th-annual rEvolver Festival, May 21 to June 1

Offerings at The Cultch span coming-of-age stories, puppetry, musical theatre, and more

Upintheair Theatre presents rEvolver Festival 2025 with an outstanding lineup of performances, revealing the best in groundbreaking Canadian theatre arts by emerging and mid-career artists, from May 21 to June 1 at The Cultch in East Vancouver.

Now in its 13th year, this 12-day festival is jam-packed with exciting and innovative new multidisciplinary creations, featuring a dozen mainstage productions, six works in progress, and five special presentations. Performances encompass a variety of art forms, including tap dance, musical theatre, puppetry, drag, devised theatre, spoken word, stand-up comedy, and even satanic ritual.

This year’s rEvolver Festival is programmed by resident curators Kelsi James and Sarah Roa, and Upintheair Theatre’s managing and artistic director David Mott. Whether it’s about coming-of-age, apocalyptic grief and eco-anxiety, a “fowl”-mouthed flamingo, body horror, or body hair—and whether it’s bizarre, whimsical, or touching—there’s a show for everyone.

Mainstage performances include 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go by Srutika Sabu, A Life in Transition by Patti Savard, Hair Hair Everywhere by Sarvin Esmaeili, and Untitled Flamingo Play by Nathaniel Hanula-James. There’s also Rough Magic Theatre’s WROL (Without Rule of Law), Death Rides a Unicorn’s Famous Last Words, Ragamuffin Productions’s Camp Goneaway, So.Glad Arts’s Creepy Boys, and 2Girls1ButtJaewoo’s ButtHEAD. And don’t forget BY OUR SIDE - An Entertaining Transplant Story by Andrea Conway and Wayne Doba; SCA Candy Van by Katie Gherasim, Ruby Maher, and Viviane Wu; and The Body Shop by Abby Hunter and Nicole Pavia.

Among the works in progress are I’m Good At This, Right...? by Anna Brew, Elsa Orme, and Jack Goodison; 羅密歐與茱麗葉 | Romeo & Juliet by Promethean Theatre and Far From the Tree Productions; Sub-Human by Punit Singh; The Mechanics of Intimacy by Zoë Braithwaite; The Yoko Ono Cult by Peihwen J Tai, Yi Ming Liu, and Benjamin Yee; and Woman Against Gravity by Olivia Etey.

Two special presentations speculate eco-futures: Rafael Zen and Omar Khalil’s experimental sound performance FOREST / FLUX / FREQUENCY: QUEERING ECO-UTOPIAS THROUGH SPECULATIVE ENVIRONMENTS, and Alyssa Amarshi, Anjalica Solomon, Chantal Gering, and Lyzah Favero’s multi-sensorial dance incantation Apocalypse Reimagined. Plus, multiple workshops are on offer, including A Head Full of Rocks’ puppetry workshop The Little Friends: Amigos Pequeños.

For tickets to rEvolver Festival and more details, visit Upintheair Theatre.

Post sponsored by Upintheair Theatre.

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