Twelfth Night and Hamlet, as Bard on the Beach announces 2024 season

Rebecca Northan to direct The Comedy of Errors and Jivesh Parasram to helm Measure for Measure on Howard Family Stage

HAMLET AND TWELFTH NIGHT are on deck as Bard on the Beach has announced its 35th season, running June 11 to September 28, 2024.

On the BMO Mainstage, director Diana Donnelly helms the comedy Twelfth Night, with original music by Vancouver singer-songwriter and beloved East Van Panto songster Veda Hille. It will play in repertory with the tragedy Hamlet, adapted and directed by Bard veteran Stephen Drover (who adapted this season’s critically lauded Julius Caesar).

On the Howard Family Stage, Rebecca Northan, whose Goblin: Macbeth has been packing the same tent this season, directs The Comedy of Errors; the comedy veteran is also the creative mind behind the hit interactive show Blind Date. Governor General’s Award nominee Jivesh Parasram, meanwhile, is set to helm an “irreverent, footloose” Measure for Measure.

“We’re very excited to announce this Season. With comedy, music, romance, and drama, there’s something for everyone, whether they’re a committed Shakespeare fan or have never been to the theatre before. We’re so thrilled to work with some of Canada’s finest theatre creators to present a unique and diverse Season that will make you laugh, make you think, and move you deeply – all in equal parts,” said Christopher Gaze, Bard Founding Artistic Director.

Visit bardonthebeach.org/ for full details and early-bird packs.

Featured

Janet Smith

Janet Smith is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

Articles

From Macy’s to downtown New York, the Arts Club Theatre Company presents Miracle on 34th Street, to December 29

The Christmas classic features direction by Omari Newton and stars Kevin McNulty as Kris Kringle

In the Belly of the Carp melds gritty storytelling with a fantastical hero’s journey

Based on Rodney DeCroo’s body of work, Butcher Shop Collective show encompasses poetry, music, and shadow puppetry at the Shadbolt

Théâtre la Seizième presents Camille Paré-Poirier's Je viendrai moins souvent, December 11 to 14

Intimate account of caregiving told in French with English surtitles centres a young woman’s last conversations with her grandmother

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival announces 20th edition with genre-spanning lineup

Programming includes world premieres from Chimerik 似不像 and rice & beans theatre, BOGOTÁ by Andrea Peña & Artists, and beyond

Theatre review: Bound! The Musical is "bound" for great things

New musical retells Love’s Labour’s Lost with an intentionally silly plot about a dictator, a track and field team, and mistaken identities

Holiday shows 2024: Stir’s ultimate guide to festive fare, from musical theatre to classical ballet

Seasonal standouts include a massive choral Messiah, and different takes on A Christmas Carol—including one with 10-foot-high puppets

Review: Genre-defying Eurydice Fragments travels beyond binaries to another world

Gender-inclusive reimagining of the Eurydice and Orpheus story has dazzling visuals and soaring operatic voices

Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 things to know about Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol

The Arts Club Theatre Company’s musical is set in the megastar’s birthplace of East Tennessee

Theatre review: The Sound Inside takes a gripping look at writing life's story

Kerry Sandomirsky and Jacob Leonard hand in strong performances in an enigmatic play full of literary allusions

Studio 58 presents queer love story Linck & Mülhahn, November 21 to December 1

The new play by Ruby Thomas is directed by Studio 58 graduate Angelica Schwartz

East Van Panto star Steffanie Davis makes the switch from heroine to villain in Robin Hood

Triple-threat performer’s role of bad-guy Tony the Pony is part of a career that’s taking off—and busting body-image stereotypes

Gateway Theatre presents Lionel Bart's Oliver! from December 12 to January 4

Broadway musical adaptation of Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist chronicles an orphan’s search for familial love

Theatre review: Aidan Dooley channels Irish explorer's daring expeditions in Tom Crean—Discovering Antarctica

Solo show presented by Western Gold Theatre expertly unpacks a quiet hero’s achievements during British expeditions to Antarctica in the early 1900s

A WONDERHEADS Christmas Carol hits Lower Mainland stages this holiday season from December 11 to 14

On B.C. tour, astonishing production brings Ebenezer Scrooge’s magical Christmas Eve journey to life with giant masks and whimsical puppets

UBC department of theatre and film launches 2024-25 season with The Very Book Indeed, November 20 to 30

The referential work features key scenes from Shakespearean classics, including As You Like It, Macbeth, and King Lear

Indigenous playwright Justin Neal explores the tradition of canoeing in Keepers of the Salish Sea

The founder of Holy Crow Arts draws from his own life experiences in the story that also touches on addiction and sobriety

Theatre review: The Last Resort cruises into Polynesian purgatorial paradise at the Waldorf

Leis, limbo, and lots of dance as adrift characters lead viewers through a warped retro universe

Studio 58 brings new queer play Linck & Mülhahn to the stage, November 21 to December 1

Production by U.K.-based playwright Ruby Thomas explores gender and sexual identities in rigid 18th-century society

Rainbow Youth Project gives voice to young queer and trans people, November 16, 17, 23, and 24

Zee Zee Theatre teams up with Vancouver Public Library for free one-on-one storytelling sessions

Chipo Chipaziwa explores the concept of home and the white gaze in Slipping Into Slipping Away

In her new performance piece, artist-in-residence at Western Front plays with power dynamics between art worker and the public, archivist and archived

Firehall Arts Centre stages Ann Mortifee's Reflections on Crooked Walking, November 30 to December 22

Juno Award-nominated family musical directed by Donna Spencer follows four unlikely friends in search of a cure for a town-wide sleeping sickness

Keltie Forsyth to join Presentation House Theatre as artistic director

The artist is leaving PuSh International Performing Arts Festival after the 2025 event; Margo Kane also departs PuSh

Kay Meek Arts Centre brings Juliet: A Revenge Comedy to the stage, December 4 to 8

Monster Theatre production by Pippa Mackie and Ryan Gladstone explores the tragedy of Shakespeare’s most famous female characters

Kid Koala’s Nufonia Must Fall is a multimedia love story for the age of AI

Part puppet show, part film screening, and part concert, the show lets attendees in on its creation

The Cultch presents Theatre Replacement's East Van Panto: Robin Hood, November 20 to January 5

In annual holiday show directed by Anita Rochon, Robin Hood must save East Van from the rich and powerful when all city parks are suddenly privatized

Life of intrepid explorer brought to life in Tom Crean—Discovering Antarctica, November 7 to 24

Subtitled Heroic Tales of Scott, Crean & Shackleton, the solo show by Aidan Dooley has won some major awards

In immersive theatre experience The Last Resort, a cruise ship sets sail to the Bermuda Triangle in 1971

Fairlith Harvey drew on her experiences as a funeral attendant in creating the experiential work

Stir Q&A: At fifth annual TRANSFORM Festival, Corey Payette honours Indigenous artistry

Festival co-curated with The Cultch’s Heather Redfern features the workshop premiere of Payette’s musical On Native Land, plus a new choral composition