On the Boards This Week: Sept. 27 - Oct. 2

Hallelujah, it's raining new theatre companies in Vancouver. Pikefly Theatre, a new crew who have declared themselves "committed to modern and ground-breaking storytelling" introduce themselves with Beirut, a 1987 dystopian romance set in New York in the not-so-distant future about a man forcibly quarantined by a fascist state for an AIDS-like illness, and the lengths that his girlfriend will go to out of her transcendent love for him. It was written by Allen Bowne, a highly acclaimed playwright and a member of the New Dramatists (an organization that supports young playwrights that's turned out the likes of John Patrick Shanley and August Wilson), who succumbed to AIDS in 1989. A gritty and challenging off-off-Broadway play, and a brave one for an inaugural piece.

Also, the gang over at Studio 58 at Langara College drop a Canadian premier on us: Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn, based on her novel set in the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship. I couldn't possibly put it any better than their press release: "Boasting fifty characters ranging from prostitutes, politicians and freedom fighters to drag queens, movie stars and Imelda Marcos, the main character is the Philippines herself. Set in 1982, this epic captures a culture that subsists on gossip, religion, sex and soap opera." Really? Fifty characters? Fifty? This I gotta see.

Photo Courtesy of Pikefly Theatre