Touching

This one woman performance  features Diane Barnes, an African-American from California who was practising as a doctor when, at 38, she suffered a stroke while riding her precious horse.

Barnes is a single mother with two adopted boys. This story takes us through her stroke in 2005 and her journey of recovery and discovery since – as a professional and as mother. She recounts in a personal, emotional and sensitive way how she gets to know and accept her changes. This story is from Barnes' point of view -  taking the audience member through a painful and confusing trip on the...

Amelia Van Brunt of Bad, Bad Bunny company from San Francisco gives the audience a laugh out loud romp through the troubles of old age while still delivering a hint of the pain and frustration of aging.  Her character, Mona Whittaker, lives alone in a leaky apartment, her husband deceased and her children absent. Her best ally and comfort is her plush Lazy Boy rocker that serves as her nap nest, catapult, and boat as she imagines the leak becoming a flood. Mona’s other joys are tea and the newspaper obituaries (do come to the show to see why)....

The Common Era presents the full-length comedy The Four of Us by Itamar Moses as part of the Dramatic Works Series at The Cultch – Vancity Culture Lab. The Dramatic Works Series was developed to produce previously published dramatic works. This is a great addition to the Vancouver Fringe Festival as it promotes and assists artists to present full-length plays, something that has been lacking from the festival in recent years.

The Four of Us is a kind of buddy comedy with an edge. Moses’ play...

Have you ever been sitting in the audience waiting for a play to begin when you notice a small piece of paper in the program announcing that one of the characters will be played by the understudy? I have and was instantly disappointed. I mean, what if they were not as good as the original actor or what if their performance was not perfect? My thoughts at that moment were all about me as an audience member. My thoughts never ventured to the understudy who was about to take the stage. Is she excited, is...

Make Love happen in 60 sec - if you want to know how, come see this show!

The directors Susanna Uchatius and James Coomber journeyed into conversation with nature inspired by a quote from writer and ecologist David Abrams: “Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears and nostril-all are gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness.”

The 12 cast members, actors of all abilities encouraged...