Grab your ukelele—Legoland is back

Fall Guide: Stage Listings

You can find out what the Belfry’s new artistic director, Michael Shamata, likes in the way of theatre when their fall season continues with the puzzling challenger Half Life, through to October 19, followed by the intriguing-sounding Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla by Vancouver’s acclaimed Electric Company Theatre from November 11-December 14.

Meanwhile, the Victoria Theatre Guild celebrates their 80th season (yow!) over at Langham Court with a production of bardly Bill’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, through to October 11. After that, make sure you’ve got your invitation for A Party to Murder from November 12-29.

Theatre SKAM return to the local spotlight with My Three Sisters, written and directed by Amiel Gladstone and starring all three Stubel sisters (Treena, Camille and Celine), October 1-5 at Metro Studio. And keep the night of October 6 open when Victoria joins cities across Canada in hosting The Wrecking Ball, a politically charged evening of theatre protesting the recent federal arts cuts; the venue is still to be announced. And we’ve heard a rumour that the 24 Hour Play Project will be returning come October 18, but no solid details were available at press time. And Intrepid Theatre is having a fundraiser reading of Intrepid artistic director Janet Munsil’s much-anticipated new play Influence, sometime in October.

Kaleidoscope Theatre premieres a production of Silverwing, based on Kenneth Opel’s bestselling book of the same name, from December 5-14 at McPherson Playhouse. And Phoenix Theatre brings Jacob Richmond’s widely acclaimed comedy Legoland back for an encore presentation in their annual Spotlight on Alumni showcase, October 7-18, before spookily shifting gears to the witchy Dark of the Moon from November 4-22.

On the productions with music front, Pacific Opera Victoria embraces their inner umlaut with Massenet’s Thaïs, which is sung in French (and hopefully qualifies them for some federal bilingual grants) from October 16-24 at the Royal. The Victoria Operatic Society flashes back to the Damon Runyan era with Guys & Dolls from November 20-30 at the McPherson Playhouse. And while the talented students at the Canadian College of Performing Arts start their fall season with an October 10-12 run of Neil Simon’s Rumors, they quickly get back to the hoofing with the musical about musicals, A Class Act, based on the life of A Chorus Line lyricist Edward Kleban, from November 8-9 and 11-15, before ending the year with a production of Morris Panych’s 7 Stories from December 5-7, all at Metro Studio.

The hardworking folks over at Theatre Inconnu help keep the intellectual theatre scene alive with their October 15 to November 1 production of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, which examines a 1941 meeting between leading world nuclear physicists, after which they’ll premier a new work, Before Play, penned by Janet Rothman and perpetual man-about-town Howie Siegel—which won the 2007 Canadian National Play Writing competition—from December 10-30. And despite eariler reports of a shut-down, the William Head on Stage crew continue to mount quality productions, the most recent of which is Animal Farm, directed by Itsazoo’s Chelsea Haberlin, and running weekends from October 31-November 29.

Giggling Iguana returns yet again to their annual Halloween slot at Craigdarroch Castle with a new show, an original adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s gothic shocker The Picture of Dorian Gray, featuring local talents David Radford, Christina Patterson, Paul Terry, Nick Ruskin and Ian Case, and running October 16-31. (We’ve been told this one will absolutely not be back next year, so don’t miss out.) Another one for the spooky season is the touring children’s production The Great Big Boo!, which flits into the Mac for a pair of shows on October 29. And master illusionist David Copperfield will magically appear at a pair of shows October 27 at Memorial Centre . . . but don’t blink, or he’ll be gone.

And in the random line, on October 10 you’ll have a chance to exercise your Dry Wit at this night of music, comedy and awareness-raising at the Mac featuring the likes of John Gogo, Shayne King, the Cheesecakes, Nicky Deanne and more, all timed with Mental Illness Awareness Week. There’s also the one-night-only return of perepetetic dinner theatre company Play With Your Food’s gangster comedy Cement Shoes on October 25 . . . but we have no idea where it will be since their previous venue is currently under construction.