2022 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

T H E AT R E D A N C E M U LT I M E D I A M U S I C

Jan 20 - Feb 6, 2022 PUS H FESTIVAL .CA

Welcome to PuSh PuSh has always been an accelerator, animating our imaginations and transforming our perspectives. The 2022 PuSh program is a timely catalyst, facilitating an emergence from our social hibernation with works that incept, evoke, activate, and confront. In a time when we are all making sense of where we are after what has come to pass, this year’s live Festival line-up helps us situate ourselves within the complexity of our human experience.

With a deepened understanding of PuSh’s place in the cultural realm of our city, the Festival staff and board would like to welcome you to PuSh 2022 and acknowledge that PuSh unfolds each year on the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.

We wish to convey our deepest gratitude for the privilege of holding our Festival on these lands.

We are thrilled to be back doing what we love most — this year, we will present fourteen original works, including two world, and two Canadian premieres. Join us in-person, or for select online presentations!

PuSh Collaborative Leadership Team

Jason Dubois

Gabrielle Martin

Margo Kane

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING

DIRECTOR OF INDIGENOUS INITIATIVES

THU

20 CAPITALISM WORKS FOR ME! TRUE/FALSE (1)

FRI

21

SAT

22

SUN

23

MON

TUE

24

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

SUN

25

26

27

28

29

30

6:30PM 9PM

6:30PM 9PM

6:30PM 9PM

6:30PM 9PM

2:30PM 8:45PM

2:30PM 8:45PM

6PM

6PM

6PM

6PM/8PM

6PM/8PM

7:30PM

7:30PM

7:30PM

5PM - 9PM

5PM - 9PM

5PM - 9PM

12PM 8:30PM

8PM

8PM

8PM

4PM

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

31

01

02

03

04

05

6PM

6PM

6PM

6PM

6PM/8PM

6PM/8PM

6PM/8PM

6PM/8PM

6PM/8PM

SUN

06

DAILY, SEE WEBSITE FOR TIMES

VOX.INFOLD (2)

6:30PM 9PM

6:30PM 9PM

2:30PM 8:45PM

OUR FATHERS, SONS, LOVERS AND LITTLE BROTHERS (3)

7:30PM

7:30PM

3PM & 7:30PM

2:30PM 8:45PM

THE CAFÉ (w) BORN TO MANIFEST (4) (O) VIOLETTE (5) DO YOU MIND IF I SIT HERE (6) SE PRENDRE (7) AALAAPI | ᐋᓛᐱ (8) (O)

10AM - 6PM

7PM

7PM

7:30PM

4PM

HOW TO FAIL AS A POPSTAR (4) SONGS FOR A LOST POD (9)

6PM/8PM 8PM

8PM

7:30PM

7:30PM 7:30PM

FRANK THEATRE @ CLUB PuSh (4)

7:30PM

9PM

TALKING STICK @ CLUB PuSh (4)

9PM

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING BY CLIFF CARDINAL (10)

7:30PM

2PM & 7:30PM

4PM

I SWALLOWED A MOON MADE OF IRON 我咽下一枚铁做的月亮 (7)

8PM

8PM

2PM

LA GODDAM VOIE LACTÉE (11)

8PM

8PM

8PM

IMPACT @ CLUB PuSh WITH IMMIGRANT LESSONS (4)

9PM

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY @ CLUB PuSh (4)

VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL BRANCH (1) • LOBE STUDIO (2) • FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE (3) • PERFORMANCE WORKS (4) • ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS & RECREATION CENTRE (5) • RUSSIAN HALL (6) • WATERFRONT ESTATE, DEER LAKE, BURNABY (7) • WATERFRONT THEATRE (8) ANNEX (9) • YORK THEATRE (10) • SCOTIABANK DANCE CENTRE (11) • SEE WEBSITE FOR VENUES (w) • ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE (O)

9PM

How to PuSh ACCESSIBLE PuSh

TICKETS

GROUPS

Purchase tickets on the PuSh website. Some single tickets are sold through our partner box office outlets, and our website will direct you there. PuSh Festival Patron Services is here to make sure you get to the right place — just call 604-449-6000.

Share PuSh with your friends or colleagues. Groups of 10 or more save up to 20%.

PASSES

Online

Buy tickets to four shows and save 20%! Book your shows at pushfestival.ca or call us at 604-449-6000.

