From Bard on the Beach to Theatre Under the Stars musicals, summer theatre is here
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Soccer is not the only game in town this July. Clue (The Musical) hits the Queen E at the end of the month. You can also see all four Bard on the Beach plays, the Arts Club’s Come from Away and The Play That Goes Wrong, two Theatre Under the Stars musicals, and two plays from Ensemble Theatre’s Bloodlines Festival. And you’ll pay less for tickets.
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Antigone
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When: To Sept. 18
Where: Sen̓áḵw/Vanier Park
Tickets & info: From $30 at bardonthebeach.org
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One of the world’s great plays, Sophocles’ profound Greek tragedy gets a new adaptation from Kate Besworth in Bard’s small tent. The daughter of Oedipus has an excruciating choice: Bury her brother or obey the king’s law. The sentence for disobedience is death. Ming Hudson directs a sterling cast including Yoshie Bancroft as Antigone, Paul Moniz de Sá as King Creon, Jennifer Lines and Besworth herself.
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Sun Spots
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Sister Act
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When: July 3-Aug. 21
Where: Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park
Tickets & info: From $35 at tuts.ca
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Alongside Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Theatre Under the Stars presents this popular adaptation of the 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg as a Las Vegas lounge singer on the run from gangsters who want to kill her. Put into witness protection in a convent, she turns the nuns’ creaky choir into a gospel, disco and soul sensation. Kat Reynolds stars. Peter Jorgensen directs and choreographs the musical.
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Goblin:Oedipus
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When: July 5-Sept. 19
Where: Sen̓áḵw/Vanier Park
Tickets & info: From $30 at bardonthebeach.org
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After the overwhelming success of Goblin:Macbeth in 2023, Bard on the Beach has brought back Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak’s weirdly effective, funny and unexpectedly powerful take on tragedy using only three unidentified actors in goblin masks. This time they perform Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the classic Freudian drama of the Greek king who inadvertently kills his father and marries his mother.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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When: July 9-18
Where: Jericho Arts Centre
Tickets & info: $35/$25 at ensembletheatrecompany.ca
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From 2013 until COVID, Ensemble Theatre staged an excellent three-play repertory festival every summer at Jericho Arts Centre. The company is back this year with two plays, including Tennessee Williams’ brilliant drama of Southern love, lust and madness that gave us Blanche DuBois, played here by Cat Smith, Stanley Kowalski (Terri Carricoates) and “STELL-A-A” (Brynna Drummond). Chris Lam directs.
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Why We Work Out
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When: July 15-18
Where: The Fishbowl, Granville Island
Tickets & info: $33.50 at indiansummerfest.ca
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The Lower Mainland’s Indian Summer Festival showcases Canadian artists celebrating South Asian culture across multiple genres and disciplines. In this solo show from Toronto’s Nightswimming theatre, the delightful actor and dancer Anita Majumdar weaves Hindu mythology together with Indian dance and pop culture to explain how deeply exercise videos have influenced her life. Directed by Brian Quirt.
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The Apiary
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When: July 16-25
Where: Vine’s Den, 825 E. Hastings St.
Tickets & info: $15-$40 at https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/the-apiary
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American playwright Kate Douglas sets her futuristic play in a lab where technicians in the midst of an ecological crisis are devoted to saving the world’s fast-diminishing population of bees. Daniela Atiencia directs a collective including Jasmine Chen, Lisa Goebel, Christine Quintana and Carmela Sison in what the New York Times calls “a bright, strange and mesmerizing marvel” of a show.
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