Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is like a splash of brandy in your boring mid-winter coffee. For the past 12 years, the dynamic, curated, multi-disciplinary event has emboldened the arts calendar with exciting, often ingenious, programming to lasting local impact.
And this year will be no exception, from the exciting reunion of local dance punks Holy Body Tattoo, to the world premiere of transgender poet Antonette Rea’s life story. Truly every show deserves consideration, but here are five specifically wild and wonderful options at this year’s festival.
BOOM
Jan. 14 to Feb. 13 at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage
Former Just For Laughs host Rick Miller translates 25 years of Baby Boomer history into one jam-packed one-man show. Part documentary, part rock concert, Miller offers his snappy insight into major events, from the Vietnam War to the moon landing, which changed the world.
The draw: A sweeping history lesson in 100 minutes, complete with soundtrack.
Vu
Jan. 20 to 24 at Performance Works
One of four shows from France, this family-friendly, one-man “miniature circus” reveals the obsessive, funny, scary world of acclaimed circus veteran Etienne Manceau.
The draw: Watching the ordinary transform before your eyes.
El Topo
Jan. 22 at the Fox Cabaret
As part of Club PuSh, the festival’s social and experimental hotspot, Stefan Smulovitz and his Eye of Newt ensemble create a new soundtrack to El Topo, the bizzarro ‘70s desert masterpiece by cult film director and Dune visionary Alejandro Jodorowsky. If you want a primer, just plug his name into Netflix and enjoy.
The draw: I believe that’s obvious.
An Evening with Roomful of Teeth
Jan. 25 to 26 at the Fox Cabaret
The Brooklyn-based vocal octet, which includes Music on Main composer-in-residence Caroline Shaw, expertly illuminates the potential of the human voice through everything from opera, to Appalachian yodelling, to Tuvan throat singing.
The draw: The promise of hearing Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composition, Partita for 8 Voices.
L’immédiat
Feb. 4 to 6 at the Vancouver Playhouse
A blend of dance and slapstick circus comedy, the seven acrobats of Association Immédiat propel movement into the adventurous and avant garde as they twist and turn through an ever-collapsing stage set, comprised of piles of junk and furniture.
The draw: Seeing French performers turn an episode of Hoarders into fine art.
Meanwhile, watch this space for more PuSh coverage throughout the festival’s run.
