Leonard Cohen's powerful and inspirational music and lyrics are the heartbeat for Chelsea Hotel, an illusory world full of enchantment, desire, passion and love.

Haunted by memories of his tumultuous love life, a Writer checks into New York's infamous Chelsea Hotel desperate to find the words and inspiration for his next song. Wading through past relationships, he reluctantly comes face to face with the love of the present, a love he wishes he could not just forget, but erase from existence.

Chelsea Hotel is a riveting fusion of music, dance, and theatre that takes its audience on an illusionary journey into the hotel room and creative mind of a Writer in search of the right words to cure love's pain.

A Firehall Arts Centre Production
Conceived and Directed by Tracey Power
Artistic Direction by Donna Spencer
Music Direction by Steven Charles
Performed by Rachel Aberle, Lauren Bowler, Steve Charles, Benjamin Elliott, Marlene Ginader, Adrian McMorran

From the company that brought you the beautiful and heart wrenching production of "The Pavilion", comes another extraordinary play and experience. Osimous Theatre's latest production puts you, the audience, as close as you can get to the actors without actually being in the play. You will be sitting, standing and moving with the characters in the beautiful Roedde House Museum in downtown Vancouver. Brush up against them. Get so close that you will feel what is happening as well as see it. It's an experience you won't want to miss.

Set in the Norwegian home of newlyweds George and Hedda Tesman near the turn of the 20th century, Hedda Gabler reveals a passionate woman struggling in a bourgeois world that she finds devoid of excitement. Does she choose what her heart requires or does she comply and do what society has prescribed she must? When Oscar Wilde first saw Hedda Gabler in 1890 he said, "I felt pity and terror, as though the play had been greek."

Join us for an intimate performance of one of the most intimate plays in modern literature.
Directed by Bob Frazer and starring Anna Cummer as Hedda, Craig Erickson as Tesman, Dawn Petten as Thea, Derek Metz as Judge Brack, and Aslam Husain as Lovborg with costumes by Connie Hosie, sound by Michael Rinaldi and Dramaturgy by Fannina Waubert de Puiseau.

(Photo of Anna Cummer as Hedda by Emily Cooper)

The story of a Jewish-Canadian writer, the descendant of Holocaust survivors, who after a heatbreak, goes on a journey to uncover his past. By chance, he meets a woman who has lived through a much more recent genocide. Together they explore individual responsibility, prejudice and revenge as the stage fills with music from around the world from Ukraine to Croatia to Zimbabwe.

Winner of the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Toronto's Volcano Theatre has been touring this stunning and passionate production for 7 years to great acclaim.

A Firehall Arts Centre, Chutzpah!Festival and Touchstone Theatre Co-Presentation
Produced by Volcano Theatre
Written by Michael Redhill
Directed by Ross Manson
Sets and Costumes by Teresa Przybylski
Musical Direction by Brenna MacCrimmon
Sound by John Gzwoski
Lighting Design by Rebecca Picherack
Performed by Paul Braunstein, Layne Coleman, Lili Francks, Tara Hughes, Jack Nicholsen and Amy Rutherford

Montreal's Sylvain Emard places the dancers at the very heart of this creation, crafting for them made-to-measure roles inspired by their most pressing needs. In three solos and a duet, he establishes four contrasting worlds where the depth and authenticity of gesture convey the complexity and vulnerability of the individual and create a striking patchwork of insistent urgency.

A Firehall Arts Centre Presentation
Co-Produced by Sylvain Emard Danse
and the Canada Dance Festival
Choreographed by Sylvain Emard

In South Africa, "ubuntu" refers to the spirit of community; the belief that humanity is tied together.

Weaving storytelling, music and dance and featuring actors from Canada and South Africa, Ubuntu tells the tale of two people, separated by oceans, who are brought together by ghosts to discover the secrets of their pasts.

A Firehall Arts Centre Presentation
Produced by Western Canada Theatre and Theatrefront

Our notions of courage and cowardice come into question in this story of a Vietnam draft dodger who takes in a traumatized young American soldier after he deserts his post in Iraq.

Produced by Touchstone Theatre in association with Playwrights Theatre Centre and the Firehall Arts Centre
Written by Peter Boychuk
Directed by Katrina Dunn
Dramaturgy by Martin Kinch

The Firehall will fling open its doors for audiences of all ages to experience theatre, dance and multidisciplinary pieces in unorthodox settings, including hallways, lobby, bathrooms, courtyard and basement!

With a little something for everyone, and a lot of everything for someone, including family-friendly programming Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the 8th Annual BC Buds Spring Arts Fair weekend is free to the public and a terrific chance to see new up-and-coming work.

The Fair is Vancouver's longest running multi-disciplinary showcase featuring established and emerging B.C. artists presenting new and experimental work.

Best known for his poetic words and music, this show by famed Canadian troubadour Leonard Cohen features a collection of his self-portraits and other illustrations.

This exhibition was made possible through the support of Granville Fine Art