YOUTH If you’re 16-24 years old, book online to take advantage of the Youth Pass: Four shows for $20. Quantities limited.

HOW TO BUY

pushfestival.ca

PuSh Festival Patron Services

604-449-6000

Toll-Free in North America

1-800-608-8284

Have questions? Email us at tickets@pushfestival.ca PuSh passes, Youth Passes, and single tickets are subject to terms and conditions.

Please see pushfestival.ca for more information.

Accessible PuSh is committed to providing transformative performing arts experiences to as broad an audience as possible. We seek to eliminate or reduce physical, social, and financial barriers so that everyone has the opportunity to experience the joy of live theatre.

Supports at some performances include American Sign Language Interpretation, open captions, live audio description, and relaxed performances. Our venues are subjected to detailed audits providing technical specifications for a variety of accessibility considerations. Specially trained PuSh volunteers are available to help patrons attend shows, offering guidance and support from transit stations and in and around venues. You can find details at pushfestival.ca. To discuss your particular access needs, contact Accessible PuSh Coordinator Anika Vervecken at access@pushfestival.ca.

D’BI.YOUNG ANITAFRIKA. PHOTO: TIM MATHESON

PuSh Youth Program Produced in partnership with Solid State Community Industries, the 2022 PuSh Youth Program encompasses the Youth Pass, Youth Cohort, and Youth Assembly.

The Youth Pass provides $5 tickets to select shows for youth 16-24. The Youth Assembly is a free, one-day youth conference held during the PuSh Festival, and an opportunity for youth to meet and exchange with artists and arts professionals.

The Youth Cohort is a three-month program for youth to experience, examine and engage in the professional contemporary performing arts community through workshops, studio visits, discussions, and a variety of shows — like a book club but for the live performing arts!

Thank You! PREMIER BROADCAST PARTNER

CAR SHARE PARTNER

PREMIER DIGITAL PARTNER

WEB PARTNER

PREMIER PRINT PARTNER

BEHIND THE SCENES

INDUSTRY SERIES PARTNER

ACCESSIBILITY PARTNER

PRESENTATION PARTNERS

PRESENTING PARTNERS

Black

Find out more at pushfestival.ca/youth GOVERNMENT PARTNERS PHOTO: SARAH RACE

CMYK

PHOTO: MARK TEASDALE

Pantone

PHOTO: SARAH RACE

PHOTO: SARAH RACE

Support the Future of PuSh Join an extraordinary group of donors by making a gift to the PuSh Festival.

To donate today, or to learn more about how your support helps PuSh, visit pushfestival.ca/donate. We are grateful to all of our Patrons Circle donors, and to our dedicated PuSh volunteers. Your generosity reaches beyond the stage to touch the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.

OUR PERFORMANCES ARE ONE OF A KIND, TOO DOWNTOWN VENUE PARTNER

Coastal Adventure Partner BEER PARTNER

helijet.com | *Terms and conditions apply

helijet | 1.800.665.4354

HOTEL PARTNER

COASTAL ADVENTURE PARTNER Nanaimo - Vancouver - Victoria

TELECOM PARTNER

YOUTH PROGRAM PARTNER

G R O U N D B R E A K I N G L I V E P E R F O R M A N C E S AT P u S h 2 0 2 2

PHOTO: STEVE LAMBERT

CAPITALISM WORKS FOR ME! TRUE/FALSE STEVE LAMBERT (USA)

With this pointed, provocative installation project, Steve Lambert poses a question that is too often buried in our public discourse: Does capitalism really work? The artist has constructed an interactive, street-level billboard that allows residents to reflect on their own lives and beliefs; one could call it an ideological scorecard, with tallies refreshed each day and hosts on-site to engage in conversation with participants.

JAN 20–24 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY CENTRAL BRANCH

PHOTO: MARCO KOVA

RUBY SINGH’S VOX.INFOLD RUBY SINGH (VANCOUVER)

This powerhouse vocal ensemble is the work of seven artists, and it employs 4DSOUND technology, vibroacoustic floor panels, and speakers placed across the ceiling. The artists have created compositions that you can inhabit as well as hear, and in its sheer range, their vocal music evokes human existence in all its wondrous variety.

JAN 20-23, 25-30 | LOBE STUDIO PRESENTED WITH INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL

PRESENTED WITH VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY, LIVING THINGS FESTIVAL, AND THE GRAND

OUR FATHERS, SONS, LOVERS AND LITTLE BROTHERS

BY MAKAMBE K. SIMAMBA A TARRAGON THEATRE AND BLACK THEATRE WORKSHOP CO-PRODUCTION (TORONTO/MONTREAL)

Based on the world premiere production produced by b current. This show is a journey through the unknown, a spiritual inquiry, and a protest for Black life that goes beyond the headlines to examine the reality of injustice. Telling the story of a Black teenager and his experience in the afterlife, it portrays both a rich human life and the violence that took it away. What emerges is a prayer for the bereaved and a proclamation that Black Lives Matter.

JAN 20-22 | FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE PRESENTED WITH FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE AND TOUCHSTONE THEATRE

PHOTO:TARA MOORE

PHOTO: EMILY CROUCH

PHOTO: CAROLINE LAMBERT

THE CAFÉ

BORN TO MANIFEST

VIOLETTE

This collection of plays is an invitation to indulge your inner voyeur. In groups of 20, audiences sit in a coffee shop; there, at various tables, a series of dramas plays out. The affair has the semblance of real life, and you’re free to wander from table to table as the scenarios unfold before your guiltlessly watchful eyes.

Joseph Toonga channels the experiences of young Black British men in this kinetic expression of pride and defiance. Set to an original score by Mikey J and marked by the idioms of krump, martial arts, popping, and other urban styles, the show draws from real-life accounts to champion cultural identity and challenge racial stigmas.

JAN 25-29, JAN 31-FEB 5 | SEE WEBSITE FOR LOCATION

JAN 25-27 | PERFORMANCE WORKS & SELECT ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

This site-specific work mixes Virtual Reality and live theatre to create a powerful, even transformative, experience. One by one, viewers are greeted by the mysterious Violette and invited into her apartment. There awaits a 360° story world—one realistic enough to convince, magical enough to enchant, and dark enough to serve as a shadowy likeness of our own shared reality.

ITSAZOO PRODUCTIONS & APHOTIC THEATRE (VANCOUVER)

PRESENTED WITH ITSAZOO PRODUCTIONS AND APHOTIC THEATRE

JOSEPH TOONGA OF JUST US DANCE THEATRE (UK)

JOE JACK & JOHN (MONTREAL)

JAN 26–30 | ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS & RECREATION CENTRE SUPPORTED BY THÉÂTRE LA SEIZIÈME & REALWHEELS & ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS AND RECREATION CENTRE

PHOTO: JAMES LONG

PHOTO: CLAUDEL DOUCET

PHOTO: ANNE-MARIE BARIBEAU

DO YOU MIND IF I SIT HERE

SE PRENDRE

AALAAPI | ᐋᓛᐱ

Three social planners visit Vancouver’s Russian Hall roughly 30 years from now; they intend to repurpose it for common use, but they soon discover a squatter who has been living there through decades of environmental catastrophe... Eclectic in style and shrewdly metaphorical in its narrative, this is a multimedia extravaganza that dares us to imagine the future in terms of our most important hopes, fears, and beliefs.

The venue for this performance is a historic estate; in this space, two women come together in an acrobatic dance that evokes tenderness and tension. Erotically suggestive, athletically impressive, and emotionally resonant, this is a psychodrama played out in physical terms—a truly haunting experience.

This collectively created work takes us to Nunavik, and into the lives of two women who live their lives against the sonic backdrop of radio. Collectif Aalaapi combines the aesthetics of vision with those of sound; their aim is to interrogate language itself, and their invitation to the audience is to join them in that endeavour.

JAN 29-31, FEB 2-4 | WATERFRONT ESTATE, DEER LAKE

JAN 29-30, FEB 1-2 | WATERFRONT THEATRE & SELECT ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

THEATRE REPLACEMENT (VANCOUVER)

LION LION (MONTREAL)

COLLECTIF AALAAPI | LA MESSE BASSE (NUNAVIK | MONTREAL)

PRESENTED WITH SHADBOLT CENTRE FOR THE ARTS

JAN 26-29 | RUSSIAN HALL PRESENTED WITH THEATRE REPLACEMENT

COURTESY OF CROWS THEATRE

PHOTO: VANESSA HEINS

HOW TO FAIL AS A POPSTAR

SONGS FOR A LOST POD

To the edge of fame and back—that was Vivek Shraya’s trip, and in this theatrical memoir she tells all! Mixing anecdote, movement, and music, the singer takes us from her youthful top-40 dreams to her brush with stardom; it’s a poignant, funny pop adventure laced with vulnerability and hard-won wisdom.

This nine-song cycle makes spectacular use of orca vocalizations, transforming them into rhythmic beats in a musical exploration of historical trauma, environmental crisis, and communication between species. Creator Leah Abramson folds marine mammal history into a larger narrative of survival and human oppression, and her juxtapositions are telling and provocative. Innovative, lyrical, and deeply moving, this is musical theatre at its most creative.

CREATED BY: VIVEK SHRAYA (CALGARY) COMMISSIONED AND PRODUCED BY: CANADIAN STAGE (TORONTO)

FEB 1-2 | PERFORMANCE WORKS

LEAH ABRAMSON (VANCOUVER)

FEB 2–3 | ANNEX

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S AS YOU LIKE IT: A RADICAL RETELLING BY CLIFF CARDINAL CROW’S THEATRE (CANADA)

The title of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It holds a double meaning that teasingly suggests the play can please all tastes. But is that possible? In this radical retelling, acclaimed Indigenous creator and cultural provocateur Cliff Cardinal delights in black humour, difficult subject matter, and raw emotions.

FEB 4-6 | YORK THEATRE

PRESENTED WITH MUSIC ON MAIN

DETAILS AND TICKETS AT

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@ P U S H F E ST I VA L PHOTO: MIKAEL ALDO

I SWALLOWED A MOON MADE OF IRON 我咽下一枚铁做的月亮

A MUSIC PICNIC (TORONTO) PRODUCTION, IN ASSOCIATION WITH POINT VIEW ART AND CREATIVE LINKS (MACAU)

Created by Njo Kong Kie 楊光奇 set to the poetry of 許立志 Xu Lizhi. In this haunting song cycle, composer and performer Njo Kong Kie sets the poetry of factory worker Xu Lizhi to song and delivers a lamentation for our digital age. Kong Kie’s score for solo voice and piano is performed in Mandarin with English surtitles and combined with imagery, ambient sound, and more; it is an act of political witness, a vital human document, and, not least, a work of great beauty.

PHOTO: MATHIEU DOYON

LA GODDAM VOIE LACTÉE MAYDAY (MONTREAL)

Five women conduct a pagan mourning ritual in this emotive, wildly eccentric performance. From the rich colours, trance-like dance movements, animalistic utterances, and musical ferocity, something of deep public value emerges: a secular mass in which our discontents can be expressed. MAYDAY’s vision is dark, but ultimately celebratory: their act of reckoning is also one of self-imagination, and in that endeavour lie joy and hope.

FEB 4-6 | SCOTIABANK DANCE CENTRE PRESENTED WITH THE DANCE CENTRE

FEB 4–6 | WATERFRONT THEATRE

DJ KOOKUM @ TALKING STICK, PHOTO: CHRIS RANDLE

THE FRANK THEATRE COMPANY @ CLUB PuSh This soiree features a One Hit Wonder costume contest, as well as musical acts, a DJ, and some drop-dead-gorgeous drag artists. It’s the perfect cure for the late-pandemic blues!

FEB 2

IMPACT @ CLUB PuSh with IMMIGRANT LESSONS This dance tournament features teams of four squaring off in a thrilling, genre-defying spectacle that draws on the ethics of street battling. May the best team win, and may boundaries be broken!

FEB 4

AT PERFORMANCE WORKS

If you’re looking to keep the PuSh vibes going into the night, this is the place to be. Club PuSh is a spot where you can enjoy drinks, connect with our artists, and party with your fellow PuSh-goers. It’s also the venue for fantastic performances in a relaxed, casual atmosphere: drag artists, DJs, musicians, and street dancers are all throwing down here. We’re thrilled to provide a convivial and comfortable setting for our audiences to gather, and we hope to see you here!

TALKING STICK @ CLUB PuSh

CLOSING PARTY @ CLUB PuSh

This evening of genre-blending madness mashes the music of Indigenous ancestors with the breaks, cuts, and booming bass of contemporary dance grooves.

It’s party time for PuSh-goers! Join us for an evening of drinks, DJs, and carousing in a relaxed, COVID-safe setting.

FEB 3

FEB 5