SHIFT Theatre presents Patrick Marber’s sharp and brutally honest play, Closer, from November 8 to 17 at The Cultch. The play grapples with the complexity of modern relationships by following the intertwining, colliding love lives of four young adults residing in London. This will be SHIFT’s first full season, and the young company is proud to launch it with this 1998 Oliver award winner for Best New Play.
“Closer is an enormously important play – a kind of modern classic that articulates the unspoken experiences of a generation,” says Nick Sartore, Artistic Managing Director of SHIFT. “We first explored the work through The Closer Variations – a deconstruction that played with political and psychological themes. It only made sense that its rich, fascinating source materials should constitute SHIFT’s first ever full-length play.”
Directed by Adam Janusz, the show’s narrative revolves around a love quadrangle, in which lust, love, and the responsibilities that accompany relationships are mashed together with brutality. The play’s characters include Dan (Troy Cherkowski), a writer; Alice (Lara Rova), a waitress; Larry (Christian Sloan), a doctor; and Anna (Alexis Kellum-Creer), a photographer.
The story follows the foursome over the course of several years as they date, deceive, manipulate, reject, and love one another. The culmination of their experiences is a profound commentary on the complexity of modern relationships, the entitlement of a generation, and the rending harm that can come from complete honesty in romance.
One of Vancouver’s most dynamic emerging collectives, SHIFT Theatre has built a reputation for curiosity, open-mindedness, and a willingness to experiment in its works, most popularly through its annual 1-Act Festival.
Closer
Dates: November 8 to 17
Venue: The Cultch, Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables Street, Vancouver
Tickets: $25; available online or by phoning 604.251.1363
SHIFT Theatre was founded in 2008 to provide emerging theatre artists with opportunities to stage unconventional, risk-taking productions of short theatre. The company forms an artistic collective of emerging artists who work collaboratively to create contemporary, relevant, and stimulating theatre.
