Spontaneous Shakespeare to hip-hop storytelling: Vancouver Fringe Festival unveils 40th anniversary season
Seventy-four companies from as far away as Australia and Japan set to bring array of works to Granville Island from September 4 to 15
Photo by Michael Levy
Tragedy or Triumph: An Improvised Shakespearean Epic. Photo by Chelsey Stuyt
THEATRE ARTISTS FROM AROUND the globe are set to descend on Granville Island September 4 to 15 as the Vancouver Fringe Festival gets set to celebrate 40 years.
Today the fest unveiled a program that spans 74 companies, including Filipinx comedian Alia Ceniza Rasul (Alia Ceniza Rasul: Moro Girl), storytelling and hip-hop with B The Wiz (A Storytelling Hip-Hop Experience), Australian comedian Jon Bennett (Ameri-CAN’T), improvised Shakespeare from The Spontaneous Shakespeare Company (Tragedy or Triumph: An Improvised Shakespearean Epic), and flamenco dance with Jhoely Triana Flamenco with Arboles (Trees). Elsewhere look for magic and storytelling from Keith Brown (Absolute Magic) and Jessica Lemes da Silva (winner of the 2024 Vancouver Fringe & Playwrights Theatre Centre New Play Prize) with the new God’s A Drag.
In all, shows will play across 18 venues, with performers from Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. Tickets are now on sale at vancouverfringe.com.
The programming is good news for an organization that warned in March it would have to cut its programming by a third and raise $80,000 by May 31 to continue running. “This past spring, the Festival received incredible support from our community of artists, volunteers, and donors,” Duncan Watts-Grant, executive director of the Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society, said in today’s announcement. “With great gratitude to our supporters, the 2024 Vancouver Fringe Festival will be even bigger than we expected or even planned, with more programming and performances than we’ve ever offered across Granville Island venues.”
As ever, the Festival also plans to offer free nightly music and entertainment in its Fringe Bar, located at the Ocean Artworks Pavilion, running 5 pm to late on weekdays and 3 pm to late on weekends throughout the fest. It sees musical acts like pop-punk-accordion-driven Dirty Bellows on September 6, dance-party orchestra Balkan Shmalkan on September 7, and synth-indie-popsters Parlour Panther on September 13. The bar comes complete with food trucks and such offerings as the Fringe artist-led 11th Hour Cabaret, DJs, trivia, karaoke, and the Mx. Fringe 2024 Drag Pageant.
The 2024 Fringe will also showcase three special events at Performance Works. Kicking it all off, Abdul Aziz and Shawn O’Hara host the Fringe4All, an opening-night showcase featuring two-minute excerpts from 30 randomly chosen Fringe artists on September 4. Come back the following night for the Smut Slam, ia dirty-storytelling open-microphone event hosted by DD Brassiere. And the annual Cabaret of Bullshit, this year dubbed the Cabaret of 40 Years More Bullshit, hits Performance Works on September 14.
Single tickets and MultiBuy passes are now available. 
Related Articles
