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Wonderheads Theatre returns with its multi award-winning comedy, Grim & Fischer. If you haven’t yet had the chance to check out this Fringe Festival circuit fave, now’s your chance: they’ll be performing it in January at The Cultch.

In this touching show, an aging grandmother is pit against the Grim Reaper and confronts the inevitable question: what is it to know your end is nigh? Can you ignore death? Can you escape death? Can you hit death in the face with a frying pan? One woman’s fight for survival takes fantastical flight in a showdown with Grim himself.

Grim & Fischer is wordless and performed in full face mask, a unique form that mixes European larval mask traditions with full face character styles. In this distinct style of storytelling, with rich soundscapes, fantastical puppetry, timeless slapstick and masterful physical performances, Wonderheads make it their business to evoke a spirit of awe in even the most serious and respectable of adults.

Audiences have described the experience as watching a living cartoon – the whimsy and imagination of Pixar or Jim Henson in theatrical form.

 
Grim & Fischer has toured throughout the US and Canada receiving rave reviews and standing ovations. Kate Braidwood and Andrew Phoenix, co-artistic directors and the core of Wonderheads, are physical theatre artists, devisers, directors, and teachers.

Andrew is also handy with a saw and hammer, and Kate is happy to spend hours immersed in clay, paper, and glue to make the masks they use in their work. They both hold MFA’s in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from Dell’Arte International and have spent their lives to date both training and working in the theatre. They are deeply committed to developing joyful, sublime, and innovative work for the stage. Kate is originally from Vancouver, BC while Andrew hails from Texas. They now call Portland, Oregon home.

Grim & Fischer
Dates: January 3 to 13
January 3, 4, 5, 8 to 12, 8 pm; January 5, 6, 12, 13, 2 pm matinées
Venue: Vancity Culture Lab at the Cultch, 1895 Venables Drive at Victoria
Tickets: $30; available online, via phoning 604.251.1363, or through the Cultch Box Office
Added Value: Post-show talkbacks on January 6, 9, and 10

Photo credit: James Douglas.