43rd Anniversary Season Centers on Hope, Connection, and the Great Canadian Plays
In announcing the Firehall’s 43rd season, Artistic Producer Donna Spencer called it “An ELBOWS UP – Made in Canada season, with 99% of the plays and dance works created by Canadian artists.”
Spencer adds, “From the premiere of House of Folk: A Lost Canadian Folk Show by Chelsea Hotel creator, Tracey Power, to a visit from one of Canada’s leading theatre companies, Newfoundland’s Artistic Fraud, with Between Breaths; to Drew Hayden Taylor’s latest work, The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light to the premiere of Marlene Ginader’s new solo show, Canadian Psycho; along with dance performances, staged readings and Christmas at the Firehall, we are looking forward to a fabulous season filled with energy, creativity, and Canadian spirit.”
The Firehall launches its 2025-2026 season October 22-25 with dance/theatre production Vacant Lot by Hiromoto Ida. Based on the Japanese play “Sarachi”, by contemporary Japanese theatre artist Shogo Ota, a long-married couple visit the vacant lot where their house once stood. They innocently share memories of their life together, of the house, and of their kids. Soon after, they realize how short this life is, and that our existence in the universe is so fragile. Lindsay Clague and Hiromoto Ida embody the married couple, storytelling through movement, dialogue, and at times, stillness. This work balances on the edge between spoken theatre and dance theatre, exploring elements of both, revealing the loneliness of human existence and our longing to connect to each other and to the universe. While the overarching themes are existential, the play is also filled with delightful comedic moments that tickle the soul.
Audiences can take in Anne Plamondon Dance’s Myokine from October 30 to November 1. Myokine is a unifying work for seven performers who together explore the body as a source of resilience, beauty, and hope in the face of the urgency to act that characterizes our era. Myokines, molecules secreted by muscles when the body is in motion, are often called “molecules of hope” for the sense of well-being and optimism they provide. For Anne Plamondon, this process symbolizes the salvific role of the body when faced with the increasing complexities and troubling issues of our time. It embodies the essential function of dance to release tension, emotions and anxiety, and to give meaning to the imperfections that make existence both a strength and vulnerability. Through their virtuosity and precision, as well as a diverse choreographic language developed throughout Anne Plamondon’s eclectic career, this energetic septet of Canadian performers brings to life the power of our bodies when united in movement.
The Western Canadian premiere of Robert Chafe’s Between Breaths, produced by Artistic Fraud, takes over the Firehall stage November 12-23. Inspired by a true story from Newfoundland, Between Breaths is a profound play that sails through Dr. Jon Lien’s life’s work saving whales trapped in fishing nets. Over his career, “The Whale Man” rescued over 500 whales and earned the respect of the island’s fishermen, but Dr. Jon’s biggest fight came late in life as dementia threatened his body and mind. Featuring a live score by modern indie folk trio The Once, Between Breaths is a beautifully hopeful play about death, disintegration, and the parts of ourselves that we hold onto after everything else is gone. An Artistic Fraud production.
The Firehall welcomes 2026 with English, produced by Blackout Art Society, from January 23 to February 1. Written by Sanaz Toosi, English is a quietly powerful and deeply human play about four Iranian adults preparing for an English proficiency exam in a storefront classroom near Tehran. As they navigate grammar rules and pronunciation exercises, they also wrestle with the deeper implications of learning a language that represents new opportunities, personal reinvention, and, for some, a painful detachment from their identity and homeland. With warmth, humour and insight, this play explores themes of belonging, cultural displacement, and the sacrifices made in pursuit of a new life. A Blackout Art Society production.
The world premiere of House of Folk: A Lost Canadian Folk Show, produced by Firehall Arts Centre and created by Tracey Power with musical arrangements by Van Wilmott, takes the stage February 14-March 8. Set in the 1960s during the height of the Canadian folk music revival, House of Folk takes us to a time when coffeehouses from coast to coast were filled with song and spirit, and became a source for conversation, communion, and personal revolution. From Joni Mitchell to Leonard Cohen and Neil Young to Gordon Lightfoot and more, House of Folk: A Lost Canadian Folk Show uncovers the incredible voices and music of the artists who lived it, the artists who had the courage to step up to the mic, and the artists who asked us to listen. A Firehall Arts Centre production.
