Scott Smith and Tony Wilson play All-City Athletics
By Steve Newton
FRIDAY: late-night screening at the Rio Theatre of director Mary Harron’s satirical 1998 horror-comedy American Psycho, about a wealthy New York investment banker who hides his psychopathic ego from his co-workers as he delves deeper into his violent fantasies.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: Rodney DeCroo and Samantha Pawliuk‘s hybrid concert/play/poetry-reading In the Belly of the Carp at Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for the Arts includes visual fantasias by shadow puppeteers Mind of a Snail. Warning: this show contains explicit language and scenes of sexual violence and drug use.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: musical director Otto Tausk leads the Vancouver Symphony and violinist Leila Josefowicz in a program of works by Prokofiev and Stravinsky at the Orpheum Theatre. Here’s my interview with Otto Tausk from 2021.
Firelei Báez exhibit at the VAG
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY: exhibition of paintings by New York City-based artist Firelei Báez, organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, runs until March 16 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY: Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol is an uplifting musical based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol set during the 1930s in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, running until December 24 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Theatre.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY: Cirque du Soleil‘s Echo, running to January 5 at Concord Pacific Place, combines poetry, stagecraft, acrobatics, and technology to explores the delicate balance between people, animals, and the world.
Pointed Sticks play the Rickshaw
SATURDAY: Vancouver pop-punk quintet from the ’70s, Pointed Sticks, plays the Rickshaw Theatre, with guests Theremin Man’s Space Family Band, the Get Arounds, and Peanut Butter Telephone.
SATURDAY: pedal-steel guitarist Scott Smith and guitarist Tony Wilson join forces with bassist Karlis Silins and drummer Jesus Adrian Caballero to perform the classic 1978 LP by Buddy Emmons and Lenny Breau, Minors Aloud, at All-City Athletics. Here’s my interview with Scott Smith from 2020.
SATURDAY TO SUNDAY: Ann Mortifee’s Reflections on Crooked Walking, running until December 22 at the Firehall Arts Centre, is a family musical about four unlikely friends who go in search of a cure for a sleeping sickness that has overtaken their town.
The Substance screens at the Rio
SUNDAY: screening at the Rio Theatre of The Substance, writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s satirical body-horror film about a fading celebrity who takes a black-market drug that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
If you’re a concert promoter, arts organization, music store, club owner, or just somebody wanting to support my work, I’m looking for an exclusive sponsor of my twice-weekly Newt’s top 10 things to do in Vancouver blogs. If interested, please contact me at steve@earofnewt.com.