Upintheair Theatre’s 11th-anniversary rEvolver Festival is coming to The Cultch May 24 to June 4, with a line up of innovative and contemporary new works by emerging and mid-career artists from across Canada.
The 2023 festival presents 12 live productions and 4 digital presentations, plus special events, pf adventurous and high energy works, bringing audiences a line-up of contemporary performance, from script-based theatre to devised and site-specific works, dance, and installation.
The rEvolver Festival program features new work by emerging and early mid-career artists and companies with a focus on formal innovation, transformative opportunity, and community building.
The festival’s Mainstage productions include:
At The Culture Lab
Catfish (Alley Theatre) by Simran Gill and Jess Amy Shead
Discount Hot Pot Centre by Anthony Lee
Djata: Conversations of the Manden by Aly Keita (Montreal)
Duality (Spicy Lemon Company) by Yuki Ueda and Elliot Wagner
House of Rice: Rice-silience (House of Rice, Vancouver) by Shay Dior, Maiden China, Ploy Pailin, Kara Juku, Jas Minh, Skim, Lulu Lomein, Bongganisa
PRUDE (Probably Theatre Collective, Halifax) by Lou Campbell
YOU AND I ? WE by Romi Kim and Kendell Yan
Indigenous Emergence: Triple Feature & Community Gathering
– Buzz in Your Hub: Entrepreneurial Strategies for the Late Capitalist Death Spiral by Nakuset Gould,
Chris Bose and Heather Mclean
– Beat, Yeet and Eat! by Raven John AKA TwoSpiritTrickster
– RESIST, REVIVE, REPLENISH by Savage Society & Kelsey Kanatan Wavey
At The Greenhouse
A Funny Thing Happened On My Way To Canada by Grace Chin
June Bug (Ragamuffin Productions) by Ashley Chodat
Lip Service: Breaking down Barriers (Pulsive Party) by Natalie Tin Yin Gan and Ashley Whitehead
Would Virginia Woolf Contemplate Suicide if She Were Filipino? (Voices of Asia International, Montreal) by Revan Badingham III
UPDRAFTS READING SERIES: presentations of new works-in-progress by emerging Canadian playwrights
Digital Programs
The Investigator (Yukon Digital Theatre Collective, Whitehorse) by Wren Brian
Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! (New[to]Town Collective) by Davey Samuel Calderon
Special Presentations
A Menos Que Quieras Bailar (Unless You Want To Dance) by Kelly McInnes, Areli Moran, Rianne Švelnis (Berlin/Monterrey) @ Morrow, 910 Richards Street
First Métis Man of Odesa (Punctuate Theatre, Edmonton) by Matthew MacKenzie & Mariya Khomutovai, in Association with The Cultch @ The Cultch Historic Theatre

Dan, Dave, Lili and Sarah, the rEvolver Festival Curatorial Team states within its Curatorial Statement: “…. This year has been a big year of growth and change within Upintheair Theatre. Transition and adaptation have been prominent themes behind the scenes of the festival, and across the work being showcased this year. rEvolver 2023 is bursting with playful, audacious, and genre-defying new work from local and national emerging and mid-career artists…”
Read the full curatorial statement, find more details of the Festival line up and book tickets online at upintheairtheatre.com/revolver-festival