The Neverland Night Circus brings a seductive Peter Pan to Vancouver Fringe Festival
The Geekenders’ immersive production is a family-friendly affair
Hannah Theresa as Peter Pan in the Geekenders’ The Neverland Night Circus.
Vancouver Fringe Festival, September 9 to 19, presents The Neverland Night Circus by the Geekenders at various times and dates throughout in person at Granville Island.
A BURLESQUE SHOW based on Star Wars was all it took for Vancouver’s Erin Foster to fall pasties over heels for nerdlesque. With a background in musical theatre, the multidisciplinary artist attended A Nude Hope—A Sci-Fi Burlesque Adventure by the Geekenders in 2015, the production proving to be a turning point.
“It had all the campy joy of musical theatre mixed with dazzling rhinestones and hilarious comedy,” Foster tells Stir. “Everyone in the cast was having the best time on-stage, and I wanted to get involved with the company. I auditioned for their next show and ended up addicted.”
Foster, aka Kitty Glitter, has gone on to build a career out of the genre that takes the art of burlesque and mixes it with cosplay and pop culture. An international burlesque performer, she is Geekenders’ co-artistic director along with Ryan Caron (Neville Powerbottom).
Founded in 2012 by Fairlith Harvey (Galaxy Queen of Dreams), the Geekenders is an anchor troupe at this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival, where it will perform The Neverland Night Circus.
Although most of the Geekenders’ productions are 18+, The Neverland Night Circus is family-friendly, without any of the striptease its nerdlesque shows are known for.
Lola Loops as Tinkerbell in The Neverland Night Circus.
Harvey—who has conceived and written more than 60 original and immersive productions, including her 2019 Fringe hit, Alice in Glitterland—describes The Neverland Night Circus as having a “punky, dangerous aesthetic invoking the grungy glamour of a big top lost outside of time and a sumptuous sound-track combining electro swing and dreamy psychedelic rock”.
Throughout the immersive experience, audience members will encounter the curious lost boys, mermaids, a seductive Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and Wendy via a pandemic-era walk-through format. Dancers and circus performers will line paths around Granville Island’s Alder Bay Dock at a safe distance.
The piece, which recently wrapped a summer run at Surrey’s Bear Creek Park, is approximately an hour and 15 minutes long, and there can be up to five shows happening at once. Viewers are invited in at 15-minute intervals.
The Neverland Night Circus is one of 15 in-person shows at the 2021 Vancouver Fringe Festival on Granville Island. For the first time in its history, the fest is taking a hybrid approach, also offering one live-stream performance and 17 pre-recorded digital productions by local, national, and international artists.
“It’s so entertaining watching adults being asked to ‘play’ when they come to a Geekenders immersive show,” Foster says. “People forget to have fun when they grow up, and being a part of an immersive show brings out the inner child in everyone. I love watching the audience more than the show sometimes. No spoilers, but audience members definitely get to play during this show.”
For more information, see the Geekenders and Vancouver Fringe Festival.
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