MOV: Your Future Home

The latest exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver is well, very Vancouver. I'm really liking what the museum is doing in recent history, by bringing to the city exhibits that are relevant to where we live. It's a great way to celebrate and dissect the place we call home. Which is why their latest exhibit, Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver is all that more timely, with talks about increasing density and housing prices, etc.

Stop by the Museum of Vancouver to see what artists and developers are envisioning for the future of our city. Engage in conversation at one of the many special events/lectures being hosted there. Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver is on now until May 15th.

Post Secret The Show

Do you have a secret? Based on the ever-popular website, PostSecret, this show brings to life the vision and lasting impact that the pre-social media movement created in the world. With people sending in postcards anonymously with their deepest secrets written on them, what began as an art project snowballed into a moment in history that united people from all around the world.

This show will make you laugh, make you gasp, and break your heart in two. Back by popular demand, Post Secret The Show is on now until March 5th at the Firehall Arts Centre.

Margaret Cho in Vancouver - Just For Laughs Northwest

This Friday, Margaret Cho storms into town at the Vogue Theatre (10pm) for the Just For Laughs Northwest festival!

Also on the roster for the festival are Wanda Sykes, Tim Meadows, Trevor Noah, and Janeane Garofalo, to name a few.

For more information and tickets, check out the Just For Laughs Northwest website!

Winners and Losers

Neworld Theatre's Winners and Losers is kind of like improv with a brain. Not to say that improv doesn't take brains, but this is more like watching an intellectual debate that revolves around local and timely topics that get plucked from the air or from the audience. Marcus and James go round and round in a contest of thoughts, battling out their opinions on matters ranging from Beyonce, the No Tower movement in East Van, First Nations, masturbation, microwaves, prosperity funds and more.

The first half of the show could easily become a weekly television or radio program. It was fascinating to hear their thoughts and arguments. (CBC, are you listening?) The latter half of the show derails from the political right into the personal, and what we see transpiring on stage suddenly becomes extremely awkward and uncomfortable. Are the two men going to actually fight it out physically? Are we witnessing the end of a friendship right before our eyes?

The performances are raw and the lines between reality and stage are completely blurred. The show however, is definitely a Winner.

Winners and Losers is on now at the Cultch until February 27th.

Common Grace

Review by Roxanne Kalenborn

You know how when you’re at Ikea, minding your own business picking out a new bathmat, when all of a sudden, the couple in bathroom fixtures starts arguing about whether to get brass or steel towel holders? LOUDLY? And you know the fight’s not actually about the choice between steel or brass. And you KNOW you’re not supposed to eavesdrop, but at the same time you want to grab a bucket of popcorn and enjoy the show? That’s how I felt for most of the world-premiere of Common Grace at Pacific Theatre. And I loved it.

Common Grace is the story of a family reeling from the death of their beloved father, and the ways that grief can force families to come to terms with long hidden secrets and the conflicts that get swept under the rug. Colleen, played by Shauna Johannesen [also the playwright (!)], arrives home for her father’s funeral after a hasty move to Edmonton to start afresh after finding herself in the middle of a romantic conflict. What happens during her time back is a good reminder to us all that you can run away from home, but your problems will still be right where you left them. This play was a wonderful reflection on the nature of grief, thwarted desire, and what happens when you’re forced to confront just what you turned your back on.

Common Grace is playing at Pacific Theatre through February 14.