Adrienne Truscott in Asking For It. Photo by Sara Brown and provided by the PuSh Festival.
By Loose Lips Mag
@looselipsmag
The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival kicks off its milestone 15th anniversary with a stunning program that truly pushes the envelope.
Take in three weeks of theatre, dance and experimental music at various venues throughout the Lower Mainland.
“We launched in 2003 as a three-show series that drew 2,500 people to 21 performances at three Vancouver venues,” says Roxanne Duncan, PuSh Festival’s Interim Executive Director. “The inaugural festival opened a short two years later in 2005. Now as we prepare to celebrate our 15th anniversary, PuSh has welcomed more than 300,000 people to 366 productions from 30 countries.”
According to the PuSh Festival team, “the six world premiere performances will be presented by contemporary dance organization Company 605… and almost half of the program — 11 performances — will be Canadian premieres.”
As you can see, there is an overwhelming number of performances and screenings to catch at PuSh this year. We’ve rounded up the top five shows not to miss this season.
If you want to peruse PuSh Festival information in print form, pick up a 2019 program guide at any of JJ Bean coffee shop and other select locations.
X Marks the Movement — Kimmortal & Immigrant Lessons (Canada) / OPENING NIGHT PARTY Jan 17 | Club PuSh at The Beaumont Studios | World Premiere
Queer Filipinx artist Kimmortal and art-fashion-dance collective Immigrant Lessons combine their talent for X Marks the Movement, “a show that plays with the concept of map-making in order to reframe narratives of home and diaspora.”
Asking For It — Adrienne Truscott (US) Jan 18 | Club PuSh at XY | Western | Canadian Premiere
“Feisty, funny and very nearly naked, Adrienne Truscott stirs it up in this inventive, outrageous show about…rape.” Asking For It combines stand-up comedy, dance, imagery and props in one very special show that will make you both laugh and reflect on politics, women’s agency and autonomy and the ethics of comedy.
ZVIZDAL (Chernobyl – so far so close) — BERLIN (Belgium) |Jan 31–Feb 2 | Roundhouse (Performance Centre) | Canadian Premiere
Journalist Cathy Blisson and art collective BERLIN, spent five years filming Nadia and Pétro Opanassovitch Lubenoc, “an elderly couple living deep within the irradiated Chernobyl exclusion zone in a place called Zvizdal. This deeply affecting documentary-installation is a portrait of loneliness, survival, poverty, hope, and unconditional love.”
salt. — Selina Thompson (UK) |Jan 24–26 | Roundhouse (Performance Centre) | Canadian Premiere
“The Transatlantic Slave Triangle connected Africa with Europe and the Americas; it was the transport route for innocent masses stolen in the name of racism and greed. In this gripping performance, Selina Thompson recounts her journey along one stretch of the route by cargo ship, offering us large-scale history through the prism of one disquieted soul. “
Corazón del espantapájaros (Heart of the Scarecrow) — Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala) |Presented with SFU Galleries | Jan 16–19, Jan 24–25 | SFU Galleries’ Audain Gallery | World Premiere
Taking place at SFU Galleries’ Audain Gallery, visual and performance artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa created an sensational exhibition “which will form the set for an intensely physical live presentation staged over four nights. The multifaceted work explores history, theatre, and the ethics of representation.”
Grab your PuSh Passes and tickets for the 2019 PuSh Festival are on sale at pushfestival.ca. Single tickets start at $25.
Kristi and Brittany are the co-founders and co-editors of Loose Lips Mag. Together with intern Tayvie, they’re building their feminist media empire—leaving the patriarchy, charcuterie boards and empty bottles of wine in their wake. Loose Lips Media is grateful to operate on the unceded Coast Salish territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.
