Ready, set, go! For its Spring Mainstage Production Western Gold Theatre presents HERE WE GO by Caryl Churchill at PAL Theatre May 8-25.
HERE WE GO premiered to positive notices at the National Theatre, London, in November 2015. For Western Gold Theatre, a company of established senior (55+) artists, Kathryn Bracht directs a cast including David Bloom, Bernard Cuffling, Rosy Frier-Dryden, Richard Newman, Kate Robbins and Peihwen J. Tai.
HERE WE GO is a humous and moving examination of our own mortality, following a funeral party for a man with an adventurous past and a ginger cat that needs a home. Where is he now? Is his heart lighter than a feather? In the end, what is a life made up of?
Western Gold’s Artistic Director, Tanja Dixon-Warren says: “Caryl Churchill is one of the world’s premier female playwrights. She is well into her 8th decade and still writing. That’s marvelous and deeply inspiring. She is also in love with words; so am I. Her writing is poetic and fluid with limited punctuation; very often text is not assigned to specific character. I couldn’t resist it. It is also resoundingly funny while being deeply moving.
HERE WE GO speaks to both the joy and heartbreak of discovering, recognizing and coming to terms with the notion that the life path we are all on eventually reaches the same destination. It reminds us that we are here for a short time and then are suddenly gone.
It has wonderful roles for six actors. It requires spryness of mind, body and imagination. It offers designers the opportunity to bring new technologies and aesthetics to the intimate configuration of PAL Theatre and imagine it in ways that are new and innovative. For a director, all of the above – is the mountain happily climbed.”
Director Kathryn Bracht adds: “Described as a “memento mori” for an age without faith, Caryl Churchill’s HERE WE GO is an experiment in theatrical style that explores death and the process of dying with her trademark intelligence and absurdist humour. HERE WE GO is the second Caryl Churchill piece I’ve had the pleasure of directing for WGT, a deceptively simple, 45-minute exploration on death and dying that is a surrealist meditation wrapped up in her crafty, clever dialogue. It’s such a pleasure to dive into Churchill’s play with a theatre company like Western Gold Theatre, which thrives on presenting challenging, engaging theatre with a wealth of talented, seasoned artists.”
Western Gold Theatre’s Spring Mainstage Production HERE WE GO by Caryl Churchill runs May 8-25, 2025 at PAL Theatre, 8th Floor, 581 Cardero Street, Vancouver. For show details and tickets visit westerngoldtheatre.org