The world premiere of Canadian Psycho, created and performed by Marlene Ginader (Chelsea Hotel), runs April 1-12. In this hilarious and provocative one-woman show, true-crime-obsessed Marlene’s infatuation with serial killers sends her on a collision course with her own identity. In her own words, “Canadian Psycho is a play about representation in media, in storytelling and in technology. Mostly, it’s about a half-Asian woman who’s frustrated about the lack of inclusion in the serial killer space, and is finally ready to do something about it. The show explores themes of glorified violence, toxic masculinity, white-centred storytelling, bias in technology, and our cultural obsession with true crime.” With original electronic music, movement and video, Canadian Psycho seeks to be the ultimate destruction of the model minority myth. An ITSAZOO and Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre production.
Drew Hayden Taylor returns to his Firehall home April 18-May 3 with The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light. In a world of fakes, who can you trust? “Red Cadmium Light” paint was created in 1982. If a Norval Morrisseau painting dated earlier than that included Red Cadmium Light, it was a fake. Nazhi runs an art gallery on the Otter Lake First Nation, specializing in the work of Norval Morrisseau and other renowned Indigenous artists. Her daughter Beverly is a successful Indigenous educator, up for a big promotion. When a reporter begins to dig into the world of counterfeit Indigenous art, a discovery is made that risks jeopardizing both women’s careers, and their relationship, forever. A Firehall Arts Centre production.
The Firehall closes its 43rd season with Enemy Lines, a live dance performance, runs May 6-9. Choreographer Mayumi Lashbrook looks back at the actions taken against Japanese Canadians during WWII when they were suddenly deemed a threat after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Her family, along with over 22,000 Canadians of Japanese heritage, were forcibly moved from the coastline of British Columbia – their lives forever altered. Enemy Lines is a reminder of the fractures of our collective past and the possibilities for our shared future. A Powell Street Festival and Firehall Arts Centre co-presentation.
Taking place throughout this 2025-2026 season, as a tribute to the rich legacy of Canadian theatre, the Firehall is pleased to announce The Great Canadian Play-Reading Mini-Series. In celebration of Canadian plays and the power of Canadian voices, this special series will highlight playwrights whose work graced stages across “not the 51st state” Canada between 1920 and 2020.
Early Bird passes (3-show Dance Pass, 4-show Pass, 4-Ticket Flex Pass, and 6-Show Super Pass) are on sale now, and single tickets go on sale Friday, August 22, and will be available online at www.firehallartscentre.ca or by phone at 604.689.0926. Passes range in price from $60 to $210 and single tickets range in price from $20 to $50. Tuesday evening performances are $20 and Wednesday afternoon performances are pay-what-you-can (PWYC).
For more information on The Firehall, please visit the following platforms:
Website: www.firehallartscentre.ca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/firehallarts
Instagram: www.instagram.com/firehall.arts/
About Firehall Arts Centre:
With over forty years’ history of weaving diverse storytelling into the fabric of Greater Vancouver, Firehall Arts Centre is where stories come alive. Through theatre, dance, music, inter-disciplinary work and the visual arts, The Firehall has embraced its mission to enrich lives and expand minds through the arts. One of the most unique cultural institutions in British Columbia, The Firehall – in more predictable times – hosts over two hundred performances per year. Located in the city-owned heritage fire station built in 1906, The Firehall’s intimate black box studio theatre along with its outdoor courtyard performance area and its rehearsal studio has served to support innovative, eclectic, and often politically-charged theatre productions as well as exquisite, cutting-edge dance and music performances. The Firehall is proud to support emerging and established performing artists and companies, and strives to program work that is inclusive, culturally rich, and reflective of the many voices and perspectives in Canada.