Articles — Stir

Stir Cheat Sheet: Acrobatic officers to glowing islands, 4 shows to catch at the 2026 Vancouver International Children’s Festival

Event’s top works from across the country and the globe leap between juggling, circus, art installation, concert, and more

FESTS, MUSIC, THEATREStir VancouverMay 19, 2026Vancouver International Children's Festival

Bard on the Beach opens 2026 season with The Merry Wives of Windsor on the BMO Mainstage, starting June 9

Laugh-out-loud, music-filled production sets Shakespeare’s play in a fictional soccer-obsessed Vancouver suburb

THEATRE, FESTSStir VancouverMay 19, 2026Partner Content, Bard on the Beach, Shakespeare, Summer 2026

Jade Circle brings together dance, music, projections, and storytelling, at the Kay Meek Arts Centre May 20 to 22

Artist Jasmine Chen relearns Mandarin and discovers lost family history in multidisciplinary, personal show

DANCE, MUSIC, CULTURE, WHAT'S STIRRINGJanet SmithMay 17, 2026Kay Meek Arts Centre, rice & beans theatre

Outpouring of grief at news of cello innovator Cris Derksen's death

Reports are emerging that the musician, composer, and pillar of the Indigenous classical community passed away in car accident after father’s funeral in Northern Alberta

MUSIC, NEWSJanet SmithMay 16, 2026Cris Derksen, cello

Glitch Theatre showcases D/disability-identified artists with podcast recording on May 23

At the Roundhouse, Arc One will feature 10 short performances by new and emerging artists and will include poetry, stories, and essays

Stir Q&A: The Biting School’s Aryo Khakpour on Offending the Audience

The Vancouver director says there’s something “extraordinarily intimate” about Nobel Prize laureate Peter Handke’s 1966 “anti-play”

THEATREJanet SmithMay 15, 2026The Biting School, Tyrant Studios

In Corporeal Imago's Drift, an otherworldly landscape prevails over human bodies

At The Dance Centre, world premiere by Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes moves away from aerial arts and toward conceptual innovation

DANCEJanet SmithMay 15, 2026THE DANCE CENTRE, The Dance CEntre, The Dance Centre, Corporeal Imago

Keith Alessi’s award-winning show draws on an inspirational true story at Western Gold Theatre, June 11 to 14

Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life documents the creator’s retirement, cancer diagnosis, and pursuit of a long-deferred passion for music

THEATREStir VancouverMay 15, 2026Partner Content, Western Gold Theatre

Ballet BC unveils a 2026–27 40th season with works by Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Imre and Marne van Opstal, and more

Principal dancers from the National Ballet of Canada perform a guest duet and artists-in-residence Margaret Grenier and Starr Muranko share a creation after their five-year collaboration with the troupe

DANCE, NEWSJanet SmithMay 14, 2026BALLET BC, Ballet BC

HAUI’s “Aunt Harriet” draws together fragments of history at rEvolver Festival, May 24

Short film poetically remembers a Black woman from an old photograph

FESTS, SCREEN, WHAT'S STIRRINGJanet SmithMay 14, 2026rEvolver Festival, Upintheair Theatre

At Arts Umbrella’s Memento Mori, every moment on stage is a lifetime

Featuring works by Crystal Pite, Marcos Morau, Sharon Eyal, and more, the season finale is a celebration of presence, community, and the beauty of fleeting time

DANCEJanet SmithMay 14, 2026Arts Umbrella, ARTS UMBRELLA

Me & the Forest poses big questions at Vancouver International Children’s Festival

In the new show by Vancouver’s Boca del Lupo and South Korea’s ArtstageSAN, a talking tree interacts with members of the audience

North Shore Jazz concerts span homages to Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder, the Daniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra, and beyond, June 19 to 28

Genre-spanning national and local talents take to North Shore venues in presentation by BlueShore at CapU and Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Citizen Chen and FREE KITTENS make comedy personal at Upintheair Theatre’s rEvolver Festival

Sharply funny shows by standup comics Scarlet Chen and Megan Milton get theatrical about themes of immigration and mother-daughter relationships

THEATREJanet SmithMay 13, 2026Upintheair Theatre, rEvolver Festival, comedy

Western Gold Theatre’s Salt-Water Moon takes a nostalgic look at lost love, May 21 to June 7

Veteran actors Craig March and Dolores Drake play the young lovers in David French’s play, set in a Newfoundland outport 100 years ago

THEATRE, WHAT'S STIRRINGJanet SmithMay 13, 2026Western Gold Theatre

Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater pushes the limits of movement in BENCHED

Choreographer Stephanie Thomasen’s piece has no plot and instead invites audience members to imagine their own storylines

Mission Folk Music Festival announces full weekend schedule at Fraser River Heritage Park, July 24 to 26

Annual celebration’s main-stage offerings open with Métis fiddler Brianna Lizotte and close with Chicago’s LowDown Brass Band

FESTS, MUSICStir VancouverMay 13, 2026Partner Content, Mission Folk Music Festival

Paul Lewis, Leif Ove Andsnes, Dreamers’ Circus, and more, as Vancouver Recital Society announces 2026-27 season

Ema Nikolovska pairs with guitarist Sean Shibe, violist Timothy Ridout with pianist Federico Colli in a season that spans accordions, folk ensembles, and cellos

With mysterious Magic Show, artist Rosamunde Bordo blurs line between real and fictional worlds

Multilayered exhibition of video and handcrafted works at Western Front blends detective tales and esoteric rituals to create an ongoing, genre-defying form of storytelling

ART & DESIGNJanet SmithMay 12, 2026Western Front