Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein is truly getting top billing this year with many similarly themed shows. To know that the Rocky Horror Show will keep on rocking Intrepid Theatre goes without saying. Atomic Vaudeville always puts on a stellar show and Griffin Lea exudes one key aspect of why audiences are in love with this tale, in either the theatrical or cinematic form. As for other events, this alphabetical list shows Halloween style performance theatre is very much alive:
Date & Times:
Oct 25 to 28, 8pm
(2pm matinees)
Location: Mary Winspear Center
(2243 Beacon Ave W)
Price: $21 Adult, $18.90 Senior/Student
Set in the early 1950’s, a group of strangers is stranded in a boarding house during a snowstorm, one of whom is a murderer. The suspects include the newly married couple who run the house, and the suspicions in their minds nearly wreck their perfect marriage. Others are a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army Major and a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman, traveling on skis. He none sooner arrives, when the jurist is killed. Two down, and one to go. To get to the rationale of the murderer’s pattern, the policeman probes the background of everyone present and rattling a lot of skeletons.
Vampires are Back!
Date & Time:
Oct 19, 20, 26, 27 & 31st 7:00pm
Location:
Victoria Event Centre
(1415 Broad Street)
Price: $18 / VIP $25
For those in the know, this company puts on stellar shows and their bevy of talents will certainly delight. All they can say in this cabaret is: “Oh do we have a show for YOU! If you like funny, dance, weird stuff, beer, and many things Halloweennnnnn insert evil laugh here you will definitely want to come!”
Date & Time:
Sep 26 – Oct 13, 2018, 7:30pm
(2:00pm matinee)
Location: 805 Langham Ct
Price: $17 (all ages)
Socialite and novelist Charles invites the eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to his house as literary research. But when the séance backfires, Charles’ marriage is suddenly in jeopardy, as he is haunted by the temperamental ghost of his first wife. While Charles aims to get rid of the ghost, she is hard at work trying to get rid of his new wife! Laughter meets the supernatural in this magical comedy of manners.
Ballet Victoria Presents Frankenstein
Date & Time: Oct 27, 28 7:30pm
Location:
McPherson Playhouse
(3 Centennial Square)
Price: $20-24
Celebrating 200 years, Shelley’s original gothic novel meets Coralli and Perrot’s timeless ballet Giselle in an alchemy only Paul Destrooper of Ballet Victoria dares bring to the stage. He’s the executive and artistic director for the past ten years, and his passion for this style goes without saying. With this work, he promises a heartbreaking and satirical work, that only dance can express. Plus, for the geeks, Victoria News reported a space-opera-inspired fight scene is promised!
This lavish production blends Horror, romance and science fiction into a new ballet driven by a score boasting classics from composers such as Verdi, Shostakovich, Dukas, Catalani, and Adam. For cinephiles, think Corpse Bride meets Frankenstein.
Paper Street Theatre
Ghost Stories: Improvised Tales around the Campfire
Wed Oct 24th – Sat Oct 27th. 8pm
Intrepid Theatre Club
(1609 Blanshard Street)
Price: $18
100% perfect for the season is Paper Street Theatre‘s Improv show and they have always proven to be a delight. The cast and crew are dedicated nerds and will toss every pop culture reference they can think of on the fly into their shows. They always deliver fun-filled nights.
Last year, they focussed in on zombies, and this year, they are going to look at ghosts! Well, if somebody tosses an idea to zing them with a mousetrap as an object to use in these shows, I’m sure more than one Ghostbusters reference is going to be made. They take ideas from audiences and craft tales out of them.
Spooky Spooky Skies
Fall Fundraiser
Date & Times:
Oct 20, Nov 10 at 7:00pm
Location: Intrepid Studio Theatre
(1609 Blanshard Street)
As autumn draws on and the nights get colder, a Halloween chill will fill the air, as Starry Starry Skies event: ‘Spooky Spooky Skies’ graces the stage on Oct 20 at 7pm. This theatre troupe is only a few years old, formed in 2015, and they are a very promising group. Their focus is on musicals, and will soon have a production in the works to entertain residents of Victoria, BC with!
This event will showcase songs from Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, Wicked, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, and Little Shop of Horrors.
St Luke’s Players
Night Watch
Date & Times:
Oct 10 to 14, 17 to 21st, 2018 8pm
Location: 3821 Cedar Hill X Road
Price: $16 Adults, $8 Seniors/Children
Unable to sleep, Elaine Wheeler paces the living room of her Manhattan townhouse, troubled by unsettling memories and vague fears. Her husband tries to comfort her, but when he steps away for a moment Elaine screams as she sees (or believes she sees) the body of a dead man in the window across the way. The police are called, but find nothing except an empty chair. Elaine’s terror grows as shortly thereafter she sees still another body—this time a woman’s—but by now the police are skeptical and pay no heed to her frantic pleas.
Nobody knows what’s wrong with her, but for those who have seen this successful Broadway play, perhaps it’s best not to whisper. The mystery is afoot, and can audiences figure out what is real?
Theatre Inconnu’s
Frankenstein
Date & Times:
Sept 25 – Oct 13, 2018 8pm
Location:
1923 Fernwood Rd
Price: $14 Adult, $8 Seniors/Children
To get into the Halloween spirit, this production is starting the season right. Mary Shelley‘s seminal sci-fi/horror epic gets a new interpretation. David Elendune looks deeper into the role the human characters play before the monster (and perhaps after) is created. This tale presents a once “unthinkable” concept that many would argue is becoming less of an “if” than a “when.” What defines life? What is the value of life? Does anyone have the moral authority over the creation or destruction of what constitutes existence? These are heady questions, but they can also be the stuff of nightmares.