Courtesy of Gail Williams, Flickr.
Spring is in full bloom, and there is no excuse not to go out, enjoy the weather and check out the many events and festivals happening in Vancouver. From art installations, theatrical plays, musicals and dancing to roundtables, workshops and holiday festivals, there’s something for everyone.
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Carol Sawyer’s “I attempt from love’s sickness to fly, in vain”
April 22–May 20
Republic Gallery, Vancouver
The Republic Gallery is hosting artist Carol Sawyer’s work, “I attempt from love’s sickness to fly, in vain,” until May 20. The exhibition consists of video and photographs based on a performance of an aria written by the English baroque composer Henry Purcell. The work explores a number of seemingly opposite concepts: theatricality/realism, period/contemporary, fragment/ whole, youth/age, health/sickness, etc.
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Long Division
April 26–30
Pi Theatre, Vancouver
Pi Theatre will present playwright Peter Dickinson’s otherworldly and resonant multimedia experience Long Division at the Annex Theatre (823 Seymour Street). Directed by Richard Wolfe, the story revolves around seven characters representing a diverse and discordant group, whose lives overlap in a singular, unresolved traumatic event that binds their pasts together. This bold and innovative work demonstrates how the seven characters need each other, the audience, and a healthy dose of mathematical history and theory to find the answer to the question they all share.
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Revelation: Bearing Witness to Residential School Survivors
April 27, 6:30 p.m.
SFU Segal Building, Vancouver
SFU will be hosting the highly acclaimed CBC radio personality and honorary Truth and Reconciliation Commission witness Shelagh Rogers at the Segal Building on April 27. The real history of Canada was not taught to generations of Canadian school children, but Indigenous Peoples lived it. What does reconciliation mean now that Canada knows the truth of their experience? Rogers will address this question and discuss the impact of hearing hundreds of residential school survivors speak at national and regional events of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. To reserve a seat for this free and open to the public talk, please visit the SFU website.
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International Dance Day
April 29, 12–7 p.m.
Various venues in Vancouver
The Dance Centre will be hosting a day of performances and events celebrating the vitality and diversity of dance on April 29 throughout the city. Some of the performances include Project Soul’s high-energy, dynamic street dance, Windermere Secondary students’ exuberant bhangra routine, Tricoter’s yarn choreography, Polymer Dance Contemporary’s site-specific improvisation, among others.
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Dead Man Walking
April 29, May 2, 5, 7
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Queen Elizabeth Theatre will be presenting Dead Man Walking, a play based on the bestselling memoir by Sister Helen Prejean. Featuring a dramatic and incredibly lyric musical setting, a story with moral complexity and emotional depth, this operatic play chronicles the story of a convicted Louisiana murderer who is befriended by a Catholic nun seeking to understand the nature of divine forgiveness.
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Circle Game
April 29–May 20
Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver
The enduring music of the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is re-imagined in this energetic musical experience, directed by Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman and hosted by the Firehall Arts Centre from April 29 to May 20. Circle Game reinterprets Mitchell’s iconic songs, reflecting on social and environmental ideals, such as “Big Yellow Taxi,” “River,” “California” and “A Case of You” through the ears and eyes of a new generation, connecting them to the politics and world we know today. Please visit the Firehall Arts Centre website for tickets and showtimes.
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Kasandra Flamenco’s La Tarara
May 4–5, 8 p.m.
Norman Rothstein Theatre, Vancouver
Kasandra Flamenco will present La Tarara, an adrenalin-infused dance spectacular on May 4 and 5 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver. La Tarara is a fiery encounter between flamenco dancers of very different backgrounds and a meeting between the raw intensity of flamenco dance and the refined elegance of Spanish dance. Highlights of the performance include fiery flamenco dancers, alluring dance imagery of the seductive Spanish Bata de Cola and a rich musical score by international composer Gaspar Rodriguez.
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DOXA Film Festival
May 4–14
Various theatres around Vancouver
The DOXA Documentary Film Festival returns to Vancouver for the 16th time, screening many innovative, inspiring, comedic and thought-provoking documentaries from around the world. Some of the films include a French film about students at the prestigious La Fémis school; an Iranian film about Zainab, an indomitable young woman farmer; a Chinese film about the workers in the global electronic manufacturing industry; and an Italian film about Middle Eastern falconry.
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Cinco de Mayo en la Casa de Amigos
May 5–6, for 19 years and older
Robson Square, Vancouver
Cinco de Mayo is on May 5, and for two days, May 5 and 6 at Robson Square, Vancouver gets to partake in the celebration of all things Mexican. For the 19+ crowd, there will be delicious gourmet tacos and ceviches, Mariachi bands and Luchador wrestlers, and, naturally, plenty of tequila and margaritas.
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Ancient Approaches to Perception
May 5–6
SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver
Ancient theories of perception have been discussed and debated ever since they were formulated and continue to be fruitfully studied. SFU will bring together five prominent figures to present their latest research, with a focus on Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics. Differing theories of perception reflect and reinforce differing philosophical commitments, and accompany differing conceptions of the search for wisdom, which provides a key to understanding not just the history of philosophy in ancient Greece, but also to our understanding of philosophy itself.
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Rhodofest 2017
May 7, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Deer Lake Park, Burnaby
The City of Burnaby will be hosting Rhodofest on May 7 at Deer Lake Park, a festival promoting the long-term sustainable, ecological health of communities and providing a venue for art and horticultural groups. There will be a ceremonial tree planting event, tours of the Burnaby Art Gallery, a variety of entertainment, rovers, mini-workshops, plant sales, a silent auction and interactive arts activities.
