The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (PuSh Festival) announces its 14th annual edition, taking place January 16 to February 4, 2018 at various Vancouver venues. Acclaimed artists from 11 countries will descend on the city for the three-week celebration of cutting-edge expression. From the intimate and immersive, to the monumental and spectacular, a myriad of transformative experiences are in store. The 2018 PuSh Festival features 28 works, including 20 Main Stage shows.
MAIN STAGE SHOWS
Some Hope for the Bastards – Frédérick Gravel (Canada)
Supported by CDM2 Lightworks
Jan 16 | Vancouver Playhouse
In this unholy hybrid of the highbrow and the high-octane, nine dancers perform as though enraptured by the rhythmic live score.
Inside/Out – Neworld Theatre (Canada)
Presented with Touchstone Theatre
Jan 17–21 | Performance Works
Patrick Keating shares a rare, human glimpse at what it means to be a lawbreaker in a riveting and wit-filled memoir.
Reassembled, Slightly Askew – Shannon Yee (Northern Ireland)
Presented with The Cultch
Jan 17–Feb 4 | Culture Lab, The Cultch
Acclaimed playwright Shannon Yee shares her experience of surviving a traumatic brain injury and a medically induced coma. Placed in a hospital bed with headphones, audiences become immersed in her mind in this intimate and psychedelic work.
The Events – Pi Theatre (Canada)
Presented with Pi Theatre
Jan 17–28 | Russian Hall
One of the worst crimes of the 21st century—the massacre of 77 adults and minors at a Norway summer camp—is the inspiration of this provocative play by Scotland’s David Greig.
Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster – Nicola Gunn (Australia)
Presented with The Dance Centre
Jan 17–19 | Scotiabank Dance Centre
Merging the physical and the cerebral, the athletic and the abstract, Melbourne-based performer, writer and director Nicola Gunn recalls a frustrating encounter in a foreign country that has stayed with her.
MDLSX – Motus (Italy)
Presented with Il Centro Italian Cultural Centre
Jan 18–21 | Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre
Subverting gender binaries, Italy’s award-winning Silvia Calderoni puts on a raucous and visceral dance party filled with contemplation and ecstasy. In the role of performer and DJ, while changing identities and attire, she exposes notions of sexuality for what they are: barriers to be broken down.
Radio Rewrite: The Music of Jonny Greenwood, Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen & Christopher Butterfield – Turning Point Ensemble (Canada)
Presented with Turning Point Ensemble
Jan 19–20 | Norman Rothstein Theatre
Performing a mesmerizing mélange of genres, Turning Point Ensemble pay tribute to Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and his icon, Olivier Messiaen—both champions of the early 20th century proto-synthesizer, the ondes Martenot.
Lookout – Andy Field (England)
Jan 20–21 | Vancouver Lookout Harbour Centre
Supported by British Council and Seedlings Foundation
What will happen to Vancouver and its youth destined to inherit it? Overlooking the city, audiences sit one-on-one with local children to contemplate these questions.
Songs of Insurrection – Frederic Rzewski (USA) & Daan Vandewalle (Belgium)
Presented with Music on Main
Jan 22–23 | The Fox Cabaret
Acclaimed composer Rzewski and famed Belgian pianist Vandewalle share their latest collaboration—a rousing and timely tribute to political struggle. An uplifting and eclectic work pulling from iconic protest songs heard around the world.
It’s Dark Outside – Tim Watts/The Last Great Hunt (Australia)
Presented with Vancouver International Children’s Festival
Jan 24–28 | Waterfront Theatre
An all-ages delight, It’s Dark Outside turns the Western genre on its head and recasts the lone hero as a solitary old man up against dementia. Through puppetry, animation, shadow play and live performance emerges an adventurous world.
Blind Cinema – Britt Hatzius (England/Germany)
Supported by British Council, Seedlings Foundation and Vancouver International Film Festival
Jan 24–25, 31–Feb 1| Vancity Theatre
In this mischievous experiment in storytelling and imagination, the adult/child power dynamics are reversed as blindfolded audiences discover a new cinematic experience through the words of young narrators.
MEETING – Antony Hamilton & Alisdair Macindoe (Australia)
Jan 24–27 | Performance Works
This stunning display of mechanical sophistication and human movement features 64 robotic percussion instruments and two performers. The dancers respond intricately, almost hypnotically, to the tapping and chiming instruments.
I’m Not Here – THEATREclub (Ireland)
Presented with The Cultch
Jan 24–28 | Historic Theatre, The Cultch
Doireann Coady is a fearsome new talent in the Irish theatre scene. Here she sings a few songs, reads a few poems, tells a few stories, and duets with her brother who’s been dead for 3,104 days.
Endings – Tamara Saulwick (Australia)
Supported by Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre
Jan 26–28 | Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre
With record players, a reel-to-reel recorder, a singer and his guitar, Australia’s Saulwick conjures visions and voices of the afterlife. From rich textured recordings emerge stories on mortality and loss.
Dublin Oldschool – Emmet Kirwan (Ireland)
Presented with The Cultch
Jan 30–Feb 3 | Historic Theatre, The Cultch
This is the story of a wild reunion between two estranged brothers: Jason, the would-be DJ, and Daniel, the washed-up junkie. Told through spoken word, with intermittent dialogue and poetic reflections, the brothers reminisce about drug binges and raves while striking up a new bond, offering hope and courage in the face of addiction.
Foxconn Frequency (no. 3): For three visibly Chinese performers – Hong Kong Exile (Canada)
Jan 31–Feb 2 | Performance Works
With acclaimed pianist Vicky Chow at the centre, artists hooked up to seven video outputs, five speakers and multiple 3-D printers must put on their best performance to a series of relentless piano drills.
King Arthur’s Night – Neworld Theatre (Canada)
Presented with UBC Theatre and Film
Jan 31–Feb 4 | Frederic Wood Theatre
Accompanied by live band and a 20-person choir, the cast, featuring actors whose life experience include Down syndrome, bring big heart and personality to the Knights of the Round Table.
BiRDMAN LiVE – Antonio Sanchez (USA/Mexico)
Presented with BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts & Vancouver International Film Festival
Feb 1 | Vogue Theatre
Witness one of the world’s greatest drummers perform his tour-de-force score for the 2015 Oscar-winning film.
Pour – Daina Ashbee (Canada)
Presented with The Dance Centre
Feb 1–3 | Scotiabank Dance Centre
From Vancouver-trained choreographer of Cree, Métis and European ancestry Daina Ashbee, comes this bold dance work fusing the profoundly personal and the ferociously political. It’s a visceral meditation on the menstrual cycle that takes unflinching pride in the female body.
The Eternal Tides – Legend Lin Dance Theatre (Taiwan)
Presented with TAIWANfest
Supported by Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and Taiwan Academy
Feb 3 | Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Renowned choreographer Lin Lee-Chen folds age-old rituals, customs and ceremonial rites of her native Taiwan into exquisite beauty of monumental scale. Dancers adorned in stunning costume are surrounded by sets vivid in colour and texture while performing in tribute to water and its vital cycle of renewal.
PUSH PASSES
PuSh Passes are the best way to experience the PuSh Festival. Pass holders save up to 30% off single tickets. PuSh Passes are flexible so Passholders can book tickets online at anytime. Limited quantities.
Four-Show Pass $103 Early bird until Dec 7 / $119 Regular
Six-Show Pass $148 Early bird until Dec 7 / $176 Regular
Industry Six-Show Pass $208 Early bird until Dec 7 / $236 Regular
Industry Pack $60
Youth Four-Show Pass $20
TICKETS
Single tickets start at $12.
To buy tickets, visit pushfestival.ca or call the PuSh Festival Audience Services info line at 604.449.6000.
Photo by Tristan Casey